In short, my answer was “yes.” But in long, if the title of this blog post is any indication, I was quite taken aback by what I heard from Burton Group senior analyst David Passmore in his first session on the “wireless everything” era.

When I spoke to Passmore last week in an interview on computer networking trends for 2009, I hadn’t quite realized that his future of networks meant the extinction of them.

In the first point of our interview Passmore stated, “Wireless is one [networking trend of ‘09] because there’s an increased use of mobile phones for both data as well as for voice. We’re also seeing enterprises using wireless LANs (WLANs) often as a substitute for wired Ethernet.” From these trends, he suggested that we would some day no longer need networks.

Consider this tongue-in-cheek dialogue between Passmore’s explanation of this at Catalyst and the audience’s reaction:

Passmore: For longer-term networking trends, we may actually see the disappearance of enterprise networks.

Audience: Blank, saucer-eyed staring

Passmore: You’re probably thinking, “How can that be?”

Audience: Those not nodding vehemently to his question are doing so internally, thinking “Yes, how can that be?”

Passmore: Well, we’re already seeing a shift from wired Ethernet access for the use of wireless LANs.

Audience: OK, but that’s still a network — hence the “n” in wireless “LAN”…

All kidding aside — what he meant was that Ethernet is very surely being replaced with wireless, which will then be replaced by 4G mobile cellular data. Does this seem probable? I think he has a valid point, but how soon will a transition like this occur? Will the network engineer have to move into wireless telecommunications in his lifetime? Who’s to say?

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I also spoke with Technical Strategy Associates President and IEEE member, Dr. James F. Mollenauer. He took time out to talk about the development of 802.11 Wi-Fi standards and the importance of wireless standards as promoted by the IEEE.

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As Anton sees it, there are two camps in the compliance world:

1. “Please, please make PCI easier by letting us skip the requirements; or, better, just let us ‘SAY YES ON THE SAQ!’” camp.
2. “We know that our security program makes us PCI –compliant; please make it easier for us to prove it!” camp.

For the former, Anton recommends ScanlessPCI*, a simple, quick banner that shows your customers you are PCI compliant — while actually proving, and doing, nothing.

The latter camp, in which I hope (pray?) most of our readers fall, might be better served by investigating tools and techniques to help prove that their security passes muster, which is exactly the advice Petco’s vice president of network and store systems J. Smith gave me.

“All vendors are definitely not created equal,” he said. “And all you have to do is ask your vendor where they stand in terms of upcoming compliance.”

If you’re looking for some more insight into how you can make sure you’re headed down the right path, you’re in luck, because TechTarget has just launched a brand new IT Compliance Advisor Blog, and SearchCompliance.com is launching tomorrow for all your PCI — and other — compliance needs (a sneak preview is up today in case you can’t wait).

But the takeaway message? Even as everything else in the world seems to be getting cut back, the cost of PCI violation fines or, worse, an actual intrusion, is too great to risk. Trying to go the ScanlessPCI route is as deluded as thinking you’ll get money for nothing …

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*NB: ScanlessPCI is, of course, a joke service, legitimate as the page may look. Don’t expect your compliance officer to be pleased if you try and pass it off!

The notoriously frugal Cisco is tightening their belts a little tighter, more or less shutting their offices over the holidays and freezing hiring for a bit. They hope to save $2 billion, which isn’t small change even for the world’s largest networking equipment provider.

They also are looking to cut travel expenses, and since Cisco insiders tell us everyone at the company flies coach to begin with, we guess that means more TelePresence. Layoffs, however, are not planned, at least for now, according to Dow Jones Newswires:

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) doesn’t have any layoffs planned at this point, according to Chairman and Chief Executive John Chambers. …

Chambers, speaking to analysts at a conference hosted by Credit Suisse, said that if the company was to have layoffs, it would be a one-time event, rather than a string of events.

Sounds like he’s hedging his bets, just in case, but it might be tough to cut the fat from Cisco’s already lean (for a company of their size) operation.

Aruba isn’t so optimistic. The company announced they will be cutting jobs to reduce operating costs by 10%, though the exact number getting laid off is unknown.

This is despite Aruba’s record revenues last quarter, which, according to Farpoint Group’s Craig Matthias, came at a price:

“If you look at Aruba’s margins, they have eroded some, and obviously discounting is a heavy element in winning deals,” Mathias said. “So I’m expecting that their margins probably won’t improve much with their sales. But this is an industry that will continue to grow, and it will accelerate into the future.”

It also calls into question what wireless vendors keep whispering to me: Their equipment — and business prospects — are counter-cyclical. The theory goes that wireless is a great way to cut costs: No more having to futz around to rewire desk connections, less physical wiring to lay down, etc. etc. But with such a crowded field of vendors, even the winners might have a tough time staying or getting profitable.

Further Reading:

• IT economic outlook: Not so good
• Aruba to Customers: Get 200% more WLAN bandwidth, free!: Aruba in more charitable times … a month ago.
• Overheard: How to keep your IT job during a recession

This how-to book not only gives you real-world scenarios you’ll actually be able to relate to, but the materials you’ll need to create your own test lab: It comes with a CD-ROM featuring security and hacking tools as well as open source tools, demo software, and a bootable version of Linux.

As security should never be last on the network administrator’s task list — we want to give our readers an opportunity to win this book for free. We have 10 copies of Michael Gregg’s book to give away to IT professionals in the United States. (Sorry, we cannot ship books outside the country.) Just go to our Build Your Own Security Lab giveaway two-question survey, and tell us if you’ve ethically hacked your network. Submitting your response will enter your name into our random drawing which will be held on November 1st. This means you have until the end of October to submit your entry.

If you miss your chance to enter, or don’t win a copy — never fear! You can still download Chapter 9 of Build Your Own Security Lab, Securing Wireless Systems — which starts you off with basic wireless know-how and goes on to explain how to ethically hack and secure your wireless systems with various networking tools. Since we all live different lifestyles, this chapter is downloadable as a PDF or as a podcast for when you’re on the go.

Do you like this offer? Let us know — or feel free to suggest any other books you’re on the lookout for that we could help you get for free.

The update is free to customers with existing support contracts, and also includes improvements on how the network handles “chattery” clients and how it deals with co-channel interference.

Further Reading:

• Read Aruba’s official announcement of their new ARM 2.0 Software
• Farpoint’s white paper on the tests (Warning:PDF)

Ahoy! Just in time for our Talk like a Pirate Day blog post (what’s a weekend late among old salts?), we hear tales of treachery and triumph, of bold moves and dastardly deeds.

First, matey, is the tale of Cisco’s Jabber acquisition. Why would the world’s dominant networking gear provider buy a second-tier IM platform? While you may not actually know anyone who uses Jabber, the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) Jabber is based on has seen quite a few fans, not the least of which is Google which has embraced the protocol for its Google Talk instant messaging platform.

As Cisco continues to make good on their promise to put structure behind Web 2.0-type tools, Jabber is a good place to start: A widely accepted IM standard heartily approved by the geek crowd which also gives enterprises the control they want. And some are also seeing it as a shot against frenemies Google and Microsoft, like the National Business Review’s summary:

IM gains more respectability with the announcement over the weekend that networking giant Cisco will buy Jabber, whose software allows users of rival freebie IM programmes, such as Apple’s iChat, Google’s Talk, Microsoft Windows Messenger and Yahoo Messenger, to interact with each other, plus send messages to commercial grade programmes such as Microsoft’s Office Communications Server.

The article title was even more direct: Cisco guns for Google, Microsoft with Jabber buy.

On a more swashbuckling note, Aruba’s taking aim at Motorola, counter-suing the company for patent infringement:

“The first asserted patent was assumed by Aruba in March 2008 as part of its acquisition of AirWave Wireless Inc., while the second asserted patent was issued to Aruba in May 2008,” the company said, adding that it is seeking a permanent injunction against use of its patented technologies as well as monetary damages.

The WLAN market is treacherous waters, as we’ve reported before, so we don’t expect this back and forth end until one or the other goes to Davy Jones locker.

Image: SearchNetworking’s belated Talk like a Pirate Day cake.

He began the topic by presenting a statistic gathered by Chetan Sharma Consulting: Only 20% average revenue per user (ARPU) come from data plans on users’ phones.

“Right now, people are still reluctant to move to data plans,” Bowman said. But he suspects that the 20% ARPU will switch completely five or so years down the road; instead only 20% ARPU will come from voice and the remaining 80% ARPU will come from data.

As anyone knows, data plans are much more expensive than straight voice plans, so why is he so certain these statistics will swap? According to Nielsen NetRatings, broadband held only 8% ARPU in 2000 compared with 92% ARPU of narrowband users. Eight years later, 87% of users choose broadband over narrowband — and the reason? You get to have more faster; the ease of use and what users expect to own far outweigh the additional cost of broadband. The same, Bowman says, can be expected for people to switch from voice to data.

Still need more convincing? As a representative of the current 20%, Bowman explained why data was more important than voice: Anyone who knows him, he said, will know that if they have something urgent to say, they will send him a text message so that he can see it immediately. This cuts out an extra step of having to call his voice mail and listen to a message. Anyone who leaves him a voice mail knows that they will just have to wait.

The fact also remains that for younger generations, text is and has been the preferred method of messaging. Take his own teenage children for example, as Bowman did in his keynote: “Everyone who has a kid knows how they use a phone; it’s all data… My daughter only used her phone [for voice] to call us to pick her up.”

Even in the Developing a Global Wireless Infrastructure session today, Vice President of Information Services at UPS Mark Hillbush said that his daughter only had one contact in her phone for voice. “One contact,” he said “in two years! The sad part was that I don’t even think I was the contact in her phone.”

This goes to show, Bowman said, that the way children consume data and get entertainment is completely different than adults generations above them. The way they communicate using technology will evolve new applications, new devices and change the way we work in the world.

In my mind, what the enterprise has to prepare for are rapid advancements in technology. If you think new devices weren’t being created rapidly enough, I believe having Generation Y enter the workforce will zoom technology up the quadratic curve.

Aside from the tour, Lenovo also provided me with a press pass that allowed me to stick for the game. So full disclosure here: I got to see a very exciting basketaball game for taking this tour. The story I wrote about how the NBA uses Lenovo’s laptops can be found on SearchMobileComputing.com.

Watching the Celtics and the Lakers in the NBA Finals was a great privilege. It was definitely one of the most exciting experiences I’ve ever had. But I did do some work while I was at the Garden. Really I did!

I shot some video of the demonstrations the NBA and the Celtics put on for me and other IT journalists. I thought I’d share them with you here.

Here we have Stephen Hellmuth, NBA executive vice president for operations and technology, giving an overview of what his team does on technology side to support NBA games.

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Here is Jay Wessel, vice president of technology for the Boston Celtics, describing how wireless technology helps the NBA keep the game clock more accurate.

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And finally, here is Wessel talking about how the NBA uses Lenovo laptops to keep score and log statistics. [kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/8dYf0DUJx1E" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Early critics of the iPhone disliked its closed OS, which prevented third-party developers from creating new applications for the device. This limited the ways the phone could access corporate applications, most prominently, “push” email.

Now, Apple intends to open its software development kit by June, enabling the development of enterprise-worthy applications.

Jason Brooks speculates in his eWeek blog that the new apps will give the iPhone a leg up over RIM and Palm:

I expect that Treos will begin to wither in the eyes of one-time loyalists, and that erstwhile thumb-keyboard addicts will start to judge their BlackBerrys to be significantly sourer.

That’s good news for Apple fans; what’s perhaps even better news for network people is the integration of Cisco’s VPN client software. According to Network World blogger Jamey Hearey:

This will be a full blown IPSEC client that will even support the use of certificates or password based multi-factor authentication. Very nice! The iPhone VPN client will be able to connect to Cisco VPN gateway devices, like the Cisco ASA and older Cisco PIX.

Hearey, a security consulting systems engineer at Cisco, also points out that Apple announced its plans to support WPA with 802.1x authentication. “This will enable more enterprises to allow the iPhone to connect securely to their wireless infrastructure,” Hearey wrote.

Apple also opened an iPhone Enterprise Beta Program, through which enterprise developers can play with the 2.0 code before the official launch later this year. Check out Apple’s “iPhone Enterprise” page to read more about the program or view video of Steve Jobs making the announcement:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/enterprise/

It seems that the iPhone is unstoppable. Unfortunately, I won’t have one until they give them to you free with a three-year, $35/month service contract.