Mobility Blog on Business Mobility Revolution

The Human Network Really Is Changing How We Live

I’m writing this blog from the Emergency Room at Akron Children’s Hospital.  My 6 year old son Fritz has an eye infection, so he’s lying in bed watching Scooby Doo while we wait for his CT results.  My cell phone doesn’t have coverage in his room, but luckily the hospital has a Cisco wireless network, so I can keep in contact with my husband who out of town on business.  He is in a remote part of West Virginia which doesn’t have great cellular coverage, but he can email and text from his iPhone.  We have 3 young children and I  know from experience that ER visits usually take 2-3 hours, so I brought my laptop just in case I have time to catch up on email.

My day started at 6:30am when Fritz woke up with his eye swollen shut.  My friend Michele is an ER doctor at Children’s Hospital, so I  called her on her cell to make sure she was on call and let her know we were on our way.  When we arrived they immediately sent us to a room where our contact information and insurance was submitted wirelessly.  Michele examined his eye and submitted the order for a CT scan. While we waited to be taken to the CT room our nurse Beth came in to insert Fritz’s IV.  She said Dr. Walsh told her to ask me about our Halloween Party.  Funny you ask, I have pictures right here. I pulled up my Facebook page and showed her pictures of Michele and I in our costumes at the party.

When Fritz and I went for his CT scan the technician asked Fritz if he plays computer games.  He loves Lego.com, and was so excited when she gave him a Popsicle mouse for good behavior.  How times have changed…when I was a kid we got stickers for being good at the Doctors!

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Posted by Beth Dannemiller at 01:13PM PST

Speed to 802.11n with the Cisco 802.11n Acceleration Kit

With the ratification of 802.11n, organizations can now raise their network to the power of n with confidence. Cisco is leading this market transition toward 802.11n with its new 802.11n Acceleration Kit that dramatically simplifies the adoption of the industry’s most powerful wireless technology.

Since the introduction of its 802.11n technology, Cisco has worked with more than 6,000 customers that have experienced the benefit of next generation wireless. And, from these extensive customer engagements, Cisco has identified the remaining inhibitors to 802.11n adoption, which include:

• Total Cost of Ownership
• Lack of Expertise
• Network Readiness

Cisco’s 802.11n Acceleration Kit removes these barriers by enabling a more seamless transition to 802.11n. Only Cisco can deliver a complete mix of product, pricing, service and program elements to ease the customer transition to 802.11n.

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Posted by Chris Kozup at 01:15PM PST

Cisco Wireless. Your Ideas in Motion

Dude Where’s My Car?

Arnold Clark Automobiles, Europe’s largest independent auto dealer, probably is no longer asked “dude, where’s my car?” thanks to a Cisco Unified Wireless Network and an AeroScout Vehicle Tracking solution at its Stafford, U.K. dealership. To the consumer, the mobility solution is transforming the automobile sales and service experience. On the back end, Arnold Clark is improving staff productivity and collaboration, deliving a positive customer experience, and helping reduce expenditures and inventory depreciation, loss and theft while freeing up resources for alternative investments.

In the following video, tour the Arnold Clark Automobiles Stafford, U.K. dealership, and hear from managing director, Eddie Hawthorne, staff, and Boston Network’s Scott McEwan who discuss the business benefits of the Cisco Unified Wireless Network and AeroScout asset tracking solution that are enhancing customer service and sales.

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Posted by Ed Tan at 09:41AM PST

802.11n: A Major Step Forward for Mobility

Smart antenna technology, the foundation of the 802.11n 2.0 draft standard, has been utilized for decades by the military. But when applying this technology to enterprise and consumer grade APs, it’s not as simple as bolting a smart antenna onto existing WiFi access points due to the requirement for tight integration between the RF and baseband sections in the upfront design and standards process.  While you’d have to be an antenna connoisseur to appreciate the differences between beamforming and the various flavors of Multiple-in-Multiple-out (MIMO) algorithms, we can all benefit from the time and effort that companies like Cisco have invested over the last 7 years to get this technology embedded into currently-shipping products. So the recent ratification of 802.11n as a full fledged standard that is completely compatible with already-deployed 802.11n 2.0 draft-certified devices, is worth a tip of the hat to all those who helped make it happen.  802.11n is a key wireless technology that is significantly improving the performance and reliability of the user experience.

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Posted by Bob Friday at 07:46AM PST

Bob Friday
Dir. Strategic Initiatives
Cisco

Video: Imagine a World Without Wireless

In celebration of the recently approved 802.11n standard, we would like to share a fun video that shows a world trying to collaborate without wireless, yearning to set their ideas in motion.

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Posted by Ed Tan at 10:48AM PST

802.11n Ratification: The IT Checklist

In September the IEEE will close the final chapter on a standards ratification process that will have lasted almost exactly seven years. The IEEE will ratify the 802.11n standard for high-speed wireless, removing the final hurdle for adoption by even the most conservative of organization. Of course, many organizations have already developed quite a kinship with the standard that delivers wireless performance on par with wired networks. However, questions remain as to how to proceed now that the standard is approaching ratification. Since the introduction of the first enterprise-class Wi-Fi certified access point two years ago, Cisco has partnered with over 6,000 companies to deliver 802.11n solutions. From this experience, Cisco has developed a checklist of best practices to help companies navigate the path forward with a final, ratified 802.11n standard.

1.)           Don’t worry!  If you’ve deployed 802.11n draft 2.0 equipment today, your investment is protected.  Draft 2.0-certified equipment is fully compliant with the final 802.11n standard and will be grandfathered in to receive final standard certification for interoperability from the Wi-Fi Alliance. Client devices that are draft 2.0 certified are also fully compatible with the final standard.

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Posted by Chris Kozup at 04:10PM PST

Cisco Wireless. Your Ideas in Motion

The Seven Years of Creating “N”

When was the last time it took you seven years to complete a project? I’d venture a guess that for most of us, a seven year time horizon to do anything seems like a pretty long time. Yet, in just shy of a month the IEEE will close the final chapter on a standards ratification process that will have lasted almost exactly seven years. The IEEE will ratify the 802.11n standard for high-speed wireless, removing the final hurdle for adoption by even the most conservative of enterprise. Of course, many enterprises have already developed quite a kinship with the standard that delivers wireless performance on par with wired networks. Still, the ratification of the standard paves the way for broad scale adoption and perhaps, just as importantly, allows the standards body and participating vendors to move on to the next phases of innovation.

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Posted by Chris Kozup at 09:45AM PST

Cisco Wireless. Your Ideas in Motion

802.11n ratification on the horizon

It now appears inevitable that 802.11n will be ratified by the IEEE before the end of this year!  The expectation by most everyone is that it will be approved at the next IEEE Standards Board meeting on Sept 11th, 2009.  It’s a long time coming, but when it does happen it will close the door on any possibility of compatibility or hardware upgrade concerns related to 802.11n draft 2.0 products and the eventual 802.11n standard.  This will ease a concern for customers considering 11n technology. To be fair, this concern has significantly decreased over time, but definitely still exists with a large number of customers.

The risk of compatibility issues between draft 2.0 and the final 11n standard was a relatively strong barrier for 11n adoption about two years ago.  In fact, vendors in the consumer space were delivering “11n” products that in many cases were not compatible – irritating for consumers and a non-starter for most businesses.  The Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) helped bring sanity to the madness around interoperability nightmares by introducing a certification program in June 2007 based on the draft 2.0 version of the 11n standard.  This certification program is a key factor behind the success of this technology to date – especially in businesses.  As of today, 653 products have gone through this certification.  The WFA put out a statement earlier today that all previously certified draft 2.0 products will be eligible without retesting to use the approved 802.11n logo for an updated certification program per the final 11n standard since these products meet all core requirements – again, good news for anyone concerned about interoperability.

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Posted by Greg Beach at 08:53PM PST

Wireless Strategies that Help you Save to Invest – Part 2

A few days ago I wrote the first part in a series of blogs about the different ways mobility can help you save money.  In that blog I focused on creating flexible workspaces in order to save on real estate costs.  In this second installment of the series I will expand on that conversation to include teleworking.

Probably the most effective means to reduce your real estate costs for office space is to create policies that allow your employees to work remotely from home (or other locations).  On average for each full-time teleworker an organization can expect to save $22,000 per year on commercial real estate.

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Posted by Dimitris Haramoglis at 04:36PM PST

Wireless Strategies that Help you Save to Invest - Part 1

As I was negotiating for budget to fund certain projects last week, I thought that many of you must go through the same process in your organizations to get budget for projects and investments you deem valuable.  Problem is, to win in this negotiation one has to prove their proposals have value and a high ROI.

In this multi-part blog series I will be discussing different wireless strategies you can employ to increase your ROI from a Cisco WLAN deployment.  In the process I hope to arm you with some tools to help you make the right infrastructure investment decision as you negotiate for budget with your peers.

Strategy 1: Create Flexible Workspaces to Save on Real Estate Costs

It may seem counterintuitive in this tough economy that you would invest in creating flexible workspaces in order to reduce real estate costs, when your workforce may be shrinking due to downsizing.  However, similar to future IT investment planning decisions, organizations should take a longer-term approach and plan for the inevitable upturn.

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Posted by Dimitris Haramoglis at 04:08PM PST

Reflecting on Wireless Security

As we gear up for Cisco Live! 2009 in San Francisco, I’ve thought back to some of the other shows that I’ve been to over the past couple of months.  In April, I had the opportunity to visit the RSA Conference 2009, where Cisco gave show attendees to RSA’s booth a sneak peak of the integration between RSA enVision and Cisco’s Context-Aware mobility service.  And at Cisco Networkers Solutions Forum in Toronto, I had the honor to lead two sessions, one on strategies for 802.11n deployment and one on mobility services.  On both occasions, I had the pleasure to interact with a number of customers and the same question came up: “Why do I need to worry about RF security if I don’t have a production wireless network?” 

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Posted by Sean Ginevan at 03:46PM PST

Business applications enhanced by network intelligence

The ability to access network intelligence can really enhance business applications.  By utilizing the open API of Mobility Services Engine technology partners are making network intelligence actionable. Steven Shalita , Vice President of Marketing for NetScout talks about the unique solution that is enhanced by adding contextual information like location to the NetScout application.

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Posted by Martine Velkeniers at 12:10AM PST

Enabling real-time collaboration through Mobility

Mobility is a key component of the collaborative experience. By enabling collaboration businesses can reap operational efficiencies that can be invested elsewhere. They can unlock employee potential by giving context to data and making it actionable. Putting collaboration in motion enables companies to get closer to customers, bringing them into the product development delivery process, or taking the product delivery process to the customer. In this video, Chris Kozup, Senior Manager of Mobility Solutions discusses Cisco’s recent Collaboration in Motion launch and talks about what it takes for customers to connect multiple workspaces using a robust mobility platform.

Posted by Chris Kozup at 06:26PM PST

Cisco Wireless. Your Ideas in Motion

(Interop) Las Vegas or Bust

Interop Las Vegas kicked off today, and up until last Friday, I’ve been asked by many folks, “What does Cisco have in store for mobility at Interop?”

I will keep this short by asking you to tune into the video that gives you a little taste of what is to come. 

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Posted by Ed Tan at 10:57PM PST

To Tag or Not to Tag – Is that the question?

This weekend I spent a considerable amount of time searching for a pair of expensive earrings that I misplaced.  Not a fun job, especially since I wasn’t ready to write off the value of this asset or to replace it. That’s when I began to wonder – how cool would it be if I could use the Wi-Fi network in my house to keep track of my valuable personal inventory - jewellery, handbags and TV remote control by tagging them.  The time I would save from looking for these items could definitely be spent productively on actually enjoying them.

While the concept and ROI of using active RFID tags with Wi-Fi networks for personal asset management might not be real just yet, it is definitely picking up steam in the business environment – especially in some key industries such as healthcare where tracking the location of assets such as infusion pumps, EKG monitors etc has saved some hospitals between $400,000-500,000 (for a typical 400 bed hospital) annually through loss prevention, fewer purchases, and labor savings.  Manufacturing is another industry where the ROI of using Wi-Fi based location technology becomes very apparent – think of an aircraft or car manufacturer who deals with thousands of parts and needs to know their location in order to ensure timely availability in the final product assembly process. 

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Posted by Renu Upadhyay at 04:01PM PST