802.11 is revolutionary

802.11 IS GOING to take over the world, and it arguably already has. Order a decent, business-class laptop, and it's likely to have an 802.11 card already built in. Boot a wireless-enabled machine under Windows XP, and the system will practically scream, "Connect me to a wireless access point!" if one is available locally. If Microsoft thinks 802.11 is the future (and the present), then who are we to argue?

802.11 is more about productivity than pushing a lot of bandwidth. The average e-mail is just a few kilobytes and the business people who stand to benefit from 802.11 usually aren't pushing around audio and video files. Sure, you can send that kind of e-mail pretty quickly over a dial-up line, but have you ever tried to dial up at one of those airport pay phones? As 802.11 becomes increasingly pervasive, you can literally grab productive time out of the air. I've filed this column using the MobileStar service in Starbucks while traveling, saving the hassle of finding an analog phone line in midtown Manhattan. The ultimate strategic function of IT is enabling knowledge workers within an enterprise to be as productive as they can be. 802.11 technology can be a key brick in the foundation of that strategic vision.

I also think that fellow columnist Bob Lewis' dismissal of 802.11 as mere infrastructure misses the point. In my opinion, anything that contributes to the profitability of an enterprise should be considered strategic. In these tough economic times, knowing how to shrink your organization and cut expenses becomes strategic quickly. Many companies out there (InfoWorld included) are consolidating office space to eliminate underutilized space. Some walls with CAT-5 cabling are being knocked down and the reconfiguration means that certain areas within the company will be underserved in terms of network connectivity. Going with 802.11 to the desktop will save cash over running more cable, and those savings will only increase as the employee population scales.

At InfoWorld, I have reporters begging me for 802.11 capabilities within the office and on their laptops, not just because it's cool or interesting, but because it fundamentally changes the ways they can work and contribute to competitive advantage. If you are a reporter sitting in the audience at a technology conference (most of which provide wireless LAN access now), and Bill Gates makes an unanticipated announcement about the future of Microsoft, do you wait until you get back to the office to file the story, or do you hunt down an analog phone line? By that time, your 802.11-enabled competitor has already gotten the scoop. In any business where speed and responsiveness are advantages (and in what business are they not?), 802.11 is a key enabler.

Finally, 802.11 deployment is relatively simple. Placing an access point can be somewhat of a black art, but no more so than the incantations your local Oracle DBA must perform on a regular basis to keep the system running. Join the revolution, Bob.