In a time of economic restraint, IT organisations are under pressure to do more, with less. Budgets are flat – or falling – and companies are forced to look carefully at their network infrastructure and ask if it provides too much at too greater cost?

Budget pressure, the need to cut expenditure and be more efficient has resulted in many organisations reassessing traditional approaches to networking. That reassessment invariably results in the recognition that wireless networks – particularly 802.11n wireless – offer far better value than existing wired networks.

The IEEE’s ratification of the high-speed Wi-Fi technology 802.11n on September 11, 2009 now establishes it as the default choice for wireless networking. Multipath signaling (MIMO) and real data throughputs in excess of 180Mbps (resulting from a number of signaling improvements) means it offers not just a far more reliable and faster connection than 802.11a/b/g wireless networks, but it can be used as an alternative to traditional wired networks: An alternative that is much lower cost to install and operate.

It’s not always recognised but 802.11n also offers;

-    a reduction in power consumption by 90-95% compared to an equivalent wired solution using a 48 port switch
-    price per megabit, it is 30% cheaper than comparative wireless solutions
-    the opportunity to create a ‘blended edge’ network, offering wired and wireless connectivity at 50% of the cost of a wired network

is now a well-established business practice; wireless networks are very secure, they meet the needs of a workforce that expects mobility within the office, and they can save considerable budget even when used to supplement an existing wireless network – a process known as Rightsizing.

The experience of organisations who have deployed wireless networks is that users readily switch over from wired to wireless connections. PC refresh cycles have now ensured that 30% of corporate laptops are already 802.11n capable, a figure that is set to increase by 25% each year. Microsoft operates one of the largest wireless networks worldwide, with over 12,000 Aruba wireless LAN access points, and recognises that three quarters of their employees use the wireless LAN every day – 70% of employees believe that the WLAN saves then at least five hours of work time a week.

In a telling sign, more CEOs are now directing their respective IT organisations to investigate “all, or mostly wireless” access techniques when moving to new offices.

The experiences of consultants KPMG  is a salutary lesson to organisations planning to deploy ‘wired only’ networks: Their plan to move 2800 employees into a new purpose built 60,000 square metre office in a Amsterdam called for 55 wired switch chassis with 260x 48-port switch cards and 18 000 cable pulls at a total cost of $6m. Instead, they adopted a new rightsized network edge, halving the size of their wired network and deploying a pervasive wireless LAN with 240 802.11n access points. The firm realized a $2million saving, and expects an estimated $760,000 drop in recurring operational costs each year: The savings in operational costs were more than enough to cover the costs of the new wireless LAN.

Even those organisations that already have a wired infrastructure in place can benefit from rightsizing and get savings in operational expenditures. Companies benefit from significant reductions in annual maintenance costs from stopping support on unused switch ports (some 20-40% of access ports are typically not used day to day, and every 48 ports can cost $2000 per annum in maintenance fees). Organisations also benefit because they no longer have to budget $1500 or more for each employee move, add or change.

The benefits of WLAN technology are well understood; users have demonstrated an affinity for the technology, and clearly prefer it over wired networking infrastructure. The pressure for efficiency and savings in today’s economic environment makes the deployment of wireless networks an imperative for organisations of all sizes.