Delivering enhanced BYOD infrastructure with the Dell Networking W-Series Wireless portfolio

Deploying scalable and secure wireless network solutions while simplifying management
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The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend continues to gain momentum across a broad range of industries. Employees are adopting personally owned mobile devices for work and taking advantage of corporate choose-your-own-device policies to increase their work exibility and to use the technologies with which they are most comfortable.

Many organizations are encouraging this trend, recognizing the potential for boosting worker productivity and collaboration, increasing employee satisfaction and reducing costs. Employees use these mobile devices not only when they are working remotely but also when they are working within their companys buildings and campuses. While working on-site, employees expect secure wireless access to enterprise information and resources as well as performance that delivers even mediarich applications reliably. At the same time, customers, visitors and other guests often have similar expectations for wireless connectivity. Across retail, healthcare, education

and corporate settings, guests equipped with laptops, tablets and smartphones now expect easy access to wireless networks and strong performance. Many companies today are already providing basic wireless network access to employees and visitors, but the explosive demand for wireless connectivity is creating signicant IT challenges. IT groups must nd ways to support a large density of devices while delivering excellent performance. Enterprises need exible and scalable wireless solutions that can help accommodate rapid growth and change. At the same time, they must nd ways to provide easy access while maintaining tight control

and security. And as the number and variety of mobile devices accessing the network grow, IT groups will need ways to simplify management of both devices and the network.

Recognizing the value of BYOD and guest access across multiple industries
Organizations in a wide range of industries are recognizing the value and encountering the challenges of supporting BYOD and guest wireless access. Retail Retailers are enabling guest wireless access to help improve the shopping experience and capitalize on new sales opportunities. Providing anytime, anywhere internet access to customers as they shop or wait for services can help enhance customer satisfaction.

Retailers also can capture valuable data on customer behaviors and preferences, as well as location information, which can be tied to customer loyalty programs or used to generate targeted promotions. To deliver that robust wireless experience, retailers must deliver the performance and reliability to handle frequent transactions and unpredictable traffic patterns. At the same time, they must be able to provide robust wireless connectivity to their own employees. In many cases, retail customers are better connected than the retailers employees. By improving employee access and enabling BYOD, retailers can improve customer interactions and put employees on the same technological footing as their customers.

Healthcare In healthcare, organizations are using wireless networks to support clinical applications, give providers secure access to patient information from a diverse range of mobile devices, and accommodate the desire for internet access from patients and visitors. Healthcare organizations often must implement a layered approach to access in order to meet bandwidth requirements. In allocating bandwidth, for example, IT groups must be able to prioritize or segregate clinical applications used by providers over applications used by visitors. Wireless solutions must also help provide the multiple layers of access and security required in a healthcare setting. Doctors,

nurses, patients and visitors need different privileges; a visiting radiologist who needs to view scans from a tablet might require different access to patient data and applications than an intake specialist. Implementing the right authentication methods and role-based access controls can help ensure that condential information is available only to authorized personnel using an authorized device. Education Secondary schools and universities have been quick to provide wireless connectivity and basic services to mobile users for personal use and for classroom activities. In these educational settings, network availability and reliability are major concerns. IT groups must ensure that students and faculty can access the information they need during

class. Network downtime of even 5 to 10 minutes can cause a substantial disruption for teachers and students. To meet the growing demand for network access, many institutions need to upgrade or expand their wireless infrastructures and implement user access policies. IT groups must determine: How fast will the institutions network need to grow to accommodate current and future demand? What back-end services and resources need to be protected, and what will be the ideal way of providing this protection? To what extent will the institution need to monitor students activities while online, and how will this monitoring be implemented?

Rather than attempting to nd a broad best-practice approach, many institutions will benet from adopting a combination of wireless implementation models to meet specic, localized needs. For other organizations, adopting a centralized model may offer the most effective way to support BYOD over the long term. Corporate In corporate environments, wireless use continues to grow rapidly as employees and guests expect to access email, instant messaging, the web and corporate applications while they are onsite. To give employees mobile exibility and improve visitor satisfaction by accommodating their demand for internet access, organizations need ways to deliver sufficient bandwidth to all users while ensuring security.

Many organizations are creating distinct employee and guest networks to help make sure employees have the bandwidth and secure access they require while still providing adequate and easy guest access to the internet.

Identifying key challenges that span industries

While there are some unique challenges for implementing BYOD and guest wireless access solutions in retail, healthcare, education and corporate settings, several challenges span industries. Organizations need BYOD and guest access wireless solutions with the following capabilities.

Accommodate a wide variety of devices and operating systems The wireless network and the IT groups managing access must support devices ranging from Microsoft Windows and Apple OS Xbased laptops to tablets and smartphones running on Google Android and Apple iOS operating systems. Meet performance, reliability and capacity requirements The proliferation of devices and high-bandwidth applications are putting pressure on existing wireless networks as well as IT infrastructures (including servers, storage and core networking).

To accommodate performance, reliability and capacity requirements, organizations must correctly size their environment and consider adopting solutions that offer the ability to separate guest and employee WiFi networks. Many will need to optimize utilization, prioritizing the allocation of bandwidth according to applications in order to deliver the robust performance needed for missioncritical applications. In some cases, organizations will need to augment existing networks or infrastructure to support current and future needs. Scale and adapt to change With more employees and guests connecting more mobile devices to the network, organizations need scalable solutions that can grow with demand. These solutions must continue to deliver the performance, reliability and security that users expect, whether the network is supporting tens, hundreds or thousands of people. Multi-vendor interoperability To protect existing investments, organizations also need solutions that work with existing multi-vendor networks. Some organizations select components from a variety of vendors during initial installation and as they expand their networks over time.

Secure information and networks IT groups need ways to protect networks from intrusions and ensure the privacy of sensitive information, from customer and patient data to enterprise intellectual property. To accommodate users with a range of job functions and authorization levels, organizations need BYOD and guest access wireless solutions that enable administrators to apply and enforce multiple access policies. Administrators should have ways to prioritize access based on multiple factors of the mobility context, including the user, device, location, application and time. Simplify access and streamline management Users expect easy, fast and consistent access to the network, while IT groups need ways to accelerate and simplify onboarding. The challenge for IT is to create a secure, reliable and easily accessible wireless network without

putting additional pressure on already-strained IT resources. Standardizing infrastructure and automating processes are key to meeting both user desires and IT needs.

Laying the foundation for BYOD and wireless guest access

Achieving a successful BYOD and guest access implementation requires detailed preparation that touches on capacity, security and access management, provisioning and onboarding, scaling, ongoing management and the total costs of ownership. Assess current and future needs Wireless network planning often starts with an assessment of current utilization and future capacity of the wireless network. Wireless capacity planning is critical. IT groups must recognize that the vast majority of BYOD devices will be mobile devices, and they must look for solutions suitable for the high number of devices.

A thorough assessment must also include the core wired networking, servers and storage components. Is this infrastructure able to scale to meet rising demand for accessing enterprise applications and information wirelessly? IT groups should determine: What types of users and devices are accessing the existing wireless network? What types of devices will be supported? How much traffic and capacity is currently supported? What level of access will each user require? Which enterprise applications will be accessible? How will IT secure the personal devices accessing the network? How will IT manage the devices?

Organizations must also identify the corporate policies and government regulations that might affect employee or guest access. For example, organizations in highly regulated industries (such as banking or healthcare) often must comply with condentiality regulations such as rules stemming from the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and will require different and more robust levels of security than other organizations. Supporting wireless access in these types of environments requires thorough planning and a clear understanding of the different access scenarios. Certainly there is a need to provide guests with wireless service to the internet, but business policies need to be precise regarding accessibility of corporate data, level of device acceptability, terms of use, and regulatory and compliance issues. The organization needs to be clear about the reason it is providing wireless access. Is it simply to allow internet access or is it to provide access to corporate applications? IT groups must determine whether apps are adequately enabled for a diverse range of mobile devices, and they must establish policies for supporting noncorporateowned devices. Provisioning and deployment As organizations plan new wireless implementations,

they must make it simple for employees and guests to connect to the corporate network. IT groups need to implement a simple model that can accelerate access, ensure security and minimize IT management burdens. A self-service onboarding model could meet those requirements by automatically validating user credentials when the user attempts to register the device on the network. When it is time to deploy a new wireless networking solution (from additional access points to new switches), organizations must determine whether they can handle the deployment in-house or whether they need to supplement internal resources with outside consultants or engineers. Running pilot programs can be an effective way to assess readiness and identify potential problems before a full-scale implementation. Management As part of the planning process, IT groups must consider solutions and services that will help streamline ongoing management functions, including creating WiFi accounts and provisioning credentials, conguring network settings, supporting corporate-managed devices and more. Adopting solutions that enable self-service provisioning, for example, can help improve user satisfaction while minimizing

IT management burdens. Centralized management will be essential, especially as the number of connected devices, and the size and geographic scope of the wireless network, grows. Administrators should be able to view device usage, perform health assessments and manage policies from a single console. Doing so can help provide a high level of service while freeing up internal personnel for other projects. Scalability Organizations must plan for the long term and deploy solutions that not only meet immediate needs but also take into account future network capacity and access control requirements. For example, IT groups should assume that the number of mobile devices per user will continue to increase. At the same time, users will likely demand even greater performance to support new, higher-bandwidth applications employees and guests today already expect the wireless network to deliver the same performance and reliability as the wired network. IT groups must be able to expand performance and capacity, or add new levels of security, without having to rip and replace existing infrastructure. Costs The planning process should also include an assessment of potential costs. Some organizations are supporting BYOD trends for employees

in part to reduce capital expenditures; by allowing employees to use personally owned devices, organizations can buy fewer laptops, tablets and smartphones. In many cases, employees are also willing to use their own calling and data plans for company work, potentially saving additional money for the company. The possible productivity gains among employees and the increased customer or guest satisfaction should also factor into the equation. Nevertheless, the investments required to support BYOD and guest access wireless

including the acquisition of wireless solutions and infrastructure upgrades as well as the costs of supporting wireless implementations can mitigate potential cost savings. Organizations will need to weigh all of these factors as they select, design and deploy new solutions to maximize the return on investment.

Solving BYOD and guest access challenges with Dell networking solutions
Dell offers a comprehensive portfolio of wired and wireless networking solutions to help organizations overcome the

challenges of providing robust and secure BYOD and guest wireless access. From switches and interconnects to wireless access points and controllers, Dell Networking Solutions enable organizations to build a complete end-to-end network with products from a single vendor, or easily integrate new solutions into an existing multi-vendor environment. Dell Networking Solutions provide the advantage of offering seamless interoperability with Dell servers, storage and client systems, as well as a wide range of other industry-standard products.

Dell networking solutions

Enterprise resources
Data and applications
File server Microsoft Lync Server

Internet

Remote Employee 3G/4G

Dell SonicWall Firewall and virtual private network (VPN) Dell Networking Enterprise network
App OS

Employees

Campus/branch
ClearPass Access Management BYOD and guest

Guests

Access point

Dell Networking W-Series Wireless controller

Dell offers end-to-end solutions for enabling BYOD and guest access.

The broad array of solutions and services from Dell can accommodate any size organization and any networking environment from the smallest businesses to the largest enterprises, from the data center to network edges. Dell services and support offerings can help organizations plan, deploy and manage wireless networks regardless of their in-house level of expertise. Drawing on the latest technologies to address density of deployments and mobile application traffic delivery, Dell Networking W-Series Wireless solutions are ideal for organizations that need to support BYOD and guest access. Centralized controllers, access points and instant access points coupled with network management and access management solutions help provide the security and functionality that organizations need while simplifying deployment and management. Centralized mobility controllers and wireless access points Dell Networking W-Series Mobility Controllers are designed to meet mobility, security and management requirements for organizations of any size, from small businesses to corporate headquarters and large campus deployments. Dell Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) technology helps to ensure maximum client performance in the presence of interference while enhancing the stability and predictability of the entire WiFi network. To secure

the network, administrators can implement context-aware access policies based on the users identity, users role, type of device, type of application, and the time and end-user location. Centralized wireless mobility control streamlines management of access points across indoor, outdoor and remote locations. Instant access points with virtual controller Dell Networking W-Series Instant Access Points (IAPs) combine enterprise capabilities with entry-level simplicity. These IAPs incorporate a built-in virtual controller and rewall that help organizations deploy an enterprise-grade wireless local area network while delivering the affordability and ease of use of an entry-level WiFi environment. IAPs can be set up in minutes; administrators congure the rst device, and the other IAPs automatically form a unied cluster. IT managers can add more capacity by simply plugging in more IAPs. The devices can also migrate to a controllerbased platform if the organization ever decides to expand to a centralized wireless network. ClearPass Access Management system for BYOD and guest access management Dell Networking W-Series ClearPass allows organizations to provide secure wireless network access to guests and employees from a single, unied platform. ClearPass helps

free IT administrators from time-consuming onboarding and provisioning processes by enabling guests and employees to self-register for network access. Policy capabilities help prioritize traffic according to applications, providing the required bandwidth for users while eliminating the need for separate networks. The Dell W-Series ClearPass Guest solution is an advanced content delivery platform for next-generation hotspots, allowing businesses to monetize WiFi access in public access environments. Visitor intelligence capabilities enable organizations to gather information that can be used to deliver targeted content and promotions. ClearPass is scalable, allowing organizations to manage secure, role-based access for thousands of users whether they are local or dispersed geographically. Dell OMNM and AirWave network management Dell Networking OpenManage Network Manager (OMNM) automates labor-intensive tasks while enabling monitoring and management of the entire Dell networking portfolio from a single, web-based console. The Dell W-Series AirWave network management solution provides end-to-end clarity and control for managing mobile users on multi-vendor, multisite environments. Organizations gain tools for managing RF coverage,

strengthening wireless security and deployment location, and designing networks for specic projects and premises. Network services Dell offers a full range of network services, including comprehensive product and technical support. Organizations can draw on deep expertise for assessing, designing and implementing a mobility strategy. By engaging Dell W-Series installation and deployment services, organizations can gain a fully functioning infrastructure quickly and easily. With Dell support services, IT groups can access networking professionals 24 hours a day for help with conguration, troubleshooting and diagnostics. Dell ProSupport experts can also offer assistance with complex issues related to third-party solutions.

Finding the right solutions for current and future needs

The BYOD trend is unlikely to ebb any time soon. Employees, customers and guests using personally owned devices will continue to expect seamless wireless connectivity whether they are working at their companys office or visiting retail, healthcare or other settings. To promote employee exibility and productivity, and to provide a better customer experience, many organizations will need to bolster existing wireless networks. Dell wireless networking solutions and services can help organizations overcome the challenges of supporting BYOD access and meet requirements for easy access, performance, security, scalability and ease of management.

With a comprehensive portfolio of wireless and BYOD solutions and services, Dell enables organizations to implement or enhance network access in ways that best suit their current needs while providing the scalable foundation for growth and change. For more information about Dell Networking Solutions, visit: dell.com/networking To learn more about Dell Wireless Solutions, visit: dell.com/wireless

2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell. Dell, the DELL logo, the DELL badge, OpenManage and SonicWall are trademarks of Dell Inc. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own. July 2013

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