Networking as usual` in 2005 could cost businesses dearly

The top four IT spending priorities for 2005 have been identified by a Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research project completed late last year (2004) as being: security, wireless LAN connectivity and mobile computing devices.

"IT managers have a choice when spending in these areas," says Philip Olejnik, Services Manager at the JSE-listed Square One Solutions Group, whose Business Solutions division is the South African value-added reseller for Aruba Wireless Networks, an international manufacturer of high-performance centralised wireless networks and security systems.

"They can elect to carry on networking as usual, building systems out of expensive 10-year-old technology, or choose a new approach that offers significant improvements in security and mobility at considerably less cost."

Olejnik says grid architecture or overlay networks providing on-demand wireless, security and mobility services to both wired and wireless users allow dense deployment of grid or service points using the existing structured cabling environment. "The existing IP network provides transport without having to physically change the infrastructure."

The Goldman Sachs survey revealed that the average employee in an office environment changes work location between one and four times a year at an average cost of between R350 and R3 500 per move. Olejnik says most of this cost involves the reconfiguration of closet switches to adjust VLAN membership and access control lists, as well as the cost of network downtime and troubleshooting.

"A large corporation with 10 000 employees could therefore easily spend considerably more than R5 million a year just to cover the data portion of employee moves and maintain the status quo.

"Aruba has developed grid architecture solutions that effectively eliminate this cost by delivering universal authentication with user-appropriate security policies on every wired port. The grids also enable ubiquitous wireless access with the same security policies being applied to any user taking advantage of wireless. On the contrary, `networking as usual` is port-centric and simply cannot provide the user-based services of grid architecture."

Olejnik points out that because of the success of Intel`s Centrino program, most laptops sold today contain a wireless LAN adapter. This means that as companies are increasingly equipping employees with laptops, they are bringing wireless technology into the company irrespective of whether a wireless LAN infrastructure is actually deployed or not.

"The existence of wireless technology is a threat to interior network security because laptops with a default operating system configured will frequently connect to any access point they can find, either inside or outside of the company network. This exposes the trusted interior network to intrusions or information loss. Aruba`s grid architecture, however, includes RF sensors that identify and locate interior security threats.

"Unfortunately, `networking as usual` requires expensive add-on wireless security monitoring systems with distributed sensors to provide even a rudimentary level of protection."

Increasingly mobile employees armed with laptops want access to network resources such as e-mail from virtually anywhere and today it is quite common for an employee to connect a laptop to four or five different outside networks in a week from home, at airports, hotels, cafes and at the offices of other companies.

"Such circumstances put employee devices at risk of infection from viruses, worms, Internet spyware and other threats," says Olejnik. "So, every day, anywhere in the world, employees bring these threats into their corporate networks and endanger the business. The problem is that the corporate network was built with a security perimeter with firewalls, anti-virus gateways, VPN concentrators and other appliances placed between the Internet and the internal network. This design was designed for a situation where desktop computers that never left the office were used by employees. User mobility is now skyrocketing and is causing the conventional perimeter to disintegrate."

Now the corporate imperative is new security architecture. Olejnik says next generation security architecture, embodied through wireless grids, has been designed with interior security top of mind. On the other hand, `networking as usual` is attempting to solve the problems with costly and disruptive wiring closet upgrades that bolt on additional security blades inside port-centric LAN switches that only partially solve the problem.

For mobile workers, Olejnik says unfettered access to data and voice networks is critical and for companies, huge productivity increases are possible when mobile workers have quick and easy access. "Typically, an employee waiting for a meeting to start can respond to an urgent e-mail immediately, instead of at the end of the day. Wireless LANs are ideal for this type of mobile office as they provide the quick and easy access with vastly improved security. Today companies with high numbers of mobile employees have made the move to using wireless as the primary connection to the data network. Innovative new grid architectures have made this possible and it is a trend that is likely to continue as the cost savings and increases in performance, security and reliability are compelling."