Infonetics Research has released excerpts from its new Wireless LAN Deployment Strategies: North American Enterprise Survey, which takes an in-depth look at the access network plans of medium- to large-size companies and their plans for delivering wireless connectivity in the workplace to new classes of devices.
“The WLAN market has been on a tear in recent years, driven by the explosion of wireless devices in the enterprise,” comments Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research.
Machowinski adds, “Our new wireless LAN study shows that there is no end in sight to this trend: almost all new devices on the network are wireless, and many organizations expect their tablet usage to surge in the coming years. In order to effectively support mobile devices, user mobility, and BYOD [bring your own device], a robust wireless infrastructure is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have.”
Highlights of the recent survey by Infonetics include the following:
-- Enterprises participating in the survey are planning to increase wireless coverage and capacity to accommodate the additional traffic generated by WiFi devices; wireless access points are expected to grow by 15% by 2014.
-- More than half of the companies surveyed allow employees to bring their own devices into the enterprise, increasing to almost two-thirds by 2014.
-- Tablets are showing up at enterprises everywhere, and are one of fastest growing device types and chief drivers of the BYOD phenomenon.
-- Cisco was named as the top WLAN vendor by 61% of survey respondents.
-- Interest in next generation access points is strong, respondents are planning major upgrades of their installed APs to 802.11n, and are already eyeing 802.11ac APs, despite a lack of exact availability and pricing.
For the 33-page WLAN Deployment Strategies study, Infonetics asked purchase-decision makers at 105 medium and large businesses in the U.S. and Canada about their plans for delivering wireless connectivity in the workplace over the next 2 years.
Survey respondents were asked about: network-connected devices installed; Ethernet switch ports, WLAN controllers, and WLAN access points deployed now and in the future; WLAN technologies used (802.11a/b/g, 802.11n, 802.11ac); drivers of access network traffic growth; WLAN and LAN equipment vendors; and expenditures.
More information about the report is available here.