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Fixing Wi-Fi: Aruba’s New ClientMatch

Aruba announces their first 802.11ac access points – but, in this case, it’s not just about the radio.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Tue, 05/21/13 - 10:49am.

We're expecting to see 802.11ac APs from all enterprise-class WLAN system vendors this year, and Interop was a great place to hear about specific vendor plans. I've been arguing for some time that the radio is only the beginning; when we talk about real performance in a .11ac world, it's important to think end-to-end in terms of capacity - wired, wireless, management, and especially real-time control. You can check out my recommendations for getting ready for 802.11ac here, but there's much more going on here.

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Bluetooth Low Energy: It’s Not Bluetooth. It’s Better – Much Better

If you’re thinking that BTLE is just an evolution of Bluetooth, well, you could be right. But it’s really a very different animal altogether and one that could have a brilliant future ahead of it.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Mon, 04/22/13 - 8:32am.

Ten years ago, I wrote my infamous "Bluetooth is Dead" column for Electronic Engineering Times. The reaction was overwhelmingly negative; more importantly, I was certainly wrong in my conclusion if one considers the raw volume of Bluetooth units shipped over the years.

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Is the Mac Doomed?

Here’s a crazy thought: will Apple eventually retire the Mac as we know it, perhaps with a more Mac-like OS in place of the “CE” iOS, and a stronger cloud offering á la Google? I think such is a real possibility.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Fri, 04/19/13 - 10:19am.

OK, this is just plain nuts, but occasionally such are the thoughts of analysts who, after all, are at least partially in the business of synthesizing such scenarios from pieces of disparate data. And this isn't a prediction, at least not yet. I'm a Mac user at least in part because of the stability of the MacOS platform, and, while I won't ever go back to Windows (although the nightmares do seem to be much less severe over the past few years), Linux- and purely cloud-based offerings don't yet have the stability and maturity to meet all of my IT needs. The Mac does.

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Next Week: Two More Webinars

Want to learn about remote troubleshooting, new WLAN assurance techniques, and how to prepare your network for 802.11ac? Join us for two new Webinars next week.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Wed, 04/17/13 - 5:10pm.

Want to learn about remote troubleshooting, new WLAN assurance techniques, and how to prepare your network for 802.11ac? Join us for two new Webinars next week.

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A Time for Talk

This is the second time I’ve written a column like this. And I want this to be last.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Tue, 04/16/13 - 7:14am.

In 2001, I was writing a monthly column for Electronic Engineering Times, and my comments after what has become known as 9/11 were simple - let's talk. We have a unique capability as human beings to communicate. We owe it to ourselves, and civilization itself, to do just that. Which is why I am so proud to have had the privilege to work in the communications field for more than half of my career.

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Unified Networking and SDN – A New Farpoint Group White Paper

Unified networking and software-defined networking are beginning to play major roles in the evolution of network architectures and implementations. We explore these in-depth in a new White Paper, available now.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Fri, 03/29/13 - 9:08am.

I've written about unified wired/wireless networking a number of times in the past, initially exploring this rapidly-emerging concept from the perspective of unified management systems. And while the benefits of unification at the management layer is, IMHO, critical going forward, it's also possible to unify wire and wireless at other points in a network implementation, such as integrating a WLAN controller into a switch.

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Upcoming Webinars: BYOD and Virtualization, and WLAN Architecture Advances

Two more Webinars on two very important topics.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Wed, 03/20/13 - 5:52pm.

I really like doing Webinars, as I find them an efficient, interesting, and informative way to communicate to a global audience. I like to do these live (there's actually more pressure when recording in advance, as there's a natural tendency to try to make everything "perfect"), but it's possible to watch the recording on demand as well. I probably do at least a dozen of these in any given year.

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The Return of the Wireless Switch?

Well, not exactly, but recent announcements from Aerohive, Cisco, and HP point the way to unified wired and wireless networking extending beyond management alone - creating new products that far surpass the original vision of the “wireless switch” that got the enterprise Wi-Fi world rolling.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Tue, 03/19/13 - 7:45pm.

I've been writing about unified networking, the integration of wired and wireless LANs, for perhaps a decade now. The need and the benefits here are obvious: planning, operating, and managing two separate networks in any given location makes absolutely no sense, and the traditional redundancy involved in management console functions, databases, and other elements adds cost but no value.

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Yahoo: A Stealth Layoff Policy?

A final thought on Yahoo’s show-up-or-quit policy, and then it’s back to technology, I promise.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Fri, 03/08/13 - 6:25pm.

It's been incredibly busy around here this week - really, all this quarter. And I promise to return to these pages, and to technology, which is mostly what I do, shortly. But I must conclude the recent series on the Yahoo Hates Mobility thread I've been writing about lately with one additional thought.

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Managing a Mobile Workforce

A number of interesting phone conversations over the past few days reminded me I’ve not really addressed Queen Marisa’s edict. So here goes – best practices for managing the people end of mobility.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Fri, 03/01/13 - 4:55pm.

My last posting on Yahoo's byzantine attitude towards mobility pretty much reflects my disgust with 1950's management strategies in general. But perhaps what I should have done was to address the right way, IMHO, to mange a mobile workforce. So, what follows are the techniques I have used, with great success, over the years, in running both my own highly-distributed business as well as large, distributed projects.

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Yahoo Says No to Mobility

Lemme get this straight – mobility is at the center of Yahoo’s strategy, but they prohibit such for their own workers? Huh?
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Tue, 02/26/13 - 7:34pm.

I have spent essentially all of the past 21+ years telling people how important mobility is. How it enables, complements, and enhances our very nature as human beings. How information systems can take advantage of advances in wireless and mobile technologies to make anytime/anywhere productivity possible. In other words, how to be location-independent when it comes to work or play.

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The Smartwatch: Apple and Beyond

Rumors of a wristwatch device from Apple are reviving interest in what should be a dead technology. Is the smartwatch about to (finally) hit the big time?
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Wed, 02/13/13 - 8:08am.

By all accounts, and apart from those who use the device as a statement of fashion or wealth, the wristwatch ought to be dead at this point. In its most basic form, all the thing does is tell the time. With the advent of the smartphone, such single-function devices should be passé. I still own a number of watches, although I use only one on an irregular basis: a Casio that's solar-powered, atomic-clock synchronized, and very easy to reset as one changes time zones, as I do frequently. I use the alarm function when I travel. It cost about US$60, so it's a bargain.

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Unlock a Phone – Go To Jail?

Unlocking, jailbreaking, and related activities are now criminal offenses. Before anyone gets tossed in the slammer, however, we ought to re-think this mess.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Mon, 02/11/13 - 4:17pm.

I have argued for some time that the predominant model of carriers subsidizing handsets makes absolutely no sense.  Carriers should carry; competition among carriers based on a wide variety of factors should hold down the price of service. But a carrier owning a customer by locking the user's handset is about as anti-competitive as it gets. Sure, the handset is subsidized, but what does a consumer really end up paying for the handset?

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The BlackBerry 10 Announcement – Has Anything Changed?

I don’t think so – and let me tell you why.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Thu, 01/31/13 - 4:59pm.

With yesterday's announcement of the BlackBerry 10 OS, two new handsets, and even the changing of the name of the company to BlackBerry, has anything really changed for the former RIM or the mobile landscape overall? No, I really don't think so. The details of the announcement were mostly known in advance, with just a few assorted miscellaneous items like dates regarding availability revealed.

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Will Dish Get Clearwire?

A surprising counteroffer for Clearwire may upset Sprint’s big strategic plan. But it also illustrates where the real value in wireless is today.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Mon, 01/28/13 - 7:29am.

Wireless carrier Sprint has been remaking itself big-time in recent weeks, first via an infusion of cash from Japan's Softbank (really, an acquisition), reasonably aggressive plan pricing with unlimited data still an option, and then via the initiation of an acquisition of longtime partner Clearwire (really, just picking up the 50% that Sprint does not already own), famous for its groundbrea

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Is Apple Losing It? - Part III

Let's turn to the real problem here – Apple's had a run of great products, but what will they do for an encore?
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Fri, 01/25/13 - 6:56am.

OK, so the stock market really has very little do with reality on a day-to-day basis. And the precipitous fall in Apple's share price yesterday has a lot more to do with Apple coming in just a tiny bit short on financial results vs. analyst estimates than it does relative to overall financial performance, which remains excellent. The problem, then, one might conclude, has more to do with mis-set expectations (including those looking forward) than any fundamental flaw in the business plan.

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The Consolidation Principal at Work: Aerohive and AirWatch

New innovations almost always begin as point products. But the integration of these into more robust systems is what builds solutions – and industries.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Thu, 01/24/13 - 7:27am.

Aerohive's announcement last week that it has added an API for MDM to their HiveOS platform, and that MDM leader AirWatch is taking advantage of same, is evidence that the great mobile management consolidation is now underway.

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At Last: Xirrus Adds an AP

With the announcement of the XR-520 AP, Xirrus grows beyond the array niche and at last becomes a full-line supplier of enterprise-class wireless LANs.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Wed, 01/23/13 - 7:32pm.

Wi-Fi arrays are a great solution in venues where a lot of capacity is needed in a given location. The alternative, using a number of distinct APs in close proximity, can represent a significant logistical and installation challenge. The convenience of everything in one box is undeniable.

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The Dreamliner, Lithium Batteries, and You

Electrical power has always been the Achilles’ Heal of mobility. With batteries on Boeing’s latest aircraft bursting into flame (yes, we have photos), one might ask once again about the overall safety of the best batteries we’ve got.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Tue, 01/22/13 - 9:25am.

I've been following the unfolding saga of the lithium-ion batteries used on Boeing's much-praised 787 Dreamliner aircraft. It seems some of these are catching fire, and I couldn't help but think back to a few years ago (and a few occasions since) when notices of overheating lithium batteries in notebook computers were reported.

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Returning to Gillette Stadium: Implications for the Enterprise

I was back at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA, for a press event last night, and some lively discussion of New England sports, large-scale wireless LANs, and new opportunities for enterprise networks.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Wed, 01/16/13 - 7:44pm.

I had the privilege last night of speaking at a press event held at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA, the home of both the New England Patriots and one of the most comprehensive stadium deployments of Wi-Fi that I've ever seen.

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