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CostEffective IT: Network Storage
Cost-Effective
IT: High Speed Wireless,
by
Richard Sonnier
Houston
Business Show "Advisor" Richard Sonnier, of the Information
Technology Services firm Nimble Services, Inc., provides weekly
information on our show about business technology issues. He can be
reached at 281-445-4800 x250 or rsonnier@nimbleservices.com.
This week I will discuss new high speed wireless networking
technologies.
New Wireless Technologies
The next wave of wireless is being deployed now and these technologies
are focused on speed. Sprint and Verizon are rolling out EV-DO
(Evolution Data Optimized) that will increase data speed to 10 times
the current cell phone networks. This is just like upgrading from dial
up to cable modem or DSL at home. Your next cell phone will be able to
browse the Internet at near the same speeds as your desktop PC.
Although not available for mobile use, WiMAX is now available from a
company called ClearWire in Jacksonville, Florida. ClearWire was
founded by
Craig McCaw who is a giant in the wireless industry having founded the
company that became AT&T Wireless. Intel is backing WiMAX as well.
This technology can bring DSL or cable modem speeds to an area covering
30 kilometers. The raw performance of WiMAX is amazing up to 70 times
EV-DO.
Beyond WiMAX, researchers at Rice University are developing a new
wireless network that is a 200 times EV-DO performance for non-mobile
users. In the coming weeks, I will review this research in greater
detail.
Wireless Business Vision
While I cannot predict which of these technologies will win and become
the standard, I think we can see how the winners will be used in your
future business network. I believe over the next few years we will
integrate the networks. Today, we have notebook computers or PDA's with
wired Ethernet and WiFi wireless LANs. Adding in the existing low speed
wireless data over the cell phone network and we can stay connected to
our network resources more than ever. However, the connectivity has
gaps. You still have to disconnect for periods of time.
The future is Always Connected just like your cell phone is always
connected to the telephone network. In the Always Connected network you
are connected to the Internet and your data by the fastest available
access. In the office, your computers uses a wired connection or the
wireless LAN for the fastest performance. As you leave the office for
lunch, your PDA switches to the EV-DO network. Arriving at the
restaurant, your access increases 10 times by switching to the
restaurant's wireless LAN. Going home for the day, you use the EV-DO
network on the commute and switch to the WiMAX network at home. The
future is simple, seamless connectivity to your resources.
In October I attended the Information Technology Venture Forum hosted
by the Rice Alliance, CITI, and HTC. Over the next few weeks I will
discuss some of the new IT being developed in Houston.
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