TRENDS
From the
August 2006 issue of
Communications News
Wireless issues take priority
As
enterprises seek to reap the benefits of mobility, 64% of businesses
intend to increase deployments of wireless local-area networks (WLAN)
during the next 12 months, according to a survey by Gartner.
Meanwhile, Forrester’s latest survey of telecom decision-makers at
North American businesses found that gaining control over wireless
environments is the highest
telecom priority.
A total of 44% of respondents surveyed by Gartner, from 200
networking and business technology organizations in North America
and Europe, say the primary reason to deploy a WLAN was improving
productivity with mobility. Twenty-one percent say the primary
reason is to provide access to places not possible to wire, while
13% of respondents think wireless networks are a less-expensive or
simpler way to deploy LAN connectivity, or they considered using
WLANs to improve efficiency in specific business processes or
operations.
In the Forrester report, more than 1,500 respondents rank setting
wireless policy and centralizing management of mobile devices as the
two top telecom initiatives for 2006. Budgets reflect these
priorities: In 2006, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) plan to
spend one-third more on both mobile voice and mobile data services
than in 2005. Fifty-six percent of larger enterprises expect
spending on mobile voice to increase, and 63% expect mobile data
spending to increase.
“Although wireless LANs are not a new endeavor, interest in them is
still growing,” says Gartner’s Rachna Ahlawat. “Wireless LANs are
becoming a standard part of enterprise networks, covering entire
facilities, not just meeting rooms. However, as wireless LANs expand
from conference rooms to the whole enterprise, concerns about
security and network management are rising. We’ve gone from thinking
of offices as network nodes to considering each employee as a node
on a wired network. Now, every major physical item the company owns
is
becoming a node on a wireless network.”
Security in adopting WLANs is among the top five concerns of 95% of
respondents to the Gartner study, and 60% of respondents say they do
not have adequate security for their wireless environment. The
second-biggest concern is the management of WLANs.
According to the Forrester study, companies of all sizes spend
nearly one-quarter of their telecom budgets on wireless services and
that number continues to grow. The percentage of large companies
that have increased mobile data spending has doubled since 2005, and
19% of the enterprise workforce now uses mobile data applications.
SMBs expect 23% of their workforce to use mobile data by the end of
2006.
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Short Takes Storage assist |
Seven top security tips
Is
it really the fault of problems with a virus protection program, or
an insecure hotspot, if notebook users lose data? A recent Gartner
study showed that 86% of all security events in wireless networks
are caused by the mobile devices–and not by insecure data transfer.
Utimaco Safeware, a specialist in mobile security, offers these
seven tips for securing employees’ notebooks.
1. More discipline when on the move.
Airline passengers lost more
than 5,000 mobile devices at airports in Germany, Austria and
Switzerland, a survey at the 10 largest airports in the region
revealed. It might sound obvious, but if you travel with a notebook,
you should always make sure that you really have the notebook case,
including all its contents, over your shoulder before you leave the
plane, taxi or train.
2. Making passwords more difficult to crack. If the worst happens,
and your computer is stolen or lost, there is still hope that your
personal data is not all accessible, if the password is difficult
enough to crack. A mixture of characters, numbers and letters is
considered the most secure, but having the computer prompt for a
password before booting is better.
3. Use hardware to supplement password protection. Special
smartcards or tokens store key information that is used in
combination with a user password to unlock the computer. Only
someone who has the token and knows the password can access the
system and the data saved on it. Alternatively, the user’s biometric
data can be stored on a smartcard, with the user’s fingerprint
checked directly on the card, instead of the password.
4. Secure hibernation mode. Set up the system to prompt for the
password again when the notebook switches back from the screen saver
or from hibernation mode to normal working mode.
5. Set up an electronic safe. Never save valuable information
without protecting it electronically.
The electronic pendant is a
“virtual” disk drive that securely encrypts and stores all its
contents. You can set up an electronic safe of this kind on local
hard disks and network directories, on the PDA, and also on mobile
devices such as USB sticks and smartcards, CD-ROMs, and DVDs.
6. Implement automatic encryption. Data-transparent encryption runs
automatically in the background, without being noticed, so the user
does not even have to think about storing
data securely.
7. Restrict plug and play. Lock the computer for all memory media
apart from the company’s own memory sticks, which cannot be used to
run or read programs. This also removes the danger of accidentally
loading a worm or virus on your own hard disk if you lend the data
medium to someone. In addition, you should only use sensitive data
on USB sticks when it is encrypted, as the smaller the memory
device, the greater the danger that it will get lost or stolen.
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Short Takes
Traffic control |
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Voice market expanding
The
U.S. enterprise equipment market strengthened in the 2004 and 2005
period, expanding 14%, compared with only 5% growth in previous
years (2000-03), according to the Telecommunications Industry
Association (TIA). Total revenue from spending on enterprise
equipment reached $98.3 billion in 2005, an increase of 6.9% over
2004, and is expected to climb to $104.5 billion in 2006.
Computer-telephony integration (CTI) was the fastest-growing
component of the enterprise market in 2005, with a 10.5% increase to
$5.7 billion, followed by videoconferencing equipment, which rose
10%, reaching $825 million.
The enterprise equipment market tracked by TIA consists of private
branch exchanges (PBXs), key telephone systems (KTSs),
voice-processing equipment, internetworking equipment,
videoconferencing equipment, and CTI systems and software.
Enterprise equipment revenue was hampered by the weak economic
climate in 2001-03 and by Y2K concerns in the late 1990s, which
caused companies to replace equipment more quickly than they might
have otherwise. In 2000-03, equipment was relatively new, lessening
the demand to replace or upgrade. By 2004, however, equipment
purchased in 1998-1999 was beginning to age, leases were expiring,
the economy had improved and enterprises were once again looking to
upgrade their existing infrastructure.
Purchases picked up in 2004-05, concentrating on IP and convergent
systems and internetworking equipment to support those systems. As
legacy equipment ages, replacement demand, along with rapid growth
in videoconferencing and unified communications, will continue to
fuel spending. Total revenue from spending on enterprise equipment
is expected to reach $121.7 billion by 2009, growing at a 5.5%
compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
PBX revenue increased 20% percent in 2004-05 to $4.1 billion on the
strength of accelerating IP/converged sales. The KTS market, which
plunged 42% over the 2000-03 period, rebounded 7%. Voice-processing
equipment also rebounded in 2004-05 following three years of
decline, increasing 6.5% in 2005, totaling $5.3 billion.
Internetworking equipment increased 6.7% in 2005 to $81.1 billion,
its largest gain in five years; internetworking equipment will
expand at a 5.7% CAGR from 2006-09, fueled by advances in Gigabit
Ethernet.
IP/converged systems will continue to fuel PBX sales over the next
few years. By 2009, however, as the installed base becomes
predominantly IP, most equipment will be relatively new, and the
replacement demand for PBXs will drop. TIA predicts revenue growth
in this area will fall to 1.1% in 2009, following three years of
mid-to-high single-digit gains.
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Short Takes Better performance |
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EVENTS VoiceCon, Aug. 21-24, San Francisco, features
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