MobileParadigm

My new report entitled “Demystifying Radio Management“ is now published. Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on my drafts.  Fortunately, Burton Group has decided to make this report available for free.  Below is a summary and also a link to the free report.  As always, comments are welcome.

Summary:Wireless local area network (WLAN) vendors have developed a variety of solutions to deal with the challenge of controlling WLAN radio signals. They include: WLAN architecture, beamforming, and air Time fairness (ATF). Single channel architecture (e.g., Meru Networks) has several important technical advantages over multiple channel architecture (e.g., Cisco Systems or Aruba Networks), but multiple channel architecture (MCA) is deployed in over 95% of the enterprise market. Transmit beamforming will become the most dominant form of beamforming because the IEEE 802.11 committee will standardize this approach. ATF will be widely deployed because it helps enterprises deliver predictable wireless performance.

Click to read Demystifying Radio Management

Apple announced the iPhone 3Gs and release 3.0 today. The iPhone 3Gs will be available in about a week. The 16 GB version is $199, the 32 GB version is $299. The older iPhone 3G price drops to $99. Release 3.0 is a free upgrade. Here is my take:

What I like

Hardware encryption – Finally! An enterprise can perform iPhone encryption. Expect to see 3^rd party security applications take advantage of this capability in the near future.

Instantaneous remote-wipe – An essential capability for any enterprise. Expect to see 3^rd party management applications like Trust Digital and Credant to support this capability in the near future.

Supports HSPA+ (7.2Mpbs download) – Nice, but the REAL question is WHEN will AT&T improve overall wireless performance (Radio Access Network AND backhaul network) so that the end user experiences a significant performance boost?

iPhone tethering – This allows a laptop or PC to use the 3G network for communication. Unfortunately, AT&T is not supporting this feature!

Apps load/run 2- 3 times faster – Who doesn’t love this?

Improved battery life – WiFi-9 hrs, audio-30 hrs, video-10hrs – This is good, but 3G talk time did not improve (still 5 hours) and 2G talk time improved a little (5 to 7 hours).

Voice activated commands (includes voice activated dialing) – This is a “me too” feature that Apple has integrated into other apps (not just voice dialing).

Video camera and embedded compass – These are nice, but not really necessary for the Enterprise.

Remote control of 3^rd party hardware – Release 3.0 now allows software developers to create wireless protocols that operate between the iPhone and 3rd party hardware.  At the WWDC today, Apple showed an iPhone communicating with Johnson and Johnson a heart monitor.  This capability allows enterprises to develop custom applications that integrate the iPhone with their products.

Cut and paste – Finally!

MMS – Finally! (But, AT&T will not have this capability until Fall 2009).

What I don’t like

Poor iPhone provisioning – The iPhone does not yet support real “over the air” provisioning.  If an IT department wants to provision an iPhone (3G or 3Gs), they need to email the configuration profile to the user and then the user installs the profile. Alternatively, an IT department can email /text a URL to each user and then the user needs to click on the URL to initiate profile installation.  This is kind of kludgy because it requires end user intervention. I prefer this capability to be under IT control.

No SDRAM slot – Can’t add more memory

No user-facing video camera – No video conferencing yet!

No 802.11n – I presume this is due to battery consumption issues.

Expensive upgrade – For existing AT&T customers who want to replace an iPhone 3G, the price with a new two-year agreement is $599 (16GB), or $699 (32GB). NOTE: AT&T has since backed off on this position, so that even existing iPhone users will be able to upgrade their phone at the discounted rates of $199/$299.

All in all, this is a good step forward and will put further pressure on IT departments to support the iPhone.

One of the problems that enterprise customers unfortunately endure is the endless stream of vendor-invented wireless terminology.  Vendors use this techno-jargon marketing-speak to differentiate themselves but oftentimes the terminology simply confuses customers.  So, over the past month I’ve been working on a W-Fi lexicon with Joanie Wexler (a well known wireless journalist) and Devin Akin (CTO for the Certified Wireless Network Professional organization).  The Lexicon is intended to clarify terminology using plain english and vendor-neutral descriptions.  The document is freely distributed and will be updated from time to time.

If you would like to read the document then click here.  Enjoy!

Today I am moderating a panel on the topic of how mobility is affecting enterprise governance, risk, and compliance.  My slides are located here.

I normally focus my blog entries on wireless and mobility issues, but today I must digress and tell you about my wicked bad Verizon adventure. For those of you who are not from the greater Boston area, the word “wicked” is local vernacular for “very”, as in, “The new Star Trek movie was wicked good!”

My sad story begins on Wednesday when business associates began asking me, “Hey Paul, did you leave the Burton Group?” Apparently, when they dialed my business number Verizon no longer rang my phone, but instead, rang a phone at Caldwell Banker. Sure enough, when I dialed my number, I was connected to a very nice lady at Caldwell Banker (Roxanne) who had been receiving all of my phone calls. To my great surprise, Roxanne was very sympathetic and offered to refer all incoming callers to my mobile phone number. How many people would take the time to do that? (more…)

Occasionally I am asked the question “Do you know of any enterprise SMS tex messaging services?” Or, “Should I build my own SMS text messaging system? ”Well, the short answers are “yes” and “no”. There are many SMS text-messaging services available. Some are small web-based SMS resellers, others are telecom carrier solutions, and finally there are enterprise-oriented solutions.
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Yesterday Xirrus announced that they have adopted the Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA) training and certification program offered by CWNP.  This is a smart move by Xirrus and I wish more enterprises would encourage their network engineers to become certified using CWNP.  I am currently working my way through the CWNA study guide, and it is excellent.  The vendor-neutral certification levels get progressively more complex, and culminate in the CWNE (Certified Wireless Network Expert) certification.

Every network engineer would be well advised to get certified. Even experienced network engineers may have “holes” in their knowledge base.  In addition, the cost for this training is very reasonable (only $200 for the study guide, online practice test, and voucher for the on-site certification).

I frequently talk with large enterprises that are willing to invest million of dollars in wireless equipment but never consider an investment in the people that need to maintain that equipment. So, don’t forget to invest in your network engineers.  As your enterprise becomes more reliant on a wireless infrastructure, it will also become more reliant on your network engineers.  An investment in training and certification will payoff the first time your engineers have to solve a tough wireless interference problem.

My thoughts on the state of enterprise mobility are quoted in this Network World article.  Last week I published a new report with the Burton Group entitled “Enterprise Mobility at a crossroads” where I discuss topics such as:

1. Mobility governance
2. Wireless security
3. Impact of workforce demographics on enterprise mobility
4. Mobile device personal use policies
5. Mobile collaboration
6. Mobile use of virtual worlds

The report is now available as part of the Burton Group Network and Telecom Strategies service (www.burtongroup.com).

Younger workers are pushing many enterprises to embrace mobility solutions. These younger workers are often referred to as Gen-Y. However, since there is no precise definition for the Gen-Y cohort, I simply use the term “younger workers” in this post. Younger workers prefer instant/text messaging instead of e-mail, and they frequently use social networking services like Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster. They often prefer to use personal, consumer-oriented, devices (both laptops and handhelds) in the work environment and they adapt quickly to new technology. (more…)

Many enterprises are considering Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ 802.11n draft 2.0 deployment because it has significant advantages over existing wireless technologies. However, these advantages present the enterprise network manager with important deployment considerations. At the upcoming Burton Group Catalyst Conference in July, I will examine the various deployment considerations for 802.11n in the enterprise. Some of the topics I will discuss are listed below.

Most existing 802.11 devices operate in a single frequency band, (e.g., 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz). 802.11n is different because it is specifically designed to operate in both the 5 GHz and the 2.4 GHz frequency bands. So 802.11n presents an opportunity for enterprises to reconsider which frequency band(s) to use. I will discuss some of the tradeoffs and issues enterprise managers need to consider. (more…)