Q: What is Cisco announcing?
A: Cisco is introducing a fully secure, high performance mobile wireless solution that can scale to meet the needs of the largest corporations and institutions, with the lowest installation and management costs. This furthers our vision of providing business professionals with secure, high-speed access to the Internet, their enterprise Intranet data and applications - whether they are on the move, in locations such as airports and hotels, or roaming around their enterprise campus. We're taking the Internet to the next phase of its evolution by giving users much more access to the Net, wherever they may be.
Q: What is Cisco's wireless vision?
A: Today's announcement extends mobility to the workplace. Enterprises can now deploy Cisco wireless LAN technology at low cost and with full confidence in the security of their Intranet. Our vision is that business professionals will be able to utilize the power of their corporate IT systems securely, at all times, and from any location - at work, on the move and at home. This furthers the November 2000 announcement of Cisco Internet Mobile Office, our initiative providing mobile business professionals with immediate access to their corporate network and the Internet when they are on the move in public venues such as airports and hotels.
This is a multi-billion dollar opportunity for Cisco. Worldwide Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) market revenues are projected to triple from $774 million in FY99 to 2.2 billion by December 2001. Cisco has a tremendous opportunity to gain a significant share of this growing market.
Q: What makes the Cisco Aironet wireless solution innovative?
A: To provide a real business solution that would scale and meet the needs of both large and small enterprises, past inhibitors such as security, scalability and deployment cost had to be solved. Although there are other low cost wireless solutions available, they are very expensive to deploy and difficult to manage. The Cisco Aironet solution changes all this. It is the first and only high-speed wireless network solution that addresses enterprise requirements from a product, deployment, security, and management perspective. What is truly "innovative" is that we took Cisco's expertise in large scale networking and applied it to the wireless market.
Q: What is the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill doing with Cisco's wireless technology?
A: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) students and faculty are using Cisco's wireless technology to provide high-speed, secure access to the Internet, e-mail and the campus network. All incoming freshmen are required to have a laptop and an Aironet wireless PC card. Across the campus, there will be over 40 wireless access locations, giving students the freedom to access the campus network from many campus areas - the library, campus-dining hall, campus coffee shop, even while sitting on the campus lawn. University officials believe the "unwired campus" will improve curriculum delivery and academic performance. Cisco's wireless technology will scale to UNC's projection of 15,000-plus undergraduates by fall 2003. Wireless Internet technology and universities are a powerful combination because they are both about "freedom" and communication.
Q: What is Microsoft doing with Cisco technology?
A: Microsoft Corporation is deploying Cisco's Aironet wireless networking solutions throughout its campus in Redmond, WA. This is the world's single largest deployment of the Cisco Aironet solution. The solution meets Microsoft's security and enterprise deployment requirements enabling Microsoft to scale wireless technology to thousands of employees. In Redmond, the entire Microsoft campus has been wired, with over 1,700 access points serving 5,000 plus employees today, with projections for over 20,000 workers. Microsoft employees can roam campus-wide with their laptops, accessing the corporate Intranet from meeting rooms, cafeterias, outdoor locations and others' offices.
Q: How is the Cisco's wireless networking solution different from that of your competitors?
A: The Cisco Aironet 350 Series is the first wireless networking solution specifically designed to address the challenges of large-scale deployment and management. Based on the 802.11b standard, the technology is interoperable with other 802.11b products. It also is the first implementation of the 802.1x security standard providing a level of wireless security that was previously not available.
The Cisco Aironet 350 Series provides the highest performance wireless coverage with the lowest installation and management costs. It is the most scalable and secure solution available in the industry today.
This is just part of a series of exciting wireless networking launches that we are announcing in FY2001. Stay tuned!
More Information:
Cisco's Aironet line, including the products announced this weekArticle: USA Today - Get up and go: Cisco rolls out wireless Net
Article: Reuters - Cisco Releases Wireless Broadband Network Offering
View video: UNC wireless classroom
