Calculating the resulting productivity gains of wireless access may seem difficult, but they are real. Being able to receive and respond to messages regardless of your location, carrying on with collaborative work even as you move around, the fact that you can continue processing when you go into a meeting - all help tangibly to boost productivity.
Wolfgang Held, network consultant at 3Com, highlights six reasons why enterprises are now creating a wireless workforce.
You`re in a boardroom meeting when the CEO suddenly pops a question about slumping sales in KwaZulu-Natal. Unprepared, you wing it - rather obviously. The boss rolls his eyes.
Too bad. If your company had a wireless local area network (WLAN), you could have fired up your notebook, tapped into the online sales database and flashed the latest figures on the overhead projector. And as you later learn, you might have shown that sales were actually up this week.
It`s apparent that more and more work in corporate enterprises requires network or Internet access, yet employees are actually spending less and less time tethered to their desks, connected to the traditional wired network.
Instead, they are on the move: they carry notebooks or PDAs to a colleague`s cubicle or a conference room or they`re cooling their heels in an airport or hotel room.
This mobility revolution has been fuelled by the explosion of companies installing wireless LANs that use industry standards 802.11b (WiFi) or 802.11a.
Market research firm IDC says worldwide revenue for WLAN equipment is expected to more than double by 2006. Also, data from Gartner estimates that two-thirds of the world`s 1 000 largest companies will utilise WiFi networks by 2005.
So why are more businesses unchaining employees from their desks?
1. Wireless LANs are fast enough for everyday business use.
The first wireless networks only offered speeds of 2Mbps, or about as fast as downloading information using a fast WAN connection. But today`s WLANs using the WiFi standard operate at speeds up to 11Mbps for 802.11b and 54Mbps for 802.11a - that`s between five and 27 times as fast and more than adequate for everyday business use.
So accessing e-mail and the Internet, listening and watching streaming audio and video or accessing spreadsheets or documents from a central server is not only possible - it`s now possible wherever corporate employees want and need.
2. Wireless equipment is now affordable.
A common misperception is that wireless networking is still a "bleeding-edge" technology, which is often a euphemism for "premium priced". In fact, in certain cases WLANs can be significantly less expensive than a traditional wired network when considering the savings in cabling costs.
If you consider the cost of Ethernet switch equipment and network interface cards (NICs) in a corporate environment, the average cost per user in a wired Ethernet network can exceed R1 000 (excluding the cost of cabling), while the cost per user for a WLAN can be as little as R500, with only cabling cost incurred to connect the multiple wireless access points together.
Furthermore, the more users you have on a wireless network, the lower the per-user cost. This is not as true of a wired network due to the port- and cable-per-user requirement.
3. Wireless LANs save money.
The hardware and software is not the only measure of WLAN costs. Gartner has done extensive research which shows that the total cost of ownership (TCO) for wireless LANs is also slightly lower than wired LANs in certain scenarios. Besides capital costs, TCO also takes into account IT operations, administrative and user operational costs over the life of the product.
Gartner did its TCO analysis for two scenarios - a 100-person office implementing a WLAN extension to an existing wired network, and deploying a WLAN as the only network in a small 45-person branch office. In both cases, the TCO was lower than for wired LANs.
Wireless LANs make particularly good sense in certain circumstances. For example, fast-growing entrepreneurial companies can essentially take their entire network with them when they move to expanded office space, instead of leaving behind much of their wired network investment - the cabling.
Some companies may want customers and suppliers coming into their facility to be able to access an Intranet or Extranet. Visitors can also access the Internet over the WLAN or even their own corporate LAN via a VPN through the local Internet connection. The pervasive access to networks that WLANs deliver increases productivity for both visitors and their hosts.
4. Wireless LANs are now more secure.
Transmitting sensitive corporate information through mid air is not without risks. Corporate data or e-mails, especially customer information, are highly sensitive. But with the wireless security tools available today, corporate enterprises are gaining confidence that those risks can be minimised or eliminated.
No single security measure is foolproof. The key is that enterprises can now apply multiple layers of wireless security. With every layer they apply, they are adding another lock to their network door that a hacker would have to crack.
Security tools such as authentication are being used to allow only certain users to access the wireless network. Likewise, enterprises are better protecting the actual transmission of information with stronger data encryption techniques.
5. Wireless networking no longer stops at the front door.
Companies with more than one building on a campus or in close proximity in a city can use the same WiFi technology - or higher-frequency, higher-speed radio technologies - to build wireless "bridges" between buildings. And they`ll realise significant savings by doing it.
The radios and antennas needed to set up a wireless bridge between two buildings will initially require some capital outlay, but once established, they require minimal maintenance, and are otherwise cost free.
The traditional alternative has been to lay fibre optic network links between the buildings. Although fibre optic can handle greater speeds, it`s not justified and more expensive proposition over the long haul in terms of cabling and the expensive fibre optic termination on either end.
6. WLANs are popping up everywhere.
Finally, the same laptop wireless PC card that allows employees to connect to the office WLAN also now lets them use fledgling wireless Internet services outside the office.
More and more hotels and airports feature "hotspots" that enable wireless access on their premises. They work much the way office WLANs work, and use the same WiFi radio technology.
Indeed, wireless networks help enterprises make money and save money. It`s no longer a question of wired or wireless. The question has become, "When do you get it and who gets it first?"
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