WildPackets Survey: 802.11ac Adoption is Slow but Steady

Network Management Vendor WildPackets has a new survey out on the take up of 802.11ac WLAN solutions.

The survey found that by the end or 2014, 23% of respondents have implemented an 802.11ac wireless network solution. This is after the official launch of the standard in January at the start of the year, according to the article on The VAR Guy by Chris Tozzi.

That’s not an avalanche, but neither is it a trickle. Additionally, most other respondents who have not yet upgraded are planning on putting in place a new solution soon, with only 25% of respondents not having any plans whatsoever to adapt this latest wireless standard. That means “that by the end of 2015 almost 50 percent will have 802.11ac deployed” according to the survey.

Tozzi, the article author, suggests that 802.11ac adoption my be driven in part by the need “to deliver cloud-based apps and data over Wi-Fi” and that it will “become an important backdrop to the cloud and big data networking innovations of the future.”

On the other hand, he reports that the survey says that only 10% of the devices on respondents’ networks had devices that could take advantage of 802.11ac speeds, thereby rendering the utility of 11ac networks somewhat limited. Tozzi also notes that the theoretical gains in speed can be difficult to realize in practice. The combination of these two facts certainly acts to slow the rate at which companies upgrade to the new wireless standard.

Nevertheless, the still significant rate of uptake indicates that many companies do not perceive this state of affairs lasting forever, and that it may be a good idea to future proof now rather than wait until it is too late.

For Tozzi’s article, click here.