The tradition of connecting networking devices by wire will increasingly be replaced by wireless deployments. There are many business benefits for deploying Wi-Fi – lower connection costs, faster deployment etc, but also many risks.

Some are security risks but others relate to performance and quality of service of the new wireless media. The risks are all very relevant and need to be addressed if organisations are to get the expected return on investment (ROI) and expected contribution to meeting the company’s goals. Secure wireless access is an enabling cost. To gain the benefits of wireless data (and/or voice) mobility some investment is required. To realize the benefits of a wireless project, be it reduced cost, greater staff productivity etc the security and performance issues need to be addressed.

Examples of business projects yielding financial savings

Staff accommodation cost savings
Wireless hot-desking by staff who can operate from any company building, mobile location or home, offers significant savings on staff and property accommodation costs. For London based organisations, savings often exceed £5000 per annum per person. However to facilitate this rollout, wireless systems need to be secured.

Production cost savings
A further example includes Car manufacturing production lines with Wi-Fi enabled scanners capturing component serial numbers on a car build. Car makers need to record the components used to manufacture a car. This takes valuable manpower but wireless connected bar-code scanners make it easy but do require a high quality network access service. If the serial numbers cannot be transmitted to the server, the line halts costing many £000’s pounds per hour down-time. The ability to capture serial numbers automatically makes the car manufacturer more efficient by reducing the cost of collecting the data, reducing error rates and speeding the capture process. However to continue to reap the benefits, monitoring the quality of the Wi-Fi signal is vital so that problems are spotted quickly to prevent unnecessary costly downtime.

These are 2 examples but indicate some of the pay-offs. The need for greater business efficiencies is driving the adoption of wireless access. It’s happening now and whether we like it or not our networks and investments are vulnerable.