7/27/2010 -- The sky's the limit in the enterprise WLAN segment, according to market watcher International Data Corp. (IDC), which projects a big 2010 for enterprise WLAN products and services. The surprising upshot, according to IDC, is that WLAN connectivity is no longer perceived as jus a "nice-to-have" technology in the enterprise. In a growing number of cases, Wi-Fi is a need-to-have essential.

That's one reason WLAN revenues will grow by nearly a quarter (23 percent) this year, topping $2.1 billion for 2010, the market watcher says.

"Unlike other markets that were ravaged by the recession, economic uncertainty and the structural causes of the downturn did not change the fundamental drivers for the growth of wireless in the enterprise," said Rohit Mehra, director of IDC's Enterprise Communications Infrastructure service, in a statement. "New applications, new devices, and new verticals are all contributing to the organic growth of Wi-Fi across all regions."

Enterprise-grade wireless is a considerably more involved proposition than is its consumer counterpart, however. Enterprise shops tend to expect more in terms of security, reliability, availability and adaptability, according to IDC. As a result, enterprise shops are embarking on ambitious -- and potentially costly -- Wi-Fi deployments. "More and more customers are demanding resilient, intelligent, scalable and adaptive wireless network infrastructures," said Mehra. "They are gearing up for widespread deployments across the board -- not just in the carpeted areas of enterprise and in the education market segment, but in widespread applications across major verticals."

Elsewhere, IDC reports, uptake of 802.11n should cross the 50 percent threshold sometime this year, such that more than half (57.5 percent, according to IDC's projections) of all dependent access points will be n-based.

Demand for WLAN will be so strong that it will depress demand for conventional Ethernet switch ports, IDC suggests.
 -- By Stephen Swoyer