Enterprise Mobility Fuels Early Interest in the New 802.11 AC Standard

Despite the fact that it has yet to be completed, vendor and enterprise focuses are turning to the latest Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) standard 802.11 ac. With the rise in mobile devices entering the enterprise, healthcare and educational organization the promises of increased data transfer speeds up to 1.3 Gbps are garnering a lot of interest in the 802.11 ac standard already. This boost in speed would not only help these organizations in the immediate future, but allow them to future-proof their network and have the number of devices accessing the network grow into the available bandwidth helping to save costs in the long run as mobility increases.

TechTarget recently reported that a few solutions providers are taking steps to further curb the cost of wireless network refreshes and upgrades. Apparently both Cisco and Xirrus are offering expansion modules or add-ons to existing arrays that will allow for existing customers with certain infrastructures in place to easily and cost effectively upgrade and offer the 802.11 ac standard.  These plug-in or add-ons may effectively extinct the phrase “rip and replace” when upgrading their wireless network solutions. Additionally a few solutions providers like Meru and Xirrus are offering investment protection and plans for customers upgrading to the latest 802.11 ac standard. Manish Rai, Vice President of Product Marketing for Meru, stated that “For enterprises on the fence about whether to support 802.11ac now or next year, we are giving those customers a discount for trading up from their 801.11n products purchased now, to the 802.11ac product we will be releasing next year.”

Click here to read the entire TechTarget article.