Cisco Launches New Wireless Business Applications

Cisco Systems (www.cisco.com) today announced the Cisco 2700 Series Wireless Location Appliance, the industry's first easy to deploy solution for simultaneously tracking thousands of IEEE 802.11 enabled wireless clients from directly within a customer's existing wireless local area network (LAN) infrastructure.

The Cisco 2700 Series Wireless Location Appliance brings the power of a cost-effective, high resolution location solution that optimizes the performance of the wireless LAN for support of voice, data and now location, while rapidly locating security threats.

By providing the ability to integrate tightly with a spectrum of technology and application partners, this innovative appliance facilitates the development of new and important business applications that improve asset utilization and streamline business processes.

"Lee Memorial Hospital is dedicated to providing state-of-the-art healthcare in South Florida while meeting tremendous demand to increase operational efficiencies at the same time," said Michael Smith, CIO of Lee Memorial Hospital.

The Cisco 2700 Series Wireless Location Appliance uses the radio frequency (RF) fingerprinting capabilities of the Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS) to accurately locate authorized or unauthorized 802.11-enabled devices to within a few meters.

Building a single wireless LAN infrastructure capable of supporting multiple services also enables Cisco global strategy alliance partner IBM to target a broad range of industry segments with new wireless applications, such as location based services.

"Location services enable enterprises to deploy new business applications that harness the unique attributes of wireless mobility," said Don Lopes, Director, Global Wireless Business Development, IBM Global Services.

Together, Cisco and IBM are partnering to advance the use of active RFID tagging on a wireless LAN network to help customers such as Westchester Medical Center track and manage high-value portable equipment and 802.11 devices.

The Cisco 2700 Series Wireless Location Appliance enables a variety of business applications that take specific advantage of the benefits of wireless mobility.