One aspect of BYOD that we don’t often talk about is its potential to reduce operating costs.
Logically, you’d expect that adding network infrastructure, incorporating new network management tools and procedures and adding to the workload of network administrators will increase costs. This is true to some extent, as there’s a capital outlay required for network hardware and software.
However, software tools mean BYOD may not increase the network administration burden significantly – apart from the inevitable user support and hand-holding! As with conventional networks, it’s possible to distribute intelligent monitoring around the network using software agents and hardware sensors and collect all the results centrally. This automation can also pinpoint trouble spots, provide you with information to assist in problem solving and measure the results of any changes to the network.
The more sophisticated automated network management tools developed for BYOD enable wired and wireless to be monitored and managed together, rather than the two separate entities. This is one way to reduce costs.
Of course BYOD, combined with virtualisation and cloud computing, means that employees are working on the move more than ever before. This increased productivity also helps to reduce costs. So while BYOD may initially seem like an expensive addition to the network, in practice it may do the opposite – provide you have the right management tools.
Fluke Networks’ AirMagnet product line spans the entire WLAN lifecycle, automatically discovering employee-owned mobile devices and assessing their impact on the corporate network to reduce unwanted side-effects and facilitate trouble-free and appropriate use.
There’s more information about the challenges of integrating BYOD with a corporate network without compromising security or performance in our White Paper http://www.flukenetworks.com/BYOD-without-tears
Stephane Persyn, Wireless Solutions Specialist, Fluke Networks
