2014 Wireless Study: 8 key findings on wireless technologies

Respondents to the Control Engineering 2014 Mobility, Ethernet, and Wireless Study identified these eight important high-level findings regarding wireless technologies:

1. Technologies: Seventy-six percent of survey respondents use, buy, specify, or expect to specify wireless routers within the next 12 months for business or professional purposes. Other top wireless technologies used or expected to be used were antennae (53%), gateways (53%), modules (47%), and receivers (46%).
2. Benefits: The primary advantage of using wireless technologies is data access, according to respondents. Other benefits include ease of use (30%), increased productivity (28%), cost savings (26%), and more effective maintenance (21%).
3. Expertise: Only 35% of respondents consider themselves to be experts on wireless technologies, while another 55% indicated they have “some familiarity.”
4. Integration: Operations or engineering most often works on, services, or integrates wireless technologies at 44% of respondents’ locations, followed by business IT at 20% and system integrators at 16%. Fifty-eight percent of respondents claim their wireless integration experiences in the past 12 months were somewhat challenging—compared to 40% in 2013—and 20% required outside assistance.
5. Security: Five in 10 respondents reported security issues as a main challenge with adoption or additional use of wireless technologies within their business. When implementing security for wireless devices, 67% follow set IT rules, 9% follow local department rules, and 6% rely on fellow colleagues to “do the right thing.”
6. Ownership: Eighty-two percent of wireless technologies respondents use are provided to them by their company.
7. Spending: When comparing the spending breakdown of the products, software, and services respondents purchase, 42% reported spending more on products and software than on services—compared to 45% in 2013—and 24% said spending was equivalent across both categories.
8. Protocols: The top three wireless protocols used in respondents’ facilities are IEEE 802.11n (61%), IEEE 802.11g (40%), and Bluetooth (38%).

View additional findings at www.controleng.com/2014MEW.

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