The Big Sky Beckons - Again
I had heard about the "big sky" country for years - I even saw the movie by the same name. But I couldn't really appreciate the awesome beauty and majesty of it until I visited the western part of the United States for the first time.Native Americans were the first humans to see that the big sky was created by big vantage points, which provided them with the ability to see things from greater distances than was possible on the plains and rolling hills of this country. Big sky perspectives delivered strategic information for Native Americans as they made their living, cooperated with allies, and battled competition.
American Indians learned centuries ago what we know today: Information is power, and information shared is power squared. But in pre-historic big sky country, how do you share all of this strategic information in order to leverage it? Smoke signals - the first form of wireless communication.
In big sky country, it was possible to "read" a smoke signal from great distances and benefit from immediate access to valuable information. According to Indian Terms of the Americas, by Lotsee Patterson and Mary Ellen Snodgrass, smoke signals were used by American Indians to deliver strategic messages about the location of buffalo, horses, and people. These silent communiques were created by adding green vegetation and buffalo chips to a fire, and controlling the smoke by covering the smoldering embers with a dampened hide or blanket. Crude technology perhaps, but technology none the less.
"What hath God wrought?"
For the last hundred and fifty seven years, since Samuel Morse transmitted those now-famous words in 1844 on his first telegraph link between Baltimore and Washington, humans have been hard at work creating and adopting hard-wired capability.
Who could deny the positive impact twisted copper wire and coaxial cable have had on our lives? Indeed, the term "hard-wired" has actually become a euphemism for capability. And while some wireless communication alternatives have been available for a while, like radios, portable phones, and cell phones, the heavy lifting of electronic information distribution has all been by wire.
WANS and LANS
In the marketplace today, productivity is the magic word. If individual productivity is a magic trick, organizational productivity is the whole performance. And the straight line to organizational productivity is via a network. In terms of organizational productivity technology, hard-wired networks would have to be at, or near, the top of that list.
I want to talk about some of the new networking capability, but first, it's helpful to understand two basic networking models.
• Wide Area Network, or WAN, is where computers and/or terminals - not necessarily in the same building - are linked together, communicate with each other, and share capability, such as Internet connectivity. Sometimes those buildings aren't even in the same town or state.
• Local Area Network, or LAN, provides the same basic capability of a WAN, but it's all done in the same building. Small business networking is typically a LAN.
Let's say you are a small business renting office space. Last year you only needed two adjoining offices for the two people in your organization and each of their PCs. Sharing files wasn't a big deal: you either emailed files and info, passed floppy discs back and forth, or laid down the 20 feet or so of cable along the wall to create your own tiny LAN.
But your company is growing. This year you will need four offices, which will have a total of five workstations, and you project more growth next year. Congratulations on your growth, but you now have one of the high class problems of a growing business: Infrastructure issues.
In order for your five, soon-to-be eight employees to be most productive, they definitely need to be linked together in a network. Do you hard-wire all these folks in a LAN? While the estimate your landlord just gave you to hard-wire your new LAN is not prohibitive when spread over a few years, but if you have to move to another building for any number of reasons, an investment just became an expense.
The Big Sky Beckons - Again
After over 150 years and billions of miles of twisted copper and cable, the big sky beckons again. But instead of smoke, today's wireless technology uses electromagnetic airwaves (radio or infrared), to carry data.
Regardless of the technology, the new wireless capability is good news for small business. How would you like to have ALL of your workstations linked together, even the portable units, like laptops, and peripherals (like printers), without running any cable or wire? You can with a wireless LAN. Here are some advantages:
Installation - Remember that cable installation estimate? Fahgetaboutit! When your PCs and servers are fitted with the wireless networking components, you're an official member of the 21st century wireless technology leadership. By the way, did I mention installation of a wireless LAN is fast and easy?
Flexibility - With a wireless LAN, you're no longer held hostage by wires and cables. Just as when Native Americans packed up their blankets and buffalo chips and moved to the next ridge, when you move your PCs, servers, etc., you move your network at the same time. No muss, no fuss, and no rewiring.
Scalability - The last thing a growing small business needs to worry about is technology infrastructure issues. If acceptance of your proposal to that new prospect will require you to staff up, your wireless LAN becomes part of the solution by letting you scale up by simply making configuration changes, not wiring changes.
Mobility - Sans-cables, you can move around your facility or grounds with a laptop or other device while staying connected. If you travel, and your laptop is part of a wireless LAN, you may be able to hook up with various providers of wireless remote connections to gain access to the Internet as well as your own network.
Security - We can't talk about wireless without addressing the security issue. Today, wireless networks should have Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), encryption which ensures that outside parties cannot decode your transmitted data. Bottom line - don't do business with any company that is not addressing security in your wireless LAN.
Investment - For about four seconds you're going to have sticker shock. The full investment in a wireless LAN is probably a little more than a wired alternative, including laying cable and wire. But by the fifth second, you're already recognizing that the flexibility, scalability, and mobility delivered by a wireless LAN creates more value over time than the difference between the cost of the two alternatives. By the tenth second, the wired alternative is causing you sticker shock.
The Big Sky Is Not Just For Networks
I have dwelled on the wireless networking applications here because I believe you are probably pretty savvy about personal wireless productivity tools: portable phones, cell phones, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), the generic term for a handheld device like a Palm Pilot or a Blackberry. But wireless networking is probably the next great productivity tool you should focus on as you continue ramping up on your technology learning curve.
As small business owners, one of our big challenges is the need to create more with less. We have become masters at producing the work of ten people with three people plus technology. As market velocity increases technological advances, we will soon have to produce the work of 15 people with four people, and I believe the technology that can help us make that productivity stretch is wireless networking.
Write this on a rock... As a small business owner, you blaze new trails every day looking for new frontiers to conquer. I believe your next frontier is the big sky, and the productivity possibilities it holds for you. Trade your blanket and buffalo chips in for a wireless LAN. They're pretty cool.
