Cisco Cisco Aironet 3600i Access Point Libro blanco
Farpoint Group White Paper – September 2012
Midmarket Wireless LANs
7
many midmarket venues. Vendors that offer a broad range of APs covering a wide
spectrum of price/performance combinations also provide a smoother path to long-term
growth, as improvements in basic technologies enable additional advances in the product
domain (see the Sidebar, “Cisco’s New Midmarket Access Points” for more on this).
Conclusions and Strategies for Success
As we have been saying for years, wireless LANs are so important to businesses today
that they will continue to grow to the point of pervasiveness – and, at some firms, they
already have. While we will continue to recommend wired connections for stationary
devices (as long as they can be physically serviced by wire, of course) and user
communities that perform their jobs only from fixed locations, the wireless LAN will
evolve from primary and default to preferred and, yes, even the only access in many
organizations. In fact, a broad range of mobile devices today, particularly handsets and
tablets, have no default way to plug in – and this trend will continue with Ethernet ports
on client devices becoming rare indeed over the next few years. Demands on the WLAN,
then, will continue to grow at a rapid rate.
While we do expect the upcoming IEEE 802.11ac standard to have an increasing impact
on the corporate wireless LAN (again, see the sidebar, “What about 802.11ac?” for more
on this), we expect that 802.11n-based installations have a long and happy life ahead of
them. As we have discussed above, advances in the feature sets and related capabilities of
access points (already present, as we have discussed, in some 802.11n products) and
increasing AP density, along with powerful and yet easy-to-use management systems,
will serve most midmarket organizations well into the foreseeable future. We are
certainly not recommending that anyone place current 802.11n plans on hold in
anticipation of next-generation products; these will, as is always the case, take some time
to mature. As we have seen, even leading firms like Cisco, who already offer 802.11ac
products (the add-on module for the 3600 series of APs, for example), are continuing to
advance their .11n product lines. If an opportunity for return on investment exists,
primarily in the form of improved user productivity, it certainly behooves any
organization to take advantage of that now.
And advances in WLAN systems technology and products are making it easier than ever
for midmarket firms to do so. The price and ease-of-use sensitivities that define this
market segment are being addressed elegantly and efficiently today, with the provisioning
of “big system” features and benefits with “small system” price points and ease-of-use.
And the continuing innovation in 802.11n from major vendors is an important indication
that today’s investments will indeed be protected for many years to come.
spectrum of price/performance combinations also provide a smoother path to long-term
growth, as improvements in basic technologies enable additional advances in the product
domain (see the Sidebar, “Cisco’s New Midmarket Access Points” for more on this).
Conclusions and Strategies for Success
As we have been saying for years, wireless LANs are so important to businesses today
that they will continue to grow to the point of pervasiveness – and, at some firms, they
already have. While we will continue to recommend wired connections for stationary
devices (as long as they can be physically serviced by wire, of course) and user
communities that perform their jobs only from fixed locations, the wireless LAN will
evolve from primary and default to preferred and, yes, even the only access in many
organizations. In fact, a broad range of mobile devices today, particularly handsets and
tablets, have no default way to plug in – and this trend will continue with Ethernet ports
on client devices becoming rare indeed over the next few years. Demands on the WLAN,
then, will continue to grow at a rapid rate.
While we do expect the upcoming IEEE 802.11ac standard to have an increasing impact
on the corporate wireless LAN (again, see the sidebar, “What about 802.11ac?” for more
on this), we expect that 802.11n-based installations have a long and happy life ahead of
them. As we have discussed above, advances in the feature sets and related capabilities of
access points (already present, as we have discussed, in some 802.11n products) and
increasing AP density, along with powerful and yet easy-to-use management systems,
will serve most midmarket organizations well into the foreseeable future. We are
certainly not recommending that anyone place current 802.11n plans on hold in
anticipation of next-generation products; these will, as is always the case, take some time
to mature. As we have seen, even leading firms like Cisco, who already offer 802.11ac
products (the add-on module for the 3600 series of APs, for example), are continuing to
advance their .11n product lines. If an opportunity for return on investment exists,
primarily in the form of improved user productivity, it certainly behooves any
organization to take advantage of that now.
And advances in WLAN systems technology and products are making it easier than ever
for midmarket firms to do so. The price and ease-of-use sensitivities that define this
market segment are being addressed elegantly and efficiently today, with the provisioning
of “big system” features and benefits with “small system” price points and ease-of-use.
And the continuing innovation in 802.11n from major vendors is an important indication
that today’s investments will indeed be protected for many years to come.