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Juniper (JNPR) recently loosened up its purse-strings and bought Trapeeze Networks to fill the most obvious hole in its product line. Juniper purchased the WLAN vendor from Belden (BDC) for $152 million in cash. The Belden/Trapeeze relationship is something I never got, when I think Belden, I think cable, and connectors not wireless. NetworkWorld cites Gartner “…more than 60% of end-users purchased their WLAN solutions from the same vendors as their wired LANs, meaning that Juniper has likely been leaving a lot of opportunity on the table.”

David Yen, executive vice president, and general manager, Fabric and Switching Technologies, at Juniper (and owner of possibly the longest title in networking), told NetworkWorld that the industry is much more mobile, “it was time for us to include wireless.” GigaOm says that the purchase was a recognition by Juniper that the enterprise networks were going through a sea change, thanks in part because of a big upsurge in the number of mobile devices connecting to corporate networks. This proposition is backed up by a survey by BoxTone Mobile Service Management which found that 73% of the surveyed companies intend on deploying the Apple (AAPL) iPad as well as other iOS devices for use on their network within the next 12 months, with 25% of those companies set to deploy right away. More than 50% of those surveyed plan on deploying their own iPad app within the next 12 months, while 25% of those plan on deploying as many as three of their own iPad apps.

IT executives interviewed by WindowsITPro.com argue that the iPad isn’t for everyone, but is very well suited for users that consume more content than they produce, such as, e-mail and corporate documents. Another area where the iPad seems to be making inroads into corporate IT is as a device that displays content for cloud and software as a service (SaaS) business solutions.

Some of the iPad initiatives include:

• Mercedes-Benz is using iPads on showroom floors according to ZDNET. MB uses the iPad to present and execute the various financing options for customers without having to go sit down in an office.
• SAP the world’s largest business software developer has released an iPad app so that its customers can access their reports and corporate data with the iPad. ZDNET reports that SAP is also using and supporting iPads internally. Rob Enslin, the North American president at SAP, says that he now carries an iPad instead of a laptop when he travels. “It’s allowed me to almost run a paperless office,” said Mr. Enslin. He said that he uses the iPad to view business apps, briefing documents, customer information, and other corporate data.
• ServiceMax has developed an iPad app for pushing the device as a modern solution for field service applications according to WindowsITPro.com
• Rackspace has developed a configuration management tool for cloud data centers according to TechWorld

Dominic Orr, CEO of Aruba Networks (ARUN), told GigaOm that his firm expects to see future demand coming from corporations who are seeing a big shift in the way their networks are being used. “The network model has shifted from hotspots to ubiquitous and uniform networks access,” Orr said. Companies now want wireless access not only in boardrooms and hubs of productivity but also in stairwells, corridors, kitchens, and other areas. Why? Because the devices accessing the network are entirely different, he pointed out. “Our demand is being driven by smartphones and smartpads,” he said. In the past, laptops were used for wireless access, but it was difficult to walk around and use them as easily one can use a smartphone or an iPad. The smart devices, however, encourage anywhere computing, which, in turn, puts a different load on the networks.

Mr. Orr goes on to say that iPads and tablets are very multimedia-centric, which means folks are looking for good, solid, and even coverage across their entire campus, and not just in certain specific areas, Mr. Orr pointed out. “While netbooks and laptops have wired Ethernet built into them, the new smart devices can only access the Internet via mobile connections,” he added. “You either have 3G or Wi-Fi.” These demands for improved coverage have led the research firm Dell’Oro Group to estimates that the enterprise WLAN market will grow from $2.2 billion in 2010 to $3.4 billion in 2014.

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The iPad, and many new and emerging consumer devices, only have Wi-Fi connections network teams are going to face many challenges in the face of iPad adoption. Wi-Fi networks are viewed as a utility by employees, who expect to connect any device to any network to get connected. Underscoring a major societal and cultural trend of the connected lifestyle, Enterprise adoption of the iPad is part of the larger trend of consumerization of IT (which I have written about here, here, and here) in which companies are allowing employees to choose which tools they use.  The negative consequences of not allowing users to choose the products they want to use themselves simply aren’t worth it, according to Karl Ageberg, CIO at Lund University in a PCWorld article. That movement will also open the door to competing products from a growing number of Android-based tablets and Research In Motion’s upcoming PlayBook.

Some of the ways  iPads will force changes:

• Internal IT security to deliver secure access methods for all consumer devices in general.
• Security policy changes, to offer secure and controlled access to corporate data.
• Network and application security design, to provide secure and controlled access to corporate data.
• Network management to make sure mission-critical devices and applications get the required QoS and SLA required.
• Mobile device management platforms ability to control access and storage of sensitive corporate data on these devices.
  
• Support for consumer devices, owned both by the organization or by individuals.

Has the iPad breached your IT walls?

How has the iPad changed how you do business?

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.