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Dynamic can mean many things about a company. One definition of dynamic covers employees coming, going, or relocating quite often. Trying to keep up with a rapidly expanding or moving user base can drive cabling and infrastructure costs through the roof -- as well as frustrate users and management with normal physical cabling delays.
Here's a typical to-do list for adding a wired network node:
- Request network node drop in new office or verification of existing line quality.
- Decide where to place new network connection plate in office wall.
- Coordinate with facilities group or outside contractor hired to run cable.
- Warn users about upcoming network construction.
- Plan on spending at least a half-day working with cable installers, facilities team, or both.
- Locate and test patch cable to link computer and wall connection plate.
- Start networking.
Look at your to-do list when adding a wireless network node:
- Connect a wireless network adapter to computer.
- Start networking.
Imagine your company provides laptops for many employees, like many large companies do. Major laptop vendors now include 802.11b networking as one of their standard features. When the new user arrives with a Wi-Fi enabled laptop, your to-do list becomes: Start networking. How's that for easy?
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Laptops and PDAs with Wi-Fi capabilities provide a feature that will startle many of your users: constant network connections. By placing wireless access points in common areas such as break rooms and meeting rooms, employees will still have a full network connection wherever they gather for brainstorming.
Watch your workers for a day, and you'll see many of them create solutions by interacting with others rather than sitting at their desk and staring at a computer. Teamwork solves problems, and teams with full network connections have more tools at their disposal. Two people meet in a hallway, three people start drawing diagrams on napkins at lunch -- either way, the network is in place for them to access on the spot.
Participants in meeting room environments can benefit from wireless connections in several ways. Although it's feasible to place at least one network connection in the room for every potential meeting attendee, costs escalate. Also, the cables and power cords connected to the attendees' computers can make moving about the room difficult. Wireless solves both problems.
Remember the warehouse we Wi-Fi enabled? How would you rather do inventory next time -- with a clipboard and printouts, or a tablet PC connected to the network? If your company aspires to real-time inventory statistics, you'll need to tie warehouse transactions to the network immediately. With a wireless LAN, the bar code reader scans the box and transmits the information immediately to the network. That's real time.
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As Wi-Fi connections are utilized in more public places, you may not have to wait for a team to assemble at a certain location to start their network. Users linking through a variety of public spaces, such as a park in San Francisco, a coffee shop in Seattle, and an airport in Syracuse, can communicate over their wireless network just as easily as if they were in three adjoining cubicles rather than three states.
Your non-technical users may consider this more like magic than networking, but that's okay. Just as they now rely on their cell phone to place calls and be productive anytime and anywhere, they'll come to rely on the wireless LAN to support them at all times.
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