wireless platform

Wireless ups and downs

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 06:59:59 -0500

It's a mixed bag of news for wireless proponents this week. On the one hand, CA's move into the wireless management market is great news because it provides a new tool for enterprise IT groups looking for a way to bring a wireless platform under full control. On the other hand, St. Louis joins a growing list of cities that haven't been able to make the dream of municipal WiFi a reality. Even with the current mixed news, though, there's a clear sense of anticipation in the wireless market these days. Google is the source of much anticipation, between the rumors of Google phones and the company's clearly stated ambitions in the 700Mhz space. That 700Mhz spectrum slice (which is, in the final analysis, a rather slim slice of RF territory) is the source of at least as much anticipation and speculation as potential customers and service providers alike try to figure out what open access will mean, and just how many services will be made available when the gavel has rapped down at the auction's end.

These times of anticipation can be valuable if they're used for planning and thinking about what new services and products can mean for an organization's IT infrastructure. Once the products and services are in place, blue-sky brainstorming will be seen differently. Now, when products and services are still on the horizon, IT groups have an excuse to think carefully and plan slowly for the future. It would be a shame to let that sort of excuse and opportunity pass by--they come along even less often than new pieces of RF spectrum. -Curtis

After Interop

Mon, 28 May 2007 20:01:39 -0400

After Interop
At last week's Interop trade show in Las Vegas, there were two main topics of conversation: wireless computing and security. The greatest change I heard discussed is the new realization that a wireless platform is going to be part of the enterprise infrastructure from now on. As wireless becomes part of the infrastructure, the target will be an environment in which the user doesn't know (and doesn't need to care about) what sort of network they're connecting to--they'll simply connect to the enterprise application wherever they are, over the network that is most appropriate at the time. The challenge for IT is creating the security and application delivery infrastructure to create a seamless user experience regardless of where the user is when they access the application. The challenge for users? Understanding that enterprise information is only as secure as their least secure method of accessing the network. The takeaway from Interop is that networking is going to change dramatically in the next two years. The good news is that many of the tools that will create the new environment are already in place--we just have to understand how to put them together in the new enterprise. - Curtis

The Swiss-Army Phone

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:01:39 -0400

The Swiss-Army Phone
Is it simpler or more complicated? Is it more convenient to have a group of simple, single-function devices, or a single, relatively complex tool that does everything? The wireless market has made its choice, and is heading in the direction of the all-in-one wireless platform. There's no question that it's easier to carry a single device than to wrap that stylish, geeky bandoleer of doo-dads across your shoulder and around your chest, but there are limits: customers are already saying that smart phones and handheld wireless devices are too difficult to use. Now comes word that progress has been made on a mobile payment technology plan that will let you make purchases and pay for them right from your phone or wireless PDA. The great news for enterprise customers is that a system sufficiently secure for financial transactions may help increase security for other applications as well. The bad news? That new wallet you just bought may be going into the drawer sooner than you thought. -Curtis

Editor's Corner

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 20:01:39 -0400

If you ran the world...

It's one of those games that starts early. "If I ran the world," it begins, and you move on to describe the wonderful solutions to problems grave or trivial that would be implemented under your wise and magnificent reign. In the world of high technology, we get to play that game out in real life more often than do the inhabitants of most other commercial realms. Scientists and engineers push forward with new technologies, we talk to vendors about what we want to buy, and the vendors rush (or crawl, in some cases) to put our desires into product form. With new technologies coming rapidly in the wireless space, now is a good time to be playing the "If I ran the world" game. Talk to your users and staff about what they need in a wireless platform and push the vendors hard to get your needed features into a product that you want to buy. Now is the right time to have the conversations--not later, after products that only sort-of meet your needs have come to market. It starts, of course, with figuring out exactly what you need--and if I ran the world that would be a far easier process than it already is. -Curtis