Starting out with a short answer to a question I was asked at lunch the other day:
If you are moving into a new office space, should you install Ethernet cabling or just run everything over a wireless network?
Well, as one of my engineers told me years ago, wired is the future of wireless. And I agree for the most part.
Before anyone jumps down our throats about that answer, let me provide a bit of background. We are, deep down, a networking company. Sure, we do servers, desktops and other systems. But the core of our expertise was originally networking. Big fat networks that spanned the globe, running very high uptimes and supporting tens of thousands of users. As part of that background, we were involved in starting what has become known as connected real estate. There is a large network equipment company that you may have heard of that has taken that and run with it. We know that the did because we invited them to be part of the first network of that type that we built and they like the idea so much they even filmed promo videos from it.
Those networks weren’t just wired. There was plenty of wireless in them too – on the edge as well as backup interconnections between buildings. We also wired up about 60 shopping malls, a ferry run, a petro chemical plant or two and several financial and government buildings. And they all had a wireless component. A big wireless component. Overall we deployed thousands of individual Access Points, covering millions upon millions of square feet of space.
So if we have all of this background in wireless, then why would I suggest wired?
Because, for new installations, nothing beats the flexibility of putting in a wired networked. If you don’t have to worry about ripping out walls, or carpet, or any other kind of structural mods, then by all means go with a wired network.
Wired networks are faster than wireless, more secure and far more flexible. You can use them for desktops, printers, CCTV systems, VoIP systems and a lot more. Many of those “extra” components that go on the network run power over ethernet, so you don’t even have to run a power line to things like phones, cctv cameras or security devices. Just an ethernet cable.
On the other hand, if you are putting in a network in a building that you can’t or don’t want to run wires in, for whatever reason (cost, difficulty, historic buildings, etc) then be all means go wireless. Just make sure that your wireless network is selected, installed and configured correctly, or you’ll have nothing but issues with it. We’ll cover that in an upcoming post.
So, the answer to the question is wired. Unless it’s wireless.
Hope that helps you out.