Tablet computers are suddenly in vogue, thanks to the recent launch of the Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab and Dell Streak, with more products to be launched like the Blackberry Playbook. While a tablet of this kind is a great way to experience the Web, view photos and videos and use a host of applications, it is also rapidly becoming a business tool.

According to a recent Zogby International poll, the number one reason US consumers would use an Apple iPad is so they can work on the go. In India, the use of iPads is coming up in a big way with a majority of the Indian consumers gung ho over the device and trying to own one at the earliest.

Tablets as an enterprise tool

People are demanding mobile devices that blend consumer and enterprise functionality. Information workers and their employers are seeing the clear value of tablets for work-related activities. More than half of Fortune 500 companies bought iPads in the first few months of their availability. It won't take long before a smart phone and a tablet are many more workers' constant companions.

Globally, there are many examples to support this fact. A leading luxury car maker is piloting the use of tablets so salespeople can grab the latest details on a car and run credit checks from the showroom floor. A premier US bank is using them to approve multi-million dollar wire transfers. Medical professionals use tablets to view patients' medical images, health records and access key medical applications. IT managers use them to remotely manage and monitor business-critical systems from anywhere. And without a doubt, universities are filled with students and professors using them as an integral part of everyday learning and life.

Challenges of deploying tablets in the enterprise

Choosing a Wireless LAN (WLAN) solution that will meet the needs of mobile users for the next decade is critical. With mobile devices fast becoming must-haves for business, hospitals, educational institutions and retail, IT must ensure that their WLAN infrastructure is ready to meet new demands for performance, integration, scalability, security and mobility - at the lowest total cost of ownership.

Scalable performance: Wi-Fi performance is particularly important for tablets such as the iPad or Playbook because Wi-Fi is the only way to connect. There is no wired Ethernet port to fall back on if WLAN performance is unsatisfactory. Designing a high-density WLAN means taking into account performance implications such as limited or slow connectivity, of having many tablets, smart phones and other Wi-Fi clients in a small area.

Ease of integration: iPads and the soon-to-be-released Playbook use 802.11n technology, and an IT environment needs to ensure these high-performance devices will not adversely affect the performance of clients using legacy Wi-Fi technology. To maximize its benefits, tablet performance needs to be guaranteed in the presence of legacy Wi-Fi technology. Appropriate measures should be taken to prevent performance degradation on the existing set of wireless devices and applications, and overall network performance.

Strong security: How does enterprise IT ensure that tablet users have convenient access - while ensuring that sensitive corporate data is protected? Unlike the PlayBook, the Apple iPad and the Dell Streak were designed primarily for the consumer, but because of the high numbers of executives currently demanding their integration into the enterprise, IT must ensure that it can mitigate the risk of data loss or network compromise to meet growing set of compliance requirements.

Mobility with ease: Users expect seamless mobility when using mobile devices. IT must ensure that users can move across the campus, hospital, store or office, without breaking their connection so that productivity will be unimpeded.

Maximizing battery life: iPad gets about six hours (in practice) to ten hours (in theory) of battery life and the Dell Streak gets a full day. IT must ensure that network infrastructure is designed to maximize the available battery life on tablets to improve end-user experience and productivity. Battery life is key to mobility and if a wireless network is draining battery life, the use of the tablet becomes restricted with charging-up time.

Tablets look set to become the new way of updating patient records at the bedside, taking orders in a restaurant, conducting sales presentations on the road, checking inventory in a retail store, making notes in a lecture room and untold other uses. They are here to stay and as they become more and more prolific, with increased functionality, so the IT and wireless requirements must keep up.

Laptops now outsell desktops. Smart phones are everywhere. Forty-three percent of enterprise workers use wireless networks, according to Gartner, and that number is expected to rise to 58 percent by 2014. IT departments need to prepare for the wave of mobile devices arriving on the shores of the corporate wireless network. The mobile enterprise is indisputably here, and with an increasingly tech-savvy workforce and products that are more and more intuitive, the pace of enterprise adoption will only accelerate. The only question is ‘will legacy wireless networks be able to keep pace?’

The author is Country Manager, India, Aruba Networks