In 1973, at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), the world’s first LAN was born. The proud inventors were Bob Metcalfe and David Boggs, two brilliant engineers who had spent years connecting miles of coax cables to try to create a workable information network.
Metcalfe pegs the exact day as May 22nd of that year, the day he circulated a memo titled “Alto Ethernet,” which contained a rough schematic of how the Ethernet LAN would work. He described it in dynamic terms:
“Where the participating stations, like in AlohaNet or Arpanet, would inject their packets of data, they’d travel around at megabits per second, there would be collisions, and retransmissions, and back-off.” It worked, and three years later, their experimental network was connecting 100 devices.
Outside of his technical achievements, Metcalfe is perhaps best known for his 1995 prediction that the Internet would suffer a catastrophic collapse the following year; he promised to eat his words if it did not. During his key note speech at the Sixth WWW International Conference, he took a printed copy of his column that predicted the collapse, put it in a blender with some liquid and then consumed the pulpy mass. Although his timing was off, his theory was sound. But this time it is not the catastrophic collapse of the Internet, but the slow and steady disappearance of its outmoded cousin, the LAN.
Surprisingly, it is the growth of the Internet, particularly in the past 15 years, that is the prime catalyst for the LAN’s impending death. The expansion of wireless networks enabled by the Internet is quickly replacing wired LAN communications. Add to this, the explosive business uptake of mobile devices and applications, and you’ve got the final nail in the LAN coffin. Today, LAN-based thinking is a vanishing model within IT departments across most businesses.
In many ways, this is a natural evolution. The transition from LAN to the Internet as the corporate network is a classic case of new technologies disrupting and replacing old technologies. We’ve seen it before in almost every facet of IT. But in this case, the cause has less to do with a particular technology shift and more to do with a cultural one—the steady march away from place-based working. Work-life balance preferences of the 21st century have pulled IT out of its air-conditioned confines in the server room and out into the open. Technology did not push this trend, people did.
The Changing Business LAN-scape
From the ’70s on, LANs physically and figuratively tethered workers to their office. That was a good thing. IT managers could see them, count them and manage their every technical move. Today, the idea of working a 50- hour week in one place seems archaic. More employees, and certainly next generation graduates entering the workforce, see the office as a static and uninteresting place. It is not where the action is for learning or succeeding. These folks find social media tools applicable in business and prefer to accomplish many of their duties away from a desk.
Consider this change from the glory days of the LAN. The ambitious person looking to get ahead during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s would spend extra hours in the office earning “face time.” Being seen in the office after six o’clock was a good way to show dedication, loyalty and commitment to the company. There was also a technical reality for staying late. It was where the important data was. It was sitting behind the firewall in the same building. It was on the token ring 100 feet away from your boss.
The notion of face time in 2009 seems juvenile or even remedial. The ability to be constantly connected and have access to company data has freed employees from the confines of the office. It has also unknowingly diminished the importance of a corporate LAN. The proof is all around us.
Laptop shipments by all measures have now surpassed desktops. Smartphones and Blackberrys are widespread. Wireless networks are ever expanding and now the new U.S. stimulus package will enable connectivity and productivity while vacationing in the most remote areas. Data is always in motion and runs like water, finding every crevice. Today’s workers don’t need to be at headquarters or the regional office. The information they require can be accessed from their living rooms, Starbucks, cars or at their kids’ school plays. The patterns and practices of productivity have left the building.
Post LAN—Mobility Enterprise Architecture
With the LAN model outdated, businesses have no choice but to transform their architectures, systems and processes to accommodate the new mobility work-style. The key is to replicate the functionality, security and maintenance ease of the ’90s LAN with the freedom and agility of today’s Internet.
The new thinking holds that if the Internet now functions as the new corporate network, mobility in this world is no longer a footnote, but a cornerstone design parameter.
The implementation of an effective mobility platform can require a dozen new systems and software applications. Unfortunately, many of these capabilities are currently LAN-locked, available only to tethered desktop PCs and corporate network operations. Attempting a mobility architecture that relies on these existing systems and technologies is dangerous. It creates what can be described as a “Mobile Blind Spot,” where data can be unknowingly breached. Similarly, the required personnel, skill sets, deployment methods and maintenance and support programs are also LAN-locked—built on the premise that they all “live” somewhere. This requires an enterprise shift in mindset, not just technology.
And the challenges don’t end there. The nature of mobility is change, so any enterprise mobility platform must be as nimble and flexible as users’ mobility needs. Technology change cycles are now being measured in months, not years.
Connectedness will mean something new in the post LAN era. Given the high stakes, costs of security and compliance risks, and user support, a consolidated platform is the best approach. It must integrate multiple networks, vendors, applications and systems into a single mobility solution. It also must give a seamless and transparent view to the IT manager of the entire mobility picture—in real time.
The intersection of mobility technology, employee work-style choices and demise of the LAN has shifted IT’s focus to the enterprise endpoints—the laptop, the iPhone, the Blackberry, etc. This marks a physical end point for the LAN—and a starting point for mobility infrastructure. The next ten years of investment in architecture, systems and processes will be designed for the employee who works in the cloud on Saturday afternoon sitting in a local coffee shop. This picture is one that the LAN inventors could have never envisioned. It is the face of the new era of the mobility enterprise that will make LAN-based thinking a thing of the past. ME.
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Your Comments
posted by Steve
December 03, 2010 - 12:23 AM
Someone needs to get their head out of the "cloud". I can see the LAN's role diminishing in some industries with a more mobile work force being a desireable aim to increase productivity and profit margins, but not the total demise of the LAN. Wireless networks are part of the total Local Area Network so don't think you can get away with calling it something else to try and make your point. Cabled networks are always going to be faster than wireless networks and more secure. It is just a simple matter of minimizing the conversions from one medium to another. The fewer conversions the faster the network. I also don't see hospitals and banks and other large land based businesses hooking all of there computers straight up to the internet with out some kind of firewall. I would much rather maintain one or two firewalls then over a 1000. Put my medical records on the safe side of a firewall all day long and you can let someone else hack into your medical record. If this article was supposed to generate a lot of chatter, I am not sure if you succeded. I am a cross over player in the IT world and I am the first to even comment. Maybe the real IT professionals think you are so far out it they don't want to waste their time commenting.