I hate it when I’m attracted by the price of a new car, then the salesperson pulls out the 10-page list of optional luxury additions such a as a spare tire. Even when I've finally decided to pay that bottom line figure, I then need to consider the road tax, insurance and breakdown options.
What is 802.11 EVV?
802.11 EVV (where EVV stands for "Economic Value Validation") is not a new WLAN standard, but rather a new way of thinking about the WLAN technologic evolutions that already exist.
ESG's (Enterprise Strategy Group) recent report on EVV quantifies the typical cost savings and operational benefits of a controller-less wireless environments in financial terms, which helps organizations evaluating wireless investments or upgrades to understand the impact these advances can offer them above controller-based solutions.
The scenarios illustrated in the EVV paper highlight the advantage controller-less Wi-Fi architectures and Aerohive Networks in particular have over legacy environments.
The hidden cost of car ownership is nothing new, however do we sit down and accurately analyze the total cost of ownership per year? Insurance, tax, breakdown, servicing, wear and tear parts, parking, tolls, oil, filters, anti-freeze, parking, bulbs, air fresheners (it all counts). And it’s not even just about the parts, policies, petrol and parking. What about the time it costs you when you have to go to the garage, how much time you spend stuck in traffic etc. This time is valuable, how else could you have been spending it?
Cars are a big investment, which is why most of us heavily scrutinize costs before committing to purchase. Aware of industry sales tactics and other items of consideration we are much more savvy today. If we do it for cars, shouldn’t we do TCO analysis for every product or solution ownership?
Mobility initiatives increase productivity, collaboration and potential across organizations, but without having the supporting network infrastructure that is capable of delivering reliable, fast and secure connectivity, I’m afraid your tablet, smartphones or other internet connected devices quickly become neutered lumps of plastic and metal.
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Wireless LANs have become an indispensable part of any organization. The status quo for wireless networking solutions has involved deploying wireless access points, or APs that are connected to, and managed by, a centralized controller.
Sadly, much like that crafty car salesman not telling you about the brand new model that’s just about to be released next month (which won’t help their commission this month), many WLAN vendors are still selling technology past its sell by date, and hiding the ongoing costs of these legacy solutions. Vendors now offer evolutionary controller-less access points with distributed intelligence and cloud-based management solutions. The controller-less architecture that Aerohive Networks has pioneered is able to produce the requisite performance, scale, and operational efficiencies that also generate a significant ROI.
If you bought wireless LAN controllers a few years ago you made a good decision, but as organizations consider expanding existing or upgrading their wireless environments with 802.11ac to better support BYOD initiatives and new applications, you should carefully review this survey document to understand how a controller-less Wi-Fi architecture could provide a compelling ROI to the business.
