First this has become very evident. But there are several trends also happening. Explosive use of mobile devices such as the i-Pad and Android type of devices being connected. Just a couple of weeks ago I was asked, I want to use my i-Pad, but the IT departments says I cannot use these type of devices. Honestly I wondering where this guy was coming from. Just go to www.citrix.com and use Citrix receiver. The second trend is wireless. Should new healthcare renovation projects continue to install the number of hardwired enthernt ports as they have had in the past?…no. With the migration to 802.11g and now 802.11n serious consideration should be given actually “reducing” the wired port count. Even existing facilities should maybe how to scale back actual “wired” ports that are not being used as well as to scale back switches. Just a thought. I am old enough to remember Digital Equipment Corporation. Ironically,what doomed this company was the CEO believing the PC was dead and never going to take off. Fast forward from the 1980s to 2011, well virtualization and cloud computing is now like history repeating itself..sort of. Good report by Gartner on this attached. “Network technology has classically delivered features close to the application and server infrastructure. However trends such as data center consolidation, hosted virtual desktops and cloud computing move most application services back into the data center – either your private data center or into the cloud – and away from the access layer in campus networks. Additionaly with computing services eliminated from most branch offices, and few remaining even in larger headquarters, it is possible to rearchitect the LAN
Download Gartner-Rethinking-LAN-Switching