Recently, while getting some bids for a home construction project, one of them came back with a dollar figure coupled with this caveat: ‘Bigger than a bread box, smaller than a submarine.’ I see this same kind of concept practiced with wireless capacity planning at a lot of the companies that see on a day to day basis.

Why do so many IT departments follow this planning philosophy?

Well, it boils down to not having the reporting and visibility required to make good business decisions to maximize the IT budget.

Over the last year, I have done several webcasts around capacity planning and wireless best practices. Most of these have focused around the wireless side of the equation, but as wireless becomes more ubiquitous, there is now the requirement to look at other pieces of the puzzle as well. Take for example the wireless hotspot marketplace. Many of these locations are served with DSL or cable modem access. Remote office locations are also typically served by these types of links as well. In this case, what component is the weak link in the chain? Of course, the WAN link is the limiting factor!

In the latest version of the AirWave Management Platform, there is now the ability to monitor and report on switches, routers, and other gear in the network that can impact the wireless network. In addition, there is a new Capacity Planning report that not only shows the capacity of the wireless APs and controllers, but can also show capacity available on other network components as well.