PEOPLE, GET READY
If you have some sentimental attachment to the copper feeding your desktop, consider that your future workforce has spent the past four years in a wireless oasis. Most colleges and universities provide Wi-Fi in a substantial portion of their classrooms and public spaces, some in their dorms. Freshly minted graduates expect mobility when they step into the workforce, and that starts with Wi-Fi access in the office.
If businesses want to attract young talent, staying on the cutting edge isn't optional. To see how close we can come to going wire-free, we broke down wireless communication into three areas: data, voice, and video.
Conventional office applications account for the majority of data access. Whether e-mail, productivity suites, or line-of-business applications, data apps consume the largest amount of a knowledge worker's time and have been successfully mobilized, in and out of the office.
Wireless voice is often thought of in terms of cellular services, but voice over Wi-Fi, or Vo-Fi, increasingly is considered a key application for wireless networks. CIOs are generally cautious about running voice over their enterprise WLANs, for good reason: Unless the wireless network was engineered with voice in mind, whether it be first- or third-generation gear, poorly implemented quality-of-service functions and a weak signal will lead to disappointed users. All the major WLAN infrastructure vendors have spent considerable time working with enterprise-class Vo-Fi providers, such as Cisco, Polycom (formerly SpectraLink), and Vocera, developing deployment guides to assist VARs and IT groups with configuring the WLAN for QoS.
Wireless video, which generates much higher traffic volumes than voice, requires special consideration as well. Although we don't see enterprises deploying Cisco's TelePresence over Wi-Fi anytime soon, video-based corporate training and closed-circuit television for both inside cameras and those mounted in the parking lot are here now.
Not all apps can be neatly siloed into voice, video, and data. Environmental controls and security monitoring can also be performed wirelessly, eliminating time-consuming and expensive installations. Services such as location and presence increase productivity and security. We're in the midst of a Rolling Review covering location systems, and we like what we see; check out our findings on our Rolling Reviews page.
