Are we ready for WiMAX?

Intel is pushing hard, and the rest of the hardware vendors aren't far behind. 2008 is, they say, going to be the year of WiMAX. I've seen a lot of these "Year of..." stories come and go and I'm not fully convinced that 2008 is going to be the year of anything. For just a moment, though, let's think about what happens if it is the year of WiMAX. That means that your company is likely to begin deploying WiMAX around the enterprise, and deploying WiMAX has some real consequences for your network. For example, if your company is like most, you're running 100 Mbit Ethernet to most desktops. WiMAX is roughly three times that bandwidth--is your backbone ready for the increased demand? You might also want to think about the applications that you'll be moving from cabled subnets onto your wireless network--is your infrastructure ready for the move? If it were me, I'd start acting like I believed all the hype about WiMAX, and would begin to make sure that my infrastructure is ready. There's little harm since most adaptation can come during the normal hardware life cycle. Start now, though, and you'll avoid the rush that's sure to come when your executives start reading about WiMAX and asking, "Are we ready?" -Curtis