December 21, 2006

Top 10 Enterprise Mobility Predictions for 2007

"I always avoid prophesying beforehand because it is much better to prophesy after the event has already taken place. "
--Winston Churchill

It is the time of the year where many of us are sprinting -- or crawling on all fours -- to the rest and rewards of the holidays. Seeing today is the winter solstice, I thought it an apt time to post my top 10 predictions for Enterprise Mobility for 2007. As the days start, again, to lengthen, let us see how accurate these will prove.

1. 2007 will be the year mobility means more than cell phones. For most people, mobility is exclusively tied to our mobile phones. While voice communications clearly will be one of the key drivers for enterprise mobility for many years to come, I think we saw a lot of other activity in 2006 that suggests more will be afoot next year. Access to horizontal business applications like SAP as well as specialized vertical applications in healthcare, insurance, government and every other industry will become the next drive. And as varied as the applications are, so we will see the utilization of lots of other mobile devices, including PDAs and mini-PCs (http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start?CategoryName=cpu_VAIONotebookComputers_UX_Series&Dept=computers). In addition, emerging consumer variation of platforms like gaming devices – as we saw in the entrance of the Sony MYLO – will appear in 2007.

2. Mobility services, more than access technologies, will drive the growth of wireless and mobile technologies. In 2006, Cisco introduced the concept of “mobility solutions.” Although Internet and LAN access has driven much of the push for secure wireless services, we saw our work in context-rich applications such as location-based asset tracking really start to take off (expect integrated GPS services also to start to play bigger). Also, rich handoffs and variations of unified communications services are likely to be a big winner next year as will guest services. Stay tuned for 4 new services in 2007.

3. Mobility will become more about the experience. At their inception, we accepted performance trade-offs for the use of mobile networks and devices (remember, the opening jingle of the cellular industry 30 years ago was snap, crackle and drop!). But with increasing capability and quality, the bar has been raised. Increasingly, the performance of mobile networks is becoming richer, more bulletproof and bandwidth/QOS rich. To this, expect companies to take advantage of a more robust infrastructure by developing applications that are more mobile-aware as well as conditioned to take advantage of some of the inherent capabilities in mobility. For example, companies will make significant investments in making their webpages and internet-based applications appear/perform better on mobile (non-PC devices) as well as take advantage of mobility to provide location specific information in both business-to-business (e.g., municipal information systems) as well as business-to-consumer applications (e.g., local services)

4. Expect significant increases in enterprise-wide (pervasive) WLAN deployments. As many of the initial security and management/performance issues for WLANs have been solved – and the cloud hanging over them dispersed -- businesses of all sizes will see WLANs as mission-critical, specifying them in, alongside wired networks, as key infrastructure. Expect pervasive deployments to grow faster in the “office vertical” than the market growth rate for WLAN.

5. Emerging markets will lead the way in wireless broadband as a primary access infrastructure. In many emerging markets, wireless data networks, including Wi-Fi Mesh as well as WiMAX, along with cellular, will offer new alternatives for primary broadband access. In existing markets with strong wired infrastructure, the marginal costs of adding new subscribers are very low. In markets without wired broadband, wireless technologies could prove very interesting, economically, as an alternative to wiring.

6. Network Identity will emerge as a critical component of mobility services. Increasingly how you “are served” on the network will depend on who you are. Mobile network services will now offer services (bandwidth/QoS, security), capabilities (based on location or presence) and application access by knowing who you are.

7. Gaming approaches will support mobile networks. As the generation of workers weaned on Internet or multi-party gaming join the work force, expect them to use mobile technologies to change the nature of work. So, lest you think I launched into spiked eggnog too early, let me explain. What is interesting about gamers is how they form together to start a game (guild). The leader (guild master) puts the game in play and then dissolves it when it is over. The next game may be led by another leader. To wit, project work can integrate people and information from a broad range of environments, whether people are in the same network or company, or whether than are in another country on a wireless connection.

8. The hype around mobile TV and advertisements will give way to corporate mobile video. With all due respect to the people watching ESPNMobile, I think a lot of short video may come from corporations reaching people via non-pc devices. What could be more useful than a salesperson about to go in being able to watch a video of the company’s best salesperson pitching their newest product on their TREO for 2 ½ minutes. Increasingly, video is making its way into business training and communications, not just YouTube, and that is something people will pay for

9. Cellular operators will become open to new wireless access technologies. Although many cellular equipment vendors tried to cause a WLAN v. cellular technology religion debate over the past few years, increasingly carriers are looking at newer technologies as a way to deliver broadband data and other services. One of the clearest examples of this is SingTel’s decision to build a Wi-Fi mesh network across Northern Singapore.

10. Mobility will help drive the Internet of Things. Although much of the discussion around mobile technologies focuses on people communicating with people or people accessing information, increasingly devices talking to other devices is becoming important. This is the critical underpinning behind RFID and Active WLAN tags. In 2007, the language of location and tags will move more to asset optimization and the one of the critical aspects of Web 2.0: bringing analog assets into the digital world. What this last point means is that sensors, RFID and other capabilities will allow billions and billions of assets (goods, badges, blade servers, subway cards – you name it) to be recognized by the network and hence provide data and insight into how systems are run and lives take place. This will ultimately mean the 400M WLAN devices in service today will look like a drop in the bucket in comparison to the hundreds of billions or trillions of devices connected through wireless and mobile networks. Now, that sounds like Enterprise Mobility

Posted by Alan Cohen at 11:50 AM Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

December 20, 2006

Clever Outdoor Wireless Partnerships Deliver Mobility For Business

On last Wednesday's 12/13/06 Live Broadcast of Mobility TV, Chris Kozup talked about using wireless outside during our Now You Can segment. Chris said, "Now you can hold your staff meetings in the park on a beautiful spring day using outdoor wireless access rather than sitting in a stuffy conference room without windows.”

Those of us behind the scenes busily answering viewer questions laughed and said, “Yes, we’re ready for springtime! We want to go outside to answer Mobility TV viewer questions rather than sit in this stuffy, windowless conference room.” Today, we can easily move outdoors. Wireless mesh has made that possible!

Outdoor wireless access is no longer limited to within 300 feet of a wired port. With wireless mesh, outdoor access can be deployed anywhere with line of site between mesh access points and power (street lights, traffic signals, etc.). Only one mesh access point needs to be wired into the network, all of the other mesh access points send and receive data via a wireless backhaul (Cisco Launches City-Wide Outdoor Wireless 'Mesh' Solution).

Outdoor wireless can now be pervasively deployed. And companies, cities, public agencies, and service providers are working together to come up with clever ways to bring outdoor wireless to their local regions, for example.....

Today, I presented our outdoor wireless mesh solution to an enterprise customer that wants to work with their local service provider to deploy an outdoor wireless mesh solution in their city. The enterprise company will help fund the outdoor wireless mesh network. In exchange, they’ll get full access for their mobile employees and the service provider will be able to offer wireless access to other companies, city agencies, and the public. The service provider will own and maintain the network.

This city-wide outdoor wireless mesh network is being driven by the enterprise company because it sees a need for outdoor wireless to meet it’s business requirements for employee mobility – indoors and outdoors. This clever partnership will be a win-win for the company, the service provider, the city, and the public.

Companies and cities are starting to see the return on investment (ROI) of outdoor wireless access to increase employee productivity, enable real-time workflows, and improve customer service. They’re also looking to outdoor wireless networks for support of a variety of Wi-Fi enabled devices - beyond laptops and PDAs - such as parking meters, gas/water meters, alarms, field service devices, and security cameras.

Client security is not an issue with an outdoor wireless mesh network because companies can use Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) or WPA2 via a secure AAA backend server set up by the service provider or open access with VPN back to their internal network.

I’m ready to go outside and work! Are you?

Yes, come springtime, don’t be surprised if your Mobility TV question is answered by the Cisco Mobility team as we sit outdoors in the sunshine sipping an iced latte. Since we are all wireless, you don’t need to know where we are …… as long as we get our job done.

Tune in to Mobility TV the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 10:00 AM PT. It’s LIVE and FREE!! The next broadcast is Wednesday, January 10, 2007.

Mobility TV offers informative interviews with mobility experts, authorities, and business leaders in a dynamic, television-style format. Questions can be submitted to our wireless experts at anytime throughout the broadcast and answers are posted live to all viewers.

http://www.cisco.com/go/mobilitytv

Posted by Peggy Casey at 04:50 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 07, 2006

Wlcm 2 d HNK

Wlcm 2 d HNK
hEr Mobility wiL chAng how we communicate.
LOL
Mobility changes evryting
TWT whether we ll comnC8 dis wA
bt we ll knw tttt
As d mobility gNR8N enters d wrk 4S
CMIIW
u myt sA Im %-),
ppl r gunA stop spkg n ryTN n sentences?
Im :-K
wel, d ability 2 comnC8 n real tym, W msngr clients, smrt fons n cmputAs S changiN d nature of lang, cr8ing a wrld of messengerists
n biz wl nvr B d same
:@
f u cn msg, yr biz cn mve w/u
;(
f I cn lern it, so cn u
tym 2 TCOB

And now, the translation:

Welcome to the human network.
Here Mobility will change how we communicate
LOL
Mobility changes everything
Time will tell whether we all communicate this way
But we all know these things take time
As the mobility generation enters the work force
Call me if I am wrong
You might say I am confused,
People are going to stop speaking and writing in sentences?
I am puzzled
Well, the ability to communicate in real time, with messenger clients, smart phones and computers is changing the nature of language, creating a world of messengerists
And business will never be the same
It’s true
If you can message, your business can move with you
Chin up
If I can learn it, so can you
Time to take care of business