About the Author
Lee Badman, CWNE #200, currently writes for a number of periodicals and blog sites, including Network Computing, IT Toolbox and SearchNetworking.With more than 15 years of professional industry analysis...
Full bio如果你一遍又一遍地做了同样的事情，它就受到理由你应该擅长它。在其中，有很多待保持统一的东西，无论是仔细管理的Active Directory还是部署在零售商数百个分支的相同无线网络拓扑的方法。当您每次都可以使其同样时，它很容易支持和讨论。但如果您对以某种方式做出如此舒适，并且只有一种方式，它也可能会对您努力。是的 - 我和你说话，一招了小马男孩......你知道你是谁。
不要让我错了，我也会重复。当您有一个大环境和小型员工时，它会使生活变得更加容易。我自己的非常大的无线环境仔细倾向，技术人员和工程师不必认为所有这些都听到了对积木和逻辑的逻辑，因为我们不快速拥抱制造异常，除非需要。这让我介绍了这篇文章的重点：有时需要例外。这是一个复杂的世界，“总环境均匀性”有时可以是一个非常强硬的线路。
In my main world, I have 14 controllers, almost 4,000 access points, a handful of SSIDs, and a generally well-run environment. Clients know what to expect of the WLAN and those of us who support it, there are few surprises in the course of a wireless day, week, or year, and given the complexity of Enterprise Wi-FI, I (and my bosses) are pretty happy. But I also learned years ago that you have to break your own rules sometimes. You have to stretch your paradigm, move your cheese a bit, and do things that you don't generally want most of your users to know about. This is where my branch sites come in.
For all of it's cost and horsepower, my primary campus solution is cumbersome when trying to extend it to the branch. yes, my vendor has a prescribed "branch mode", but I don't like it for a number of reasons and so choose not to use it. Just because it's available on a system we already have is not a compelling enough reason to use something when a better fit carries a different logo. I found an alternate solution that works far better for my domestic and international branch needs, and allows for the nuances (and we have plenty) that can make one far-away space different from another. We end up having a second management console, but I have found that to be the only downside of opting for Plan B in this case.
Then there are the user devices. Sadly, the client device space has never been more fragmented- even though they are all Wi-Fi devices from the 802.11 perspective, everything from required data rates to supported security types is all over the map (I'd love to see the Wi-Fi Alliance step in and clean up this mess with "requirements" for a device to be considered suitable for enterprise use) for many of the oddball devices that users bring. This client chaos means you're either telling users "no" to an awful lot of requests for cool things like getting Google Glass on the network (shame on you Google- put some stinkin' 802.1x support in your pricey toy for Pete's sake), or you're looking at a re-architecting of either your topology or onboarding magic to let the occasional one-off onto the WLAN. Or, you get creative- with quietly issued "free pass" configurations that are made with the requisite "you better not tell anyone about this" threats. Sure, you'd rather not do it, but these can also translate into huge wins on the relationship-building front and yield some serious interpersonal capital.
Thankfully, the options for handling BYOD challenges and user oddities are getting more robust, but there's always something waiting to throw you for a loop. Where once upon a time I used to grimace and mutter "military language" under my breath when the weird stuff popped up, I can now admit to actually feeling a little flicker of happiness at opportunities to flex my creativity. I'm highly cognizant of regulatory requirements and policies that have zero wiggle room, but I also know where my WLAN's little leveragable nooks and crannies are, and am glad to be able to make an otherwise dejected user happy now and then. Time has taught me to keep it between the lines, except when you just can't. In those cases, responsible flexibility is in order. Can you relate? What's your own story on straying from the norm out of necessity?
