* The organizational impact of enterprise-wide compliance regulation
Stand-alone wireless sensor networks represent the latest data silo to begin merging with the corporate IT and enterprise network infrastructure. RFID networks and closed-circuit TV surveillance networks, for example, are also headed for IT integration.
Start-up Arch Rock is attempting to ease the integration of measurement data gathered by wireless sensors onto the corporate IT network using a Web services development platform. Arch Rock is likely to be followed by competitors such as Crossbow, Emerson, Tendril and others.
What does convergence of wireless subnetworks onto the IT infrastructure mean for your company organizationally?
Operations/facilities management has traditionally represented a completely separate discipline from that of information technology and computer-based communications, notes Harry Forbes, senior analyst at ARC Advisory Group in Boston. However, particularly as compliance regulations get stricter and extend across multiple business disciplines, these fiefdoms will likely have to go through the pain of merging – or at least cooperating.
“Now with the need to provide site-wide services and comprehensive, uniform security policies, people are trying to build an integrated infrastructure,” observes Forbes.
If nothing else, says Forbes, wireless network usage across both disciplines will be cause for collaboration, given that an organization will have to cohesively manage its use of unlicensed spectrum to avoid interference and assure data availability. This has long been the case in the healthcare industry, for example, where generally a biomedical engineer is responsible for coordinating the use of various spectra by different types of equipment and networks throughout the facility.
“The manufacturers we’ve seen collaborate best keep an ongoing dialog between IT and production staff,” says Forbes. “What makes their discussions productive is that they talk about their service requirements and available service capabilities, rather than just saying, ‘You don’t understand what I have to deal with.’ It takes a sustained effort and mutual respect” to pull this off, he says.
