Usage of smartphones, tablets increase at workplaces

Smartphones and tablets have become an integral part of our lives. With smartphone penetration exceeding 60 percent, Saudi Arabia ranks high in global reports of smart device usage.
According to a recent Aruba study, #GenMobile — an emerging population marked by their preference for all things mobile — would give up coffee and eating out before their mobile devices. In Saudi Arabia, 82 percent of respondents surveyed by Aruba own three or more connected devices and they also display the second highest ownership of tablets (31 percent).
Instead of a desk phone, #GenMobile communicates using apps such as Microsoft Lync, FaceTime, Hangouts, WebEx and GoToMeeting, which establish peer-to-peer voice and video flows. And as soon as the Wi-Fi network is in range, the Photos app on almost every iPhone automatically synchronizes to iCloud. Then there’s the YouTube effect — streams of video content have become a core part of everyone’s Internet experience on all devices.
Collaboration with mobile apps requires a WLAN smart enough to know Lync from YouTube — and treat that traffic accordingly. With a little upfront planning and some smart technology, IT can dramatically improve the quality of users’ mobile app experience on workplace Wi-Fi networks.
Nawar Hasan, technical manager for Middle East and Turkey at Aruba Networks, lists some essential Wi-Fi services, which provide a smartphone and tablet experience that #GenMobile can trust:
Push Wi-Fi everywhere; increase Wi-Fi capacity with a stable 802.11ac Wi-Fi foundation; deliver a reliable unified communication experience; wireless printing; app sign-on; regain control of cloud-based apps; and monitor app performance on networks.
Ensure your network management tools have application-awareness, which is a key to speedy problem resolution and making informed design decisions. In addition, having a single pane of glass to monitor networks and applications eliminates the need for IT to reproduce errors and correlate data from multiple platforms and people.