Not Your Father's WiFi

It's remarkable how quickly a technology can seem passé or dated in today's rapidly changing enterprise networking environment. WiFi, for instance, which two years ago was seen as a hot new technology for providing wireless connections both within corporate offices and in public spaces, has received some bad ink lately for its security shortcomings among other reasons.

Some IT managers have refused to implement 802.11 networks, while others have decided to wait on WiMax and other wireless broadband technologies that are currently less advanced than WiFi, but could overtake 802.11-based networks in the next few years.

In the past couple of weeks, however, we've reported in Unstrung on several creative new uses of WiFi that promise to take 802.11 beyond the coffee shop, as it were, and into some unforeseen applications.

Consider:

Golden State Overnight's deployment of a WiFi network for one reason and realization of significant collateral advantages in the process is indicative, I'd say, of where this relatively humble technology is heading. Not only is WiFi not just for coffee shops and downtown public plazas anymore, it's not just for corporate boardrooms either.

— Richard Martin, Senior Editor, Unstrung