The End of the Wire: Rightsizing the Enterprise LAN

The migration to wireless LAN is already well under way: many users already make Wi-Fi their primary connection to the corporate network. Indeed, user demand is a strong driver: where there is a choice between a wired and wireless connection, wireless is preferred. Users will migrate to the WLAN, and away from the wired LAN whenever offered the choice. Universities are early examples of this trend: a new cohort of tech-aware users arrives each year, armed with state-of-the-art notebook PCs and numerous Wi-Fi enabled devices, fresh from a home experience based on wireless networking. They expect Wi-Fi and a state-of-the-art WLAN has become a differentiator in university recruiting. University IT departments are already measuring the effect on their networks.