The focus of this year’s Interop Business Technology conference at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV was all about personal devices, such as iPads and Smartphones, being brought into the business environment. It is well known that the popularity of these devices has increased three-fold in the past 2 years, and it seems only natural that the prospect of accessing your business from anywhere your mobile device travels is a temptation many cannot deny. This movement is called BYOD, which translates to Bring Your Own Device to some, and Bring Your Own Disaster to others. Due to the uncontrolled [and unsecured] status of most personal devices, IT personnel caution businesses to evaluate existing wireless network appliances for proper security and necessary bandwidth before jumping cannonball-style into BYOD. The message was that businesses have no control over the installed applications and files contained on personal devices, and introduction of these applications and files into the business network is a serious risk that requires careful preparation. To combat the BYOD movement, network appliance vendors such as Gnodal, NEC and Alcatel-Lucent have developed new products that allow more WLAN bandwidth – up to 40Gbps – and more control within the appliance itself to determine who and what can connect to the network. This innovative new technology, known as software-defined networking (SDN), gives IT staff the tools needed to safely introduce personal devices on a business WLAN without compromising performance or accessibility for the users and/or applications that need it the most. The bottom line is that although bringing your iPad to work and connecting to your WLAN seems harmless on the surface, it is important to consider the security ramifications and additional wireless usage these devices will introduce. The last thing your network needs is death by Angry Birds.
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