BYOD and How it is Effecting Your Wireless Network

FierceMobileIT is taking a deep look into the effects that BYOD programs are having on enterprise wireless networks. Quite simply the results seem to be that BYOD is causing problems for network administrators tasked with providing wireless connectivity to end users. Current wireless LANs just are not designed to handle the amount of activity and the number of devices that are sucking up bandwidth in today’s corporate environments. This is causing IT administrators to scramble in order to offer the connectivity that enterprises are now realizing is such a “critical element” to an organization’s business processes.

FierceMobileIT writes that BYOD programs are essentially causing wireless networks to “multiply” in order to offer the bandwidth needed to bring connectivity to so many users. Further complications arise due to BYOD as the complexity of network architectures grow. With so many different users now with access through their devices a number of public and private network need to be established in order to allow access but maintain network security.

BYOD programs put social networking, video and audio streaming capabilities into the hands of many more individuals then ever before. All of these things can be a large drain on available bandwidth and can push the limits of existing wireless networks within enterprises. FierceMobileIT points out that increased pressure is put on IT to offer greater bandwidth because BYOD users tend to expect the same seamless experience they have in personal use when they bring their device into the corporate environment.

As it seems the BYOD trend is not going anywhere but up any time soon, what are IT administrators to do? One thing that will help is the upcoming availability of the new 802.11 ac standard. The new standard will bring increased throughput up to 5 times as well as network robustness, reliability and RF bandwidth utilization efficiency. The main step IT will have to just put more of a focus on the wireless aspects of their infrastructure. Enterprises need to develop robust networking testing, planning, management and security and when looking a enterprise mobility consider you network earlier as FierceMobileIT writes, “unfortunately, when enterprises are setting up mobile policy, internal enterprise Wi-Fi network use is ‘last on the list’ of priorities. Click here to read the entire FierceMobileIT article.