Certification Magazine - January 2008 - (Page 24)

INSIDE CERTIFICATION Enterprise WLAN: Still Growing KEVIN SANDLIN The above reference to the Energizer Bunny notwithstanding, the enterprise market for 802.11 WLAN products is still growing, not just chugging along like that pink bunny. According to Infonetics Research, annual revenue is expected to grow in the double digits through 2010, as end-user organizations across most verticals adopt WLAN equipment to leverage the benefits of mobility for data and voice networking. If you’re anywhere near the WLAN industry, that’s just more good news. It’s even better news if you are seeking a career in the WLAN sector. More equipment in the enterprise means more jobs in the enterprise, because, like it or not, it takes people to plan, stage, install, implement, troubleshoot, administer and secure any network. An enterprise WLAN is no different: It takes the right training to implement enterprise wireless LAN technology properly. The CWNP program offers the only vendor-neutral WLAN certifications in the IT industry. CWNP teaches the technology behind every product. Unfortunately, far too many enterprise IT engineers take wireless for granted, ultimately because of the term “plug and play.” Go down to your local computer or electronics store and you can get a really good, feature-rich 802.11a/b/g and now 802.11n WLAN router for $75 or so. That’s great. It’s great because what people use in their homes is being pushed more and more into what they use in their workplace, and WLAN is the rule, not the exception, to that market trend. What’s not so great is some — not all, but some — of these home wireless network routers can be set up in a few minutes by someone with little experience in networking. The result is that because some of these home routers can work right out of the box if set up correctly, all of them get the reputation for being plug and play. That false notion gets carried into the workplace. Say the IT person of a given organization inherits the task of setting up wireless for the office. Naturally, this IT person takes the path of least resistance, and gets a SOHO router for the office, gets it up and running in an hour or so, and proudly reports to his boss, “We’ve got wireless!” There is much rejoicing, both in that office and in the smile of the next person who needs to “borrow” a WLAN connection to check his email in that section of town. This same scenario proliferates to a pretty high level in the enterprise, until something like the T.J.Maxx disaster occurs (in which credit card companies reported that an IT security breach exposed account information for 94 million customers), because enterprise WLAN security is not plug and play. Because enterprise WLAN is not plug and play, the value of learning the technology behind it grows as the market for enterprise WLAN products grows. And the enterprise WLAN market is growing fast and steadily. Plan, Stage, Install, Implement, Troubleshoot, Administer and Secure? That’s right, plan, stage, install, implement, troubleshoot, administer and secure. Not plug 24 CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE January 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Certification Magazine - January 2008

Certification - January 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Data Stream Tech Careers Academic Connection Dear Techie Virtual Village Making the IT Leap: How to Move Into the Industry Inside Certification Phoning It In: Telecommuting Systems and Networks Engineer Interface Band of Brothers: Why You Should Join an IT Association Ad Index Endtag

Certification Magazine - January 2008

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