Wireless Computer Networking

Wireless Computer Networking

By Tim Kridel

If your company is like most, wireless computer networking has quickly evolved from a nice-to-have perk to a mission-critical solution. The catch is that wireless computer networking is easier said than done, and that’s why many small and medium size enterprises are looking to hosted solutions as a way to get handle on costs and still give employees plenty of features.

One obvious benefit of outsourcing wireless computer networking is that you don’t have to invest in software licenses and a server. Although servers are relatively inexpensive, the license fees aren’t.

But those server and license costs are only part of the equation. The other part is support costs, which include staffing up, or even creating, an IT department to help employees with tasks such as configuring and troubleshooting their computers and wireless computer networking service.

Those support issues and costs can quickly get out of hand if there are a lot of variables, such as employees who need to check e-mail while roaming in another country, or employees who are scattered around the country and getting service from different wireless carriers.

“As soon as everybody in the company isn’t on the same wireless network, or in different geographies, you need to start thinking about whether to go with a dedicated hosting company,” said Dave Granan, general manager of the enterprises mobility solutions group at Nokia, which provides hosted wireless computer networking services to more than one million users.

Outsourcing also shifts the burden of deploying the latest and greatest server-side technology to the hosting provider. However, hosting providers rarely sell smart phones too. So to leverage some server-side improvements, such as the Direct Push feature in Microsoft Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2, enterprises may have to upgrade their handsets, such as to Windows Mobile 5.0. “In general, the newer the OS, the better the experience,” said Don Dimon, general manager of MailStreet, a hosting provider that focuses on the delivery of on-demand messaging and collaboration solutions for small and medium-size businesses.