But boosting productivity by laying off staff is unlikely to cut opex at all. When service, support and operations in general suffer, so does the ultimate quality of whatever an enterprise does, both for internal users and for customers alike. For most enterprises, service makes -- and, in fact, is -- the difference.
Wireless continues to follow this pattern. Equipment represents a better value than ever before; , and the deals are great. But what happens after you've brought that shiny new wireless LAN back to the office, and now need to get it and keep it up and running? The goal is to securely and efficiently serve the needs of everyone dependent upon IT. And isn't that, indeed everyone today?
The success of IT thus remains labor-intensive, meaning that needs to be a goal for the rest of this year.
I recently had a nice conversation with a few of the key staff at founded in 1991 and dedicated to improving the technical skills of professionals working in a number of areas within the wireless field. (For the record, I have no affiliation with this company.)
CWNP provides certification at different levels via self-study guides, classroom training and, of course, exams. I've worked with a number of people certified by CWNP over the years, and many have proved themselves to be competent, productive professionals.
Unfortunately, though, certification alone isn't a guarantee of the skills needed to plan, install, configure, manage, troubleshoot and otherwise maintain a wireless LAN. The biggest problem with certification alone is that such can only provide the basics -- real-world, hands-on experience with specific hardware and software is also required.
How good a specific individual is at that can be very tough to gauge, especially as products and even fundamental WLAN technologies continue to evolve. But certification can be a differentiator here, and I expect that CWNP and others in the field will continue to see growth and progress this year and into the near future.
Longer term, though, the requirement for such training and certification begs an important question: Why is this stuff still so hard, and does it really need to be? As I've noted before, management systems will become the key differentiator in WLAN system products, rolling up an ever-increasing array of functionality. But vendors also need to add ease-of-use features as well. Sadly, some products require an advanced (not just working) knowledge of not only wireless, but networking overall.
We have today (beyond the site survey), automated configuration and reconfiguration, and object-oriented configuration. The automated handling of interference conditions is also becoming available. But if we're going to require ever-expanding knowledge of these topics on the part of planners and operations staff, well, that's a bit like requiring expertise in advanced thermodynamics to operate a motor vehicle.
We can gain the productivity and thus the operating-expense advantages we need if we throw more system-level technology at the problem, and I believe vendors will continue to do so. In the meantime, though, have a look at what CWNP has to offer. If productivity depends upon knowledge, certification is a good place for those new to the field to start.
Craig J. Mathias is a principal at Farpoint Group , an advisory firm specializing in wireless networking and mobile computing. He can be reached at .