Page 15 - RC19 RealcommEDGE 2019 Fall Issue

(and soon 5G), Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Bluetooth and others— These challenges need not be daunting, but must be
can lead to higher equipment cost, provisioning and addressed as part of the move toward the SDW.
management complexity, and the need for specialized
(i.e., hard-to-find) IT skills. Better Technology Solutions Can Help
• Multiple mobile apps for different types of Fortunately, there are several new technologies that can
experiences and use cases can leave occupants help enable and optimize the SDW. These include:
and managers frustrated, also increasing the cost of
customer support and training. • More-powerful networking platforms. The
• Outdated and limited networks—designed for simple interactive environment of the SDW relies heavily
connectivity rather than as core enterprise technology on the underlying layers of networking technology.
platforms—lack sufficient capacity and functionality Leading-edge network vendors are incorporating
to support the SDW. multiple types of wireless networking into their access
• The addition of flexible space often means points, switches, and other infrastructure, eliminating
“grafting” the organization’s IT systems onto the the need for multiple hardware systems. The new
ones maintained by flexible space providers, 802.11ax Wi-Fi standard (Wi-Fi 6) offers greatly
or implementing expensive replication of the increased performance and security. PassPoint will
organization’s standard IT environment. This requires enable painless transition of mobile devices between
extensive project management and investment, which cellular (current or 5G) and Wi-Fi environments.
counteract the benefits of flexible space. • Unified management and security. Infrastructure
• Outdated and/or siloed organizational structures and application vendors are incorporating a unified
created before the age of digital transformation make approach to manage large numbers of sensors, user-
it more difficult to deploy new solutions that require owned equipment, and other devices. For example,
inter-group collaboration and unified strategy. Indoor a new standard called Device Provisioning Protocol
location, occupant experience apps, IoT occupancy (DPP) allows IoT sensors and other devices to be
measurement, and space reservations are specific added, managed, and secured by simply reading a bar
use cases where this impediment most often occurs. code on each device. WPA3 Wi-Fi security is a major
• Upgraded security levels are required, resulting from improvement upon the current WPA2. Also, AI-based
an IoT “Tower of Babel,” more mobile apps, increased anomaly detection can be used to increase overall
collection of data and other factors. security and promote rapid response to threats.

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