Only Wireless no desktops for new build

Rubbish - what planet are they on?

Sorry but for the cost of a managed wireless network that will cope with everything completely wirelessly you could have a 10gbe backbone and decent gig to station network.
Man hours will be increased.
Updating will be a pain
Load will be a nightmare - solidworks is a *!"£"! in the first place let alone before you add wireless into the equation.
How will software be deployed? What happens when you need to roll out OS updates that can only be done on a wire?
Will the staffing be able to cope?

This is not a dig at wireless which is a wonderful invention, this is purely a "What the Living Hell?" statement when considering a secondary school with high demand software. Sorry for being blunt but it just sounds like someone that isn't knowledgeable has been digging for buzzwords in their latest copy of PC World magazine.

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Originally Posted by ozydave

Nope. The standard response I keep getting is
The building is designed to government standards.

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Seeing as there are not any government standards for technology at the moment and the previous standards were categorically not to be used as a shopping list, but a framework to help identify the technology needed to deliver certain functionality. They can say that the design and specifications met certain requirements and that it meets all legislative requirements too (H&S, etc) ... but that is it.

Can they produce these standards for you to read and digest?

Can they give you real, working examples of these standards being used?

Specifications are not standards.

We are a an Almost Completely wireless site, all domain machines (except about 16 admin machines) are wireless and are laptops.

I am happy to speak about it through a PM, I can say it is not as bad as what you may think. We have all of year 9, 10 and 11 with 1:1 laptops, and about 1:2 in 7 and 8, we do also have some non domain wired machines (about 30) but these are light use. We also use 63 MacBooks for music, media and Art

Sounds like my worst nightmare! *sorry*

Laptops been charged no stop all day every day will knacker the batteries, the power connector and power packs break, the screens are a pain to change, and I am only talking about the laptops issued to staff for use at home.

Wireless does not allow the updating of equipment as easily as Desktops.

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Originally Posted by Michael

I'm sorry, but that is the most ridiculous comment I've heard in a while. What does it actually mean?

I'm hoping your servers aren't going to be wireless, so they're 'government compliant'.

With 1500 laptops, you're going to need a lot of access points. Maybe someone needs to be told they're going to be connected with network cables. I've come across it before that people in management positions think wireless literally means no wires at all. It obviously needs to get data and power from somewhere, which means you're going to or already have cables running to each area where you require wireless connectivity.

In my experience, whiteboards + laptops just do not work well in practice. A dedicated desktop with cables already plugged in 'ready to use' keeps problems low.

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Agree totally, this sounds like blue sky thinking by a consultant who has no technical knowledge, no thought of the infrastructure/support practicalities and no knowledge of current technologies/limitations.

Ongoing cost is going to be really rather high - you won't be upgrading machines like a desktop, memory maybe but that's about it.
In the days of tight budgets do they really want to urinate money away like that?

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:)

Thanks guys, just thinking I was the only one who can see the pit falls. We feel like we are the ones that are barking mad and we are not from this planet. Just waiting for my space ship to come and take us back to our home planet!!
I not against wireless, just the fact that they fail to see that it should not be the only solution.
To cap it all my team and I, (currently 4) will not have an office in the new build but will be housed in the primary school attached to the main build. Apparently we will be out and about all day long so there is no need for an office. Strange then that we will be the central storage for video cameras, headphones etc for people to book out.
BKGarry
You say you are almost completely wireless, how may laptops may I ask?
How do you manage large deployments of software, Office, Adobe, operating systems, updates and the like? Do you still do this over the wireless, I can’t imagine how this would work for 1500 laptops

I d love to image down that network!

The trouble is senior management see wireless working for surfing the web at home and they simply do not understand the issues in scaling this up in a school or business. Builders will love it as they won't have to run nearly as much cable reducing costs and hassle and will know doubt market it as better solution, the next big thing etc.
I'd make clear the potential pitfalls it written form now that way when it hits the fan you have some come back.
Not to say it couldn't work!

get your concerns down clearly and concisely in writing so if/when it goes wrong at least you can say i told you so probably worth trying to sketch out an alternative as it would probably save them cash.

as to "government standards" since when has a government it project gone well/on time/on budget

if you can set up a demo with 1 ap and 2 identical laptops and set them to deploy a common bit of software one cabled one wifi to show them the scale of the problem and point out with more laptops it will get worse unless you have 1:1 laptop to ap coverage

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How do you manage large deployments of software, Office, Adobe, operating systems, updates and the like? Do you still do this over the wireless, I can’t imagine how this would work for 1500 laptops

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All large sofware deployments will need to be done on the master image, connected to a switch. Typically images I create/deploy are 20GB in size. You can't deploy this, even down the fastest wireless connection. Once the client is configured, you can get away with small updates like to Adobe Reader, Flash, Windows Updates etc..

I agree with you there Michael, i find using Fog quite useful (i know i plug it a lot) as it uses its own client to rename the machine, meaning any XP and above OS retains any wireless settings without having to wait for GP updates

I agree i love fog to