| By Dean Au | Article Rating: |
|
| November 25, 2003 01:18 PM EST | Reads: |
10,522 |
In cellular we have carriers, manufacturers, and third-party developers, but in the Wi-Fi space things are a little more complex.
There's a new set of smart WLAN "switch" players emerging in the Wi-Fi space, bringing out new architectures for configuring and managing wireless networks. Recently, I've been hearing some confusion on a question that reminds me of the early days of wired networks: "Can our Wi-Fi infrastructure completely manage itself, or is a separate network management solution required?" Or, put another way, "Is this new product designed for connectivity, for management, or both?" Rather than comparing data sheets, I've been encouraging customers to remember their experience with choosing wired network products.
Over the last two decades, I've seen wired networking
and management companies sort themselves into three different
categories. For our purposes, we'll call them the Gear
Makers, the Umbrella Consoles, and the Security and Performance
Specialists. If we take a closer look at the categories, we may
learn a little more about why networking vendors tend to specialize,
and find a precedent for how things may evolve in Wi-Fi.
Categorizing products and vendors is nothing new, but it's clear that as the wired network world has evolved and matured, no major vendor has succeeded in more than one category. Gear makers have not taken over management software, and umbrella products are not best-of-breed security analyzers. This is no accident. The skills that vendors need to win in one category work against them elsewhere. Gear vendors will always put their next engineer on perport cost improvement (or faster data rates, better MTBF, or improved configuration utilities) instead of multivendor troubleshooting utilities.
So what can we extrapolate
from our brief walk through wired
network history? Can we reapply
the laws of market gravity to a
young and still growing wireless
space? Wi-Fi is crowded with new companies and products, making it
hard to sort companies into categories that we understand. However,
a few themes are consistently emerging in the enterprise:
1. Buy Wi-Fi connectivity now if you can show ROI: Even though standards keep evolving, enterprises can save money now while
improving productivity. You should expect to replace this gear as
standards change. Organizations from sectors as diverse as manufacturing,
health care, government/military, higher education, and
retail have all found ways to use Wi-Fi networks to save ample
time and money.
2. Fit Wi-Fi under your existing management umbrella: Network operations needs one view of your enterprise's worldwide network
that covers LAN, WAN, and wireless. Since you've already invested
in a console solution, make sure your new Wi-Fi gear can participate.
Don't encourage islands of network management.
3. Pick the smartest tools: Wi-Fi has unique challenges such as site surveys, new kinds of security attacks, and complex performance
problems. These problems will never be completely solved by the
gear makers. You'll need troubleshooting and security products that
work with any mix of gear vendors and can pinpoint problems
quickly. To deliver your projected savings, your wireless network
must always be available, with users getting the connectivity they
expect. Wi-Fi expertise matters.
Like previous generations of technology, we're seeing new products that promise "all things to all people." The latest Wi-Fi announcements promise a complete solution with gear, console management, and specialized analysis wrapped in a single, inexpensive package. Customers are showing a little more caution, though. Looking beyond the data sheets, they are asking for live references and operational demo units. They see that hard-nosed product evaluations are the best way to uncover what a product actually does.
Published November 25, 2003 Reads 10,522
Copyright © 2003 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.
More Stories By Dean Au
Dean Au is AirMagnet's CEO. Prior to founding AirMagnet, he was Senior
Vice President of Network Associates' Sniffer Technology Division. Mr.
Au founded Cinco Networks, the developer of NetXRay, the first
Windows-based analyzer product. He was Cinco's President/CEO until its
acquisition by Network General Corporation (later acquired by Network
Associates.) Mr. Au had earlier roles at Hughes LAN Systems, 3COM
Corporation, and Information Technologies Corporation.
Mr. Au earned an MSEE from Ohio State University, and a BSEE from Cheng
Kung University.
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Douglas Smith 12/18/03 08:40:28 AM EST | |||
Unless Dean was around to develop LANalyzer, he was not, and Cinco was not part of the development of the first Windows packet analyzer. I think his point about needing about needing gear, unbrella and security products is a good one. Keep in mind not all companies need, nor can afford Tivoli, OpenView or Unicenter. |
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