Cisco Cisco 4404 Wireless LAN Controller White Paper
Total Economic Impact Study of Unified Wireless Network
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Table 6: WCS Licensing Costs
Ref.
Metric
Calculation
Per period
D1
WCS license fees
$46,950
D2
Number of licenses
1
Dt WCS
License
Fees
D1*D2
$46,950
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
Initial And On-Going Administrative Costs
The final component of cost to migrate to the Cisco Unified Wireless Network solution is the
administrative time associated with: 1) the initial set-up of controllers, WCS implementation, and
replacement of any new access points, and 2) the on-going management of the wireless network.
We assume that the composite organization purchased six controllers; five will be used to manage
existing access points within the four campuses, and one will be used as a failover controller
deployed redundantly. We estimate that the network administrator is required to spend four hours to
set up each controller and spends another eight hours replacing non-upgradeable access points
and setting up the WCS. To estimate the on-going effort requirements after migration, we assume
that the composite organization needs to perform three access point configuration updates
annually. The interviewees revealed that the network administrators spent an hour per week on
network monitoring, and 30 minutes on each access point configuration update annually. By
eliminating the manual access point updates, the organizations that we interviewed were able to
significantly reduce the time required to troubleshoot wireless network issues resulting from human
error. We estimate benefits gained in the next section. Here, we calculate the cost associated with
initial and on-going administrative effort to set-up and manage the controller-based, wireless
architecture. Table 7 presents this calculation.
administrative time associated with: 1) the initial set-up of controllers, WCS implementation, and
replacement of any new access points, and 2) the on-going management of the wireless network.
We assume that the composite organization purchased six controllers; five will be used to manage
existing access points within the four campuses, and one will be used as a failover controller
deployed redundantly. We estimate that the network administrator is required to spend four hours to
set up each controller and spends another eight hours replacing non-upgradeable access points
and setting up the WCS. To estimate the on-going effort requirements after migration, we assume
that the composite organization needs to perform three access point configuration updates
annually. The interviewees revealed that the network administrators spent an hour per week on
network monitoring, and 30 minutes on each access point configuration update annually. By
eliminating the manual access point updates, the organizations that we interviewed were able to
significantly reduce the time required to troubleshoot wireless network issues resulting from human
error. We estimate benefits gained in the next section. Here, we calculate the cost associated with
initial and on-going administrative effort to set-up and manage the controller-based, wireless
architecture. Table 7 presents this calculation.
Table 7: Initial And On-Going Administrative Costs
Ref.
Metric
Calculation
Initial
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
E1
Number of network admin.
1
1
1
1
E2
Fully
loaded
hourly
rate
$48 $48 $48 $48
E3
Number
of
hours
34 52 52 52
E4
Annual number of update and/or
configuration per access point
configuration per access point
0 3 3 3
E5
Average time to set up the
controller for each update (hour)
controller for each update (hour)
0 0.50 0.50 0.50
Et
Initial and on-going
administrative cost
administrative cost
E2*(E1*E3+E4*E5) $1,632 $2,568 $2,568 $2,568
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.