The initial emphasis in the adoption cycle of most new technologies is usually
placed on deployment. It is only after the technology has turned the corner
toward mass adoption that IT departments are able to shift attention toward
secondary concerns, such as security and management.
It appears that the wireless LAN movement is following a similar course.
As wireless networks, not far removed from being exclusively associated with
vertical markets such as healthcare and retail, enter the mainstream arena of
the Local Area Network, enterprise IT departments are searching for the best
way to manage the untethered portion of their networks.
That search becomes more critical, says Eric Hermelee, vice president of marketing
at mobile management at middleware company WaveLink, as enterprises begin to
replace large segments of their wired network with wireless equipment.
"When you have hundreds or even thousands of wireless access points, you
create a huge management headache," says Hermelee. "Enterprises have
been rushing to deploy wireless LANs and the IT department has no visibility
into wireless parts of their infrastructure."
However, it’s not just the size of WLANs that are posing new management challenges
to IT departments, he adds. In addition to the increase in the number of wireless
devices in a corporate environment, wireless links, which now operate at speeds
of 11 megabits per second (Mbps), are now carrying mission-critical traffic.
For all of these reasons, say Hermelee, many enterprises now require a centralized
management system to both streamline configuration and software updates, as
well as making sure that a wireless link is not inhibiting the flow or corporate
data or leaving the network unprotected from outside attacks.
Back in June, Cisco Systems introduced a centralized management system for
its Aironet wireless LAN products. The Wireless LAN
Solution Engine (WLSE) is an appliance-like device that provides IT managers
with a single console for configuring, troubleshooting and maintaining wireless
access points.
Prior to the introduction of the WLSE, Cisco’s access points could only be
maintained through management systems embedded into each product. While an embedded
approach is serviceable for environments with only a few access points, a centralized
approach is much more cost- and time-efficient as wireless networks grow, says
Bob Dimicco, director and general manager of the enterprise management business
unit at Cisco.
While there is not a hard and fast rule for determining when an IT department
should graduate to a centralized management system, Dimicco says that enterprises
should probably start moving that way when the network grows beyond 50 devices.
"The rule of thumb we’ve seen," says Dimicco, "is that once
a customer gets to more than a hundred they are probably going to want a centralized
system."
The major benefit of a centralized approach, of course, is for an enterprise
to carry out configurations, maintenance and repairs automatically, eliminating the need to work on a device-by-device basis.
Access points, says Hermelee, rely on almost constant updates to firmware in
order to keep track of the latest technology and most recent changes to standards.
In addition to constant updates, wireless access points often require frequent
configuration changes to reflect modifications, for example, in access and security
policies.
Without a centralized approach, a technician would be required to separately
configure each access point in the network, a process that could take as long
as 30 minutes. With a centralized management system, such as WaveLink’s
Mobile Manager, a technician could simply create a single configuration
profile and automatically download it to all of the access points in the network.
"With Mobile Manager you can set up a profile and say, ‘I want all of
these devices to do this or that,’" says Hermelee. "Then you just
hit a button and it goes out to 25 or even 5,000 access points automatically."
While streamlining the firmware update process, especially since an immature
technology is constantly being tinkered with by manufacturers, is enough justification
for centralizing management, Hermelee says Mobile Manager offers a number of
additional benefits.
For starters, he says that a centralized system is vital for improving security,
namely by dynamically managing WEP keys. WaveLink’s Mobile Manager uses an agent
technology to essentially monitor each access point in a network segment. If
it detects something amiss, such as a security breach or a configuration error,
the agent will send a notification of the failure and then launch an attempt
to correct it, say Hermelee.
Perhaps the most underrated benefit of having a holistic view of a wireless
network, rather than an element-by-element perspective, is the ability to perform
traffic analysis, which can be used for capacity planning.
"A wireless network is much more fluid than a wired environment,"
say Hermelee, who lists The Gap and Federal Express among WaveLink’s customer
base. "Capacity demands shift as users shift from location to location."
For Cisco’s Dimicco, one of the biggest advantages of a centralized management
system is that it allows IT departments to organize the WLAN by domains, granting
privileges and access rights to different departments as the IT department sees
fit.
"Say you have a campus environment with thousands of access points,"
says Dimicco. "You can put them into one group or you could group them
by floor or by building."
Both WaveLink and Cisco say that the eventual goal is to integrate the management
of wireless devices into an overall network management system, such as HP’s
OpenView. Currently, Dimicco says Cisco can feed relative information about
the WLAN to a central management system. WaveLink appears to be taking the integration
a bit further, claiming that it is working on a plug in module for Computer
Associates’ UniCenter product and that it is also working with the other
major players in the space.
The major difference between the WaveLink and the Cisco management systems
is that Mobile Manager, and the company’s client-oriented management system,
Avalanche,
are capable of working with devices made by multiple manufacturers. The Cisco
system, of course, is proprietary and only manages Cisco devices.
Hermelee says multivendor support is a major advantage, especially as standards
solidify and businesses feel more comfortable about mixing products in the networks
from different suppliers. Cisco, however, recognizes the shortcoming and actually
partners with WaveLink to provide a single management system for customers that
have a heterogeneous wireless environment.
Joe McGarvey is a freelance writer based in New York.
He can be reached at mailto:mmcgarvey@optonline.net.
|
