For any industry, January offers a time for reflection -- the opportunity to look back and analyze the previous year in order to apply lessons learned to the 12 months ahead. IT is no different. But while cloud computing, virtualization and big data have now become par for the course within almost any enterprise, the technology that powers these critical functions has been largely overlooked over the past year.
For example, the fact that WiFi has become so ubiquitous to the point that most people don’t even notice it until it’s unavailable is a true testament to the technology’s durability. However, in 2014, the WiFi industry witnessed huge advancements, with global initiatives taking place to make seamless connectivity a reality in cities and businesses around the world.
For IT professionals, this new, “any time, any place” connectivity represents an inflection point. The question you should be asking is how, not if, your company can take advantage of the opportunities afforded by WiFi enhancements.
Increased WiFi deployments are fueling connectivity expectations, and industries that don’t rise to the challenge run the risk of becoming irrelevant in the eyes of sophisticated consumers. For the IT department, this means an even greater role in your company’s strategic roadmap, as executives increasingly look for innovative ways to offer value to both customers and employees through WiFi.
A great example of this value is in the retail industry, where in-store WiFi is not only keeping customers in the store longer, but actually factoring into many consumers' minds when they decide in which store to shop.
For instance, when you think of a traditional retail shopping experience, you imagine customer service representatives there to greet you and meet your needs. Today, the shopper has evolved to be more independent and enjoys doing his or her own research, rather than fully relying on the customer rep’s advice on price and product popularity. The connected shopper is here, and a recent survey from Wi-Fi Alliance and Wakefield Research found that 48% of consumers are more likely to shop in a retail store that provides wireless Internet, while more than a third use their mobile device to research a product review while shopping.
In-store WiFi is just one way to implement a WiFi strategy, and as the connected shopper continues to takes shape, IT professionals should see WiFi as a benefit for their businesses to offer.
It’s clear from the data that WiFi is not just “nice to have;” it's a key part of the everyday experience. Our collective desire for constant connectivity is providing even more incentive to offer WiFi in user-friendly, reliable ways. And 2015 will see additional deployments of advanced, high-performance WiFi networks that take the user experience to new levels. The Wi-Fi Certified Passpoint program aims to help do just that: Enabling a user’s device to connect to WiFi seamlessly across multiple locations without having to login to networks repeatedly.
Mobility is a huge part of the WiFi story, but 2015 will see other applications of WiFi technology, such as advancing the Internet of Things. “The Internet of Things will fundamentally change the way the world interacts, transforming everyday objectives into intelligent, data-driven solutions for real problems, and what’s powering the Internet of Things is ubiquitous, easily accessible WiFi," said Carlos Codeiro, a director on the Wi-Fi Alliance Board.
Wi-Fi Alliance refers to this market as the Internet of Everything, because along with connecting devices to one another, WiFi brings the value of a bigger connection. More to the point, WiFi’s well-known interoperability and user experience means we can use the devices and technology we love, without ever giving thought to the connections taking place behind the scenes or worrying about compatibility problems. As Wi-Fi Allliance VP of Technology Greg Ennis explained in his recent blog post, Wi-Fi satisfies a range of Internet of Everything connectivity requirements.
It’s clear that connectivity expectations have changed and IT professionals must help their businesses find ways to meet the rising demands for easy-to-use, high-performance connectivity that delivers a great user experience. The start of the year marks a time to look forward to advancements, and evaluating your WiFi strategy should be at the top of your CIO’s list for 2015.
Comments
Network Computing
User Rank: Apprentice
Mon, 01/12/2015 - 07:09
"...WiFi is not only keeping customers in the store longer, but actually factoring into many consumers' minds when they decide in which store to shop."
This certainly applies to me. And industry that would surly benefit is Auto Repair Shops which would do well to employ WiFi for their customers.
marciasavage
User Rank: Guru
Mon, 01/12/2015 - 08:32
Technocrati, I'm not sure I'm to that point yet, but I certainly do appreciate WiFi in areas where a lot of waiting is required, like an auto shop. My auto shop actually provides pretty good WiFi.
Due to a family emergency, I've spent a a lot of time in medical facilities recently, and have been pleased with their WiFi services. It's nice to be able to get a quick connection, especially in trying circumstances.
Network Computing
User Rank: Apprentice
Mon, 01/12/2015 - 08:42
@MarciaNWC I certainly hope your family member is ok , and I agree it is really nice to have the internet available during trying times.
marciasavage
User Rank: Guru
Mon, 01/12/2015 - 08:48
Thanks Technocrati, I appreciate that.
Network Computing
User Rank: Apprentice
Sun, 01/18/2015 - 02:43
@MarciaNWC I can second that, I have been going through a similar experience and without access to a wireless network, it would be even worse than it is.
Network Computing
User Rank: Apprentice
Mon, 01/12/2015 - 07:11
Another important aspect is security of course, companies should be very careful to place these WiFi networks on their own networks and not have it tied into the company LAN.
Network Computing
User Rank: Apprentice
Mon, 01/12/2015 - 14:30
This was a nice, quick refresher to start 2015 off with. You'll certain find no debate from me as to the importance of WiFi from either a consumer or a business standpoint, and I do agree that it's fair to say we're not giving it the due credit it deserves as a core technology amidst all the hype for IoT. That said, I like the point about focus on connectivity and ease-of-use for the end user outlined here over something along the lines of using WiFi to innovate. That is, I think businesses should focus on making sure the WiFi services they provide are reliable, efficient, and fast before they go messing around with the formula. In the given case of retail stores, one can envision stores that advertise all the neat deals you can get by connecting with WiFi while in-store - but if you can't connect or it takes more than a couple of minutes to connect, that may be worse than having nothing.
By no means do I think it's a misnomer to say that you can innovate with WiFi, but I think you're on the money, Edgar, when you say that the key benefit to consumers is not having to worry about the technology and not knowing what's going on behind the scenes. Think where that expression comes from - in a film, seeing behind-the-scenes ruins the illusion and the magic. I think the innovation for WiFi is best left to those companies that maintain the products and standards, and it sounds like you guys are doing some great work over at the Wi-Fi Alliance to that end. We hear about lots of great innovations in the 4G and other spaces and how '5G' will really be a combination of many technologies including WiFi. I very much agree with the perspective that we're mostly partners as much as competitors in this area.
lhbadman
User Rank: Apprentice
Mon, 01/12/2015 - 23:58
Network Computing
User Rank: Apprentice
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 02:48
I would LOVE to see the Wi-Fi Alliance take a stand and make the "Wi-Fi Certified" logo actually MEAN something when it comes to Client devices. For any/all who have been in the enterprise Wi-Fi space for very long understand the problems are nearly all directly attributable to client-side drivers, and other client-side issues.
The Wi-Fi Alliance could go a long way toward solving these types of issues by making the actual Client-device testing proceedure actually mean something. Right now, the client device testing is fairly meaningless and extremely over-simplified, not testing real-world situations. Just meeting bare minimums for client to AP connectivity.
If not the Wi-Fi Alliance, then what organization will come forward and take the reins? How can we trust the WFA on other issues if the client testing is so whimpy?
Keith
Network Computing
User Rank: Apprentice
Tue, 01/13/2015 - 08:20
This is interesting, finally we have logo named wifi certified, and Interoperability is the primary target of certification. But do we have any test cases or points which can share understanding on certification process.
Network Computing
User Rank: Apprentice
Wed, 01/14/2015 - 00:13
Keith put it very well asking for better client side interop testing/certification.
Sophisticated users: check
Sophisticated devices: check
quality of wireless card and driver: fail
Companies are spending a fortune on a better display, glass cover or whatever but they throw in a crappy Wifi adapter just to safe 1 to 5$ on the COGS. I spoke to a person of one of the largest laptop manufacturers who was made at us WiFi professionals to keep complaining to customers and asking them to demand dual band chipsets. Why the hell did we want that 5GHz support?
That basically summarizes it all. It is 5 parts ignorance, 2 parts negligence and 3 parts cost cutting.
I hope that now WiFi becomes more and more important to everyone, WiFi Alliance will find the courage to start pushing on this. You cannot expect to run mission-critical applications for hospitals etc while the client itself just decides to do whatever it should not do.
The forward for WiFi starts with good clients.
The second important step forward, is good design. WiFi Alliance could take up a new role here as certification body. We all have cabling certified so why not certify the WiFi network?
Obviously this is not as easy as testing a cable: the network and its quality are susceptible to noise in the broadest sense. Changing the environment, adding other devices, powering on certain systems, adding more people etc can all change the outcome.
This is why we can probably only aim for a certification of people or designs or design verification methods. The latter being probably the easiest to come to. And even then it will differ from system to system.
Nonetheless, too many cowboys design networks which leads to an end customer in pain.
You could state that there is already a wlan professionals accreditation via CWNP but
1) this is not too known to end customers
2) also a good guy can make a mistake or misuse equipment
3) it is all about the end customer who should get some proof the network is actually fine.
Therefore, there should be guidelines to verify/certify the site survey/predictive design as well as the installation. This will take additional tools (Ekahau, 7Signal...) but so does cable testing. You cannot certify cabling without for instance a Fluke device. And everyone accepts this.
WiFi itself matured, the users matured but the rest around it clearly needs structure. I hope you can bring some of that in 2015
Network Computing
User Rank: Apprentice
Thu, 01/15/2015 - 22:40
Count us in 100% for making it easier to create and administer enterprise Wi-Fi!
For standardizing the deployment, there ARE best practices, guidelines, even numeric values that most Wi-Fi experts agree on.
It's time we worked together on a no-nonsense, vendor-neutral, hard-facts, short-and-sweet type of standardized guideline doc for deploying enterprise Wi-Fi. CWNP has done a great work here, and could be the organization to spearhead this type of an effort. There's alternatives coming too, heading just this path, which is great.
Enterprise-grade client device certification is a tougher nut to crack. It would perfectly for Wi-Fi Alliance, though. You could charge more than for standard certs. We could create the cert testing guidelines together, as a community. The enterprise Wi-Fi community, I'm 100% sure, would be delighted to work on this as one.
I'm hoping Wi-Fi Alliance will stop by at WLAN Pros Conference on February. I'm sure Keith would give a 10 minute slot to discuss this topic.
Network Computing
User Rank: Apprentice
Sun, 01/18/2015 - 01:24
"It's clear that connectivity expectations have changed and IT professionals must help their businesses find ways to meet the rising demands for easy-to-use, high-performance connectivity that delivers a great user experience." This is something very important for some countries that still have basic levels in terms of connectivity. In the United States, Europe, and even in Australia and some parts of Asia, Wi-Fi speeds and access are unlimite, whereas in a number of third world countries, a lot of people are still (often) forced to pay for terrible Wi-Fi services. If leaders and IT professionals from these countries are to seriously take in the demands of "easy-to-use, high performance connectivity", they should now start to find ways to address the issue of low speeds and minimal access that many of the people are complaining about. Perhaps a small spark from the IT community can get the ball rolling?
Network Computing
User Rank: Apprentice
Mon, 01/19/2015 - 01:38
There is a worry with using a wireless connection and its security. How often do you log into a wireless network without actually checking it out first? You could literally be logging into anything!