BYOD - a headache for IT departments.
With over 90 million
iPhones and 40 million iPads sold in 2011, there is no doubt that these and
other mobile devices are changing the workplace dramatically. Employees want to
use their own devices at work – and companies are starting to see the value in
letting them do that. The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend has become a way
of life.
As most of these devices do
not have LAN ports, the only way to connect them to the company network is by
using the WLAN. This is where the problems
start. Mark Shane, ICON Sales Director
explained,
“Organisations need to address the technical demands that the BYOD trend brings. Some key challenges being security architecture designed to support these devices and the risk of losing infrastructure control as private devices connect to the organisation's network.”
“The issue,” says Mark, “is that in large-scale WLANs traditional microcell WLAN architectures are struggling to meet the reliability, capacity, manageability and security dynamics of BYOD devices that require high mobility.”
“The only safe way for an organisation to do this is to use a 4th generation Wi-Fi infrastructure solution designed specifically for BYOD and Triple Play (voice, video, data). The problem is that most Wi-Fi infrastructure available today are not 4th generation."
"The Extricom Channel Blanket solution, supplied by ICON, is one of the few 4th generation solutions available and only a few years ago, according to Gartner, Extricom was one of only two vendors supplying 4th generation solutions in the market.”
ICON has been in this space
for several years providing SpectraLink Wi-Fi handsets into the enterprise and
regularly comes across the problems caused by enterprise Wi-Fi infrastructure
which is just not up to the job. Mark explains,
“The problem is that most of the installed Wi-Fi is 3rd generation micro-cell technology which is just not adequate when it comes to BYOD and other Triple Play applications."
"When you start using your WLAN for BYOD and telecoms the WLAN takes on a completely different perspective. It needs to be much more robust and becomes a strategic investment and, in those cases where there is a commercial imperative behind the WLAN it needs to be much more reliable”
How can the channel embrace this opportunity
In general, the
traditional telecoms channel has not embraced the opportunity of BYOD and Triple
Play or voice mobility. This is due partly
to not having access to a suitable solution or to the specialist knowledge
which is needed to deploy a large scale WLAN using traditional microcell WLAN
technology. Mark commented,
“There is a need in the channel market space for a WLAN infrastructure solution which is Triple Play capable (voice, video & data) and which can be deployed and set up without complex surveys and advanced technology tweaking."
"Traditional microcell Wi-Fi infrastructure solutions struggle to deliver against customer needs and the complex deployment surveys and fine tuning needed to deploy them successfully means they are not suited to distribution through the traditional telecoms channel."
"The fourth generation solutions from Extricom overcome these issues and because they do not need complex surveying or fine tuning they are an ideal solution for the telecoms distribution channel.”
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How future mobile technology & the influx of new devices will shape the enterprise space.
Mark believes that there is
a mismatch between the trend to use BYOD, the enterprise’s desire to deploy and
manage Wi-Fi infrastructure which is Triple Play capable and the traditional telecoms
distribution channel’s ability to deliver robust WLAN solutions. Mark says,
“This will only get worse with the increasing use of 5Ghz Wi-Fi devices. At 5Ghz all the problems of a traditional microcell Wi-Fi deployment are magnified.”
With the increasing use of
BYOD and the growing trend for public spaces to deploy WLAN for commercial
purposes Mark sees an increasingly frustrated end user unless the sector moves
to 4th generation solutions such as the Extricom solution.
For those enterprise organisation’s
which have already invested in the earlier generation WLAN technologies the only
solution may be a rip and replace if they want to benefit from the BYOD trend.
“But,” says Mark, “for those in the channel which pick the 4th generation solutions such as Extricom Channel Blanket technology the opportunities seem to be boundless.”
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