* Security is biggest WLAN worry, though confidence improves
The 2006 Webtorials “WLAN State-of-the-Market” report shows that wireless security remains the primary thorn in WLAN administrators’ sides.
The third annual report, available now free of charge, is based on a survey of 350 subscribers to Webtorials, an educational Web site for networking professionals. This year’s survey and report were sponsored by Aruba Wireless Networks.
Security concerns still far and away topped the list of enterprise WLAN deployment challenges. The good news is that security worries dipped ever so slightly compared to last year (70% of respondents ranked it as their top worry, compared to 73% last year). So did the number of respondents who selected the statement that “wireless LANs aren’t secure” as best reflecting their attitudes toward WLAN security: Just 10% chose this statement this year, compared with 18% in 2005.
Most enterprises are still using Layer-3 VPNs to secure their WLANs, but the use of link-layer WPA2 shot up from 22% last year to 33% this year, and the use of WPA (WPA2 minus the AES form of encryption) jumped from 29% to 36%, indicating that enterprises are starting to take advantage of the robust technologies available to them. Correspondingly, the use of Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), MAC address filtering, and disabling service set identifiers (SSID) as a primary security approach dropped by about 8 percentage points.
And 25% of respondents said they have deployed a WLAN and secured it to their satisfaction; another 27% said they are already using wireless intrusion detection and prevention monitoring to guard against rogue devices and break-ins (an option that wasn’t available in last year’s survey).
Still, while network manager confidence is growing in WLAN security, 18% said they don’t feel confident about their ability to secure their wireless networks properly (though that number is down from 24% last year). The Wi-Fi Alliance has a project going internally – codenamed “Simple Config” – that aims to build a spec to be implemented by Wi-Fi-certified WLAN system vendors going forward – intended simplify basic WLAN and WLAN security configuration. Such a project could help ease worries about “getting it right” with all the various WLAN security knobs that need to be turned and tuned today. The spec is expected this fall.
However, Simple Config is currently a consumer-focused endeavor, according to an Alliance spokeswoman, and it isn’t clear yet whether a similar program will be instituted for enterprise-class products.
Interested in enterprise plans for deploying 802.11n, 802.11a, and converged Wi-Fi-cellular networks? For the details on these and other enterprise wireless trends, download the full report (it’s free; however, registration is required).
