Cisco Cisco Aironet 1600i Access Point 백서
Farpoint Group White Paper – September 2012
Midmarket Wireless LANs
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WLAN systems focus on reliability, scalability, and performance, and, while
never just a minor concern, the price of an individual AP is less of an issue.
never just a minor concern, the price of an individual AP is less of an issue.
• Midmarket (MWLS) – And this brings us to the special needs of midmarket firms,
those with (nominally) up to about 1,000 simultaneous users, and potentially two
to three times that number of devices (the bring your own device, or BYOD, trend
is a powerful driver here). In general, networks at these firms are less technically
sophisticated than their enterprise counterparts, and these companies often have
limited (or even no) IT staffs with less specialized knowledge of wireless and IT
overall. There is thus a fundamental requirement for simplicity and ease-of-use
across all elements of the WLAN life cycle – requirements definition, solution
evaluation, systems selection and deployment, ongoing operations, and upgrades.
We’ll look at the special requirements of midmarket firms in more detail below,
but for now it’s important to note that these mid-sized firms have the same need
for reliability as larger organizations, with an enhanced requirement for IT staff
(such as it may be) productivity via simplified operations. Thus the core
objectives for WLAN systems in this class are ease of use and cost-effective
scalability as the midmarket firm’s network grows along with the business itself,
and minimal (if any) compromise in AP-based functionality.
to three times that number of devices (the bring your own device, or BYOD, trend
is a powerful driver here). In general, networks at these firms are less technically
sophisticated than their enterprise counterparts, and these companies often have
limited (or even no) IT staffs with less specialized knowledge of wireless and IT
overall. There is thus a fundamental requirement for simplicity and ease-of-use
across all elements of the WLAN life cycle – requirements definition, solution
evaluation, systems selection and deployment, ongoing operations, and upgrades.
We’ll look at the special requirements of midmarket firms in more detail below,
but for now it’s important to note that these mid-sized firms have the same need
for reliability as larger organizations, with an enhanced requirement for IT staff
(such as it may be) productivity via simplified operations. Thus the core
objectives for WLAN systems in this class are ease of use and cost-effective
scalability as the midmarket firm’s network grows along with the business itself,
and minimal (if any) compromise in AP-based functionality.
As it turns out, however, addressing these requirements is more difficult than it seems, as
we’ll further explore below.
Wireless LANs for the Midmarket: Key Requirements
For most of the history of the wireless-LAN industry, midmarket firms have been forced
to make do with either residential/small-business products that are clearly inappropriate
based on a lack of scalability, AP capabilities, and management (including security)
features, or enterprise-class systems that, while more than capable, have presented these
firms with a degree of complexity that many are ill-equipped to deal with. Digging a little
deeper into the WLAN needs of midmarket firms, we find that several criteria demand
special attention from WLAN system vendors:
• Ease-of-use – While this term is most often associated with the quality of
experience realized by end-users, in this context we mean the ease with which
local IT/operations staff can understand, install, configure, manage, upgrade, and
otherwise operate the WLAN system. Midmarket firms often have a “computer
person” or “network person” or two, but only rarely have full-time network-
operations staffs. This situation demands solutions that are easy to use,
particularly with respect to troubleshooting and obtaining a quick view of network
status. While this element of operations is sometimes outsourced, ease-of-use, as
we’ll explore next, is regardless a critical factor in containing costs.
local IT/operations staff can understand, install, configure, manage, upgrade, and
otherwise operate the WLAN system. Midmarket firms often have a “computer
person” or “network person” or two, but only rarely have full-time network-
operations staffs. This situation demands solutions that are easy to use,
particularly with respect to troubleshooting and obtaining a quick view of network
status. While this element of operations is sometimes outsourced, ease-of-use, as
we’ll explore next, is regardless a critical factor in containing costs.
• Cost-effectiveness – Ease-of-use is, then, a key contributing factor in minimizing
the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a WLAN system. But there are of course