Wifi Revolution

As the global society continues in its quest to become more global, Cisco was interested in determining how ready businesses were to support today’s mobile workforce and their ability to perform their jobs, no matter where they are. The company has now announced the results of this new global research study, the Cisco Mobility Quotient.

The results of this study indicated that while there is a broad adoption of many mobility solutions, such as Wireless LAN, Telework, Remote Access and Mobile e-mail, deployments are still largely spot applications of technologies. More than 60 percent of businesses do not have a long-term mobile IT strategy in place. Data also suggests that one of four businesses have not made plans to connect critical assets to their network.

Mobility solutions have seen strong adoption as 65 percent of respondents have some Wireless LAN, 55 percent use mobile e-mail, 40 percent have equipped a majority of their mobile workforce with laptops or smartphones, 48 percent use IP telephony and 32 percent use soft phones.

Although there has been broad adoption, many businesses still struggle with the new security challenges that mobility presents as one of four respondents indicated different wired and wireless security policies. Sixty percent of those surveyed stated that they have no means of monitoring radio frequency (RF) threats, indicating possible industry regulation compliance issues. A majority of businesses also do not have a long-term mobile IT strategy in place, instead taking a reactive approach to mobility.

“The findings of the Cisco Mobility Quotient point to both the enormous opportunity and challenge that businesses face with mobility,” said Lynn Lucas, director of mobility solutions, Cisco, in a statement. “By understanding the market’s current state of mobile readiness, Cisco is in a unique position to help businesses take advantage of mobility for competitive advantage. No other technology provider brings this level of understanding and capability to the market.”

In response to such findings, Cisco is now embarking on a new era of delivering highly secure, manageable and extensible mobile-rich solutions that enable businesses to take advantage of and deliver on emerging opportunities and improve operations. Cisco is launching a variety of integrated mobility solutions to help customers build new connections between people, places and things.

“Mobility is a change-agent that drives new possibilities for businesses and people, allowing more business to be conducted virtually any time, anywhere, in ways that were not previously possible,” said David Dorosin, director, product marketing, Enterprise Solutions, Nokia (News - Alert), in a statement.

“Nokia and Cisco are teaming to bring channel partners and their customers innovations such as dual mode phones and complete solutions that allow businesses to utilize their IT and telephony infrastructures and mobile technology investments to an even greater extent.”

To appeal to the mobility needs of customers, Cisco is utilizing its broad portfolio of products to deliver new solutions, purpose-built to address cross industry business mobility needs. These Cisco Mobility Solutions are built upon an all-IP network with security to deliver intelligent network services to Cisco and partner devices and applications.

The Cisco Mobility Solutions include the Cisco Unified Wireless Network, the Cisco Mobile Solutions for Unified Communications (News - Alert), Cisco Business on the Go Solutions and Cisco Process Monitoring and Optimization Solutions. Each extend an enterprise’s existing investment in infrastructure, voice and data applications, and assets to the mobile work force.

“Global competition and an emerging mobile-savvy workforce are catalysts for the adoption of mobility in businesses large and small today,” said Craig Mathias, a principal with the wireless and mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group, in a statement.

“Mobility is about making work location-independent - something you do, not a place you go. With a broad array of technologies and solutions required to make this vision a reality, Cisco well-positioned to help customers accelerate towards a more mobile world and the fundamental business advantages of mobility.”

More information regarding Cisco’s Mobility Quotient research study is available at: www.cisco.com/go/mq.

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Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.

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