As
a wireless conference and trade show winds down this
week, dueling speakers at the show told audiences
that wireless was both ready -- and not so ready --
for prime time in the enterprise.
At the Wi-Fi Planet Conference & Expo, which
opened Monday in San Jose, Calif. and closes Friday,
a Cisco executive said that issues keeping
enterprises from adopting wireless networks have
been largely solved.
In a speech, Steve Nye, the general manager of
Cisco's Building Broadband Solutions division,
touted Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and the work
being done by the IEEE's 802.11i group as solutions
that will put enterprise concerns about wireless
security to rest.
Later in the day, however, a former Intel
executive turned the tables in a speech where he
blasted wireless as being too complicated and too
difficult to install.
Les Vadazc, who retired from Intel earlier this
year after a 25-year run with the chip-making giant,
also countered Nye's claims that the current state
of wireless security was good enough.
Wireless networks are far from secure, he said,
quoting statistics that note over two-thirds of
network administrators worry about adding wireless
networks because of concerns that Wi-Fi will open
their networks to attacker and rogue users.
Concern over wireless network security, however,
didn't slow vendors from releasing new wireless
products.
On Thursday NEC America launched a new WLAN
solution based on its IP PBX communications platform
that allows voice communication over wireless
networks. Using a combination of access points,
wireless controllers, and systems management
software, the new NEC offering integrates with
phones, laptops, PDAs, and Tablet PCs to handle up
to 14 simultaneous voice conversations over a single
access point. NEC's pitching its wireless gear and
management software to a variety of industries,
including healthcare and hospitality, a company
spokesman said.
Bluesocket, meanwhile, shipped its
fourth-generation wireless appliance, the WG-5000
Wireless Gateway. The gateway features a pair of
10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, an optional 1000 Base-SX
Fibre interface, and solid state storage capacity,
and according to Bluesocket, can handle hundreds of
hotspots and up to a thousand concurrent users on a
WLAN in large organizations. Companies which deploy
the network aggregator can let workers roam from one
wireless subnet to another without requiring them to
re-authenticate while still maintaining a secure
environment.
Columbitec used the trade show to strut its new
Client Application SDK tools that corporate and
custom developers can use to integrate their
software with a single sign-on client for VPN remote
access to WLANs.
Wireless software vendor PCTEL rolled out its
Segue SAM (Soft Access Module) software at Wi-Fi
Planet. To be bundled with wireless adapters and
licensed to 802.11 chipset makers, SAM turns any
laptop or desktop PC with a supported WLAN card into
a wireless access point without the need for
additional routers or hotspot hardware. The company
is targeting both home users -- who will be able to
set up wireless networks faster and more easily,
said PCTEL -- and enterprise users who want the
ability to create a wireless access point on the fly
for such chores as offsite meetings and ad hoc group
discussions.
In wireless news off the floor of Wi-Fi Planet, a
research firm tagged Wi-Fi security as next year's
hottest topic among security professionals.
According to TheInfoGroup, a New York-based research
firm that surveyed nearly 200 security pros at
companies ranging from Citigroup to AT&T,
approximately four in ten of those administrators
polled said that they were planning wireless
security projects in 2004. That leads all
anticipated enterprise security initiatives by a
wide margin.
As if to prove the point about security, Cisco --
named by TheInfoPro (TIP) as the leading vendor
which enterprise security experts will turn to for
help in securing their wireless network -- said
Wednesday that three of its wireless access points
can be tapped for security keys. A fix is available
on the Cisco Web site.
