As more organizations embrace mobile computing and consumers increasingly rely on mobile devices to manage their always-on, hyper-connected world, Wi-Fi networks are quickly becoming the backbone for delivering an optimal user experience. According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index report, wired devices will account for just 33 percent of IP traffic by 2019, while Wi-Fi and mobile devices will account for 66 percent . Recognizing the interdependency of wired and wireless networks, Fluke Networks Enterprise Solutions, a business unit of NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, is rolling out new 802.11ac functionality in two of its portable network analysis and troubleshooting tools, the OptiView XG Network Analysis Tablet and the OneTouch AT Generation 2 Network Assistant.
“People increasingly judge the quality of a network by wireless access performance. If users experience a slow Wi-Fi network, or they can’t connect to it, or they keep losing the connection, their frustration mounts and the entire network becomes suspect,” said Daryle DeBalski, VP and GM of Fluke Networks Enterprise Solutions. “A faster wireless technology standard like 802.11ac offers significant upside, but only if IT teams can keep the network running at optimal levels. Our expanded support for 802.11ac gives IT leaders peace of mind, knowing their teams can quickly find and fix any wired or wireless performance issue to maximize end-user experience.”
According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, a non-profit consortium of companies that develop Wi-Fi products and services, more than 42 percent of the world’s mobile data traffic and more than 90 percent of the world’s tablet traffic ran over Wi-Fi in 2014,2. At the same time, the number of network-connected devices continues to grow at a staggering rate of nearly 20% by 20163 , according to independent research firm Infonetics.
With the number of enterprise users expected to grow by 10 percent over the next two years4 and each of those users more likely to carry one or more connected devices, enterprise organizations are moving quickly to adopt 802.11ac. However, upgrading to 802.11ac is not a simple 1:1 replacement of existing 802.11 technologies.
The 802.11ac wireless standard promises to triple the speed of Wi-Fi network connections, but unless the entire network infrastructure (both wired and wireless) can handle those speeds, end users aren’t likely to experience the full benefit of 802.11ac. Organizations upgrading to the faster standard need a holistic way to plan, analyze and troubleshoot the entire network infrastructure, rather than relying on multiple point solutions to test separate components of the network.
Fluke Networks Enterprise Solutions puts organizations back in control of the performance of their entire IT landscape and the user experience it provides — regardless of whether services are running on wired or wireless networks.
The OptiView XG is the first tablet specifically designed for the network engineer. It automates root cause analysis of both wired and wireless network and application problems, saving the engineer significant time and effort. The new version of OptiView XG comes with the full suite of AirMagnet Mobile tools already built in, enabling XG users to leverage the industry’s premier wireless network planning, deployment, troubleshooting, and security solution in combination with the market leading wired analysis capabilities.
The OneTouch AT is an automated handheld tester that network technicians use to troubleshoot both Ethernet and Wi-Fi network performance in real time by validating connectivity, service availability and path performance.
Both products are rugged, portable devices, enabling IT teams to connect, analyze and troubleshoot issues from anywhere—from their desk, in the data center or at an end user’s location—using a single, integrated wireline and wireless portable tool. This enables network engineers and technicians alike to:
- Reduce IT costs, simplify workload, and minimize user complaints with instant answers and guidance on security, performance, and voice issues
- Simultaneously validate wired and wireless infrastructure performance, mirroring the actual experience of end users
- Speed detection, location and resolution of faults, freeing up IT teams to work on other initiatives
The OptiView XG Network Analysis Table and OneTouch AT G2 Network Assistant with new 802.11ac functionality are now available.
The Latest
In live financial environments, capital markets software cannot pause for rebuilds. New capabilities are introduced as stacked technology layers to meet evolving demands while systems remain active, data keeps moving, and controls stay intact. AI is no exception, and its opportunities are significant: accelerated decision cycles, compressed manual workflows, and more effective operations across complex environments. The constraint isn't the models themselves, but the architectural environments they enter ...
Like most digital transformation shifts, organizations often prioritize productivity and leave security and observability to keep pace. This usually translates to both the mass implementation of new technology and fragmented monitoring and observability (M&O) tooling. In the era of AI and varied cloud architecture, a disparate observability function can be dangerous. IT teams will lack a complete picture of their IT environment, making it harder to diagnose issues while slowing down mean time to resolve (MTTR). In fact, according to recent data from the SolarWinds State of Monitoring & Observability Report, 77% of IT personnel said the lack of visibility across their on-prem and cloud architecture was an issue ...
In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 23, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses the NetOps labor shortage ...
Technology management is evolving, and in turn, so is the scope of FinOps. The FinOps Foundation recently updated their mission statement from "advancing the people who manage the value of cloud" to "advancing the people who manage the value of technology." This seemingly small change solidifies a larger evolution: FinOps practitioners have organically expanded to be focused on more than just cloud cost optimization. Today, FinOps teams are largely — and quickly — expanding their job descriptions, evolving into a critical function for managing the full value of technology ...
Enterprises are under pressure to scale AI quickly. Yet despite considerable investment, adoption continues to stall. One of the most overlooked reasons is vendor sprawl ... In reality, no organization deliberately sets out to create sprawling vendor ecosystems. More often, complexity accumulates over time through well-intentioned initiatives, such as enterprise-wide digital transformation efforts, point solutions, or decentralized sourcing strategies ...
Nearly every conversation about AI eventually circles back to compute. GPUs dominate the headlines while cloud platforms compete for workloads and model benchmarks drive investment decisions. But underneath that noise, a quieter infrastructure challenge is taking shape. The real bottleneck in enterprise AI is not processing power, it is the ability to store, manage and retrieve the relentless volumes of data that AI systems generate, consume and multiply ...
The 2026 Observability Survey from Grafana Labs paints a vivid picture of an industry maturing fast, where AI is welcomed with careful conditions, SaaS economics are reshaping spending decisions, complexity remains a defining challenge, and open standards continue to underpin it all ...
The observability industry has an evolving relationship with AI. We're not skeptics, but it's clear that trust in AI must be earned ... In Grafana Labs' annual Observability Survey, 92% said they see real value in AI surfacing anomalies before they cause downtime. Another 91% endorsed AI for forecasting and root cause analysis. So while the demand is there, customers need it to be trustworthy, as the survey also found that the practitioners most enthusiastic about AI are also the most insistent on explainability ...
In the modern enterprise, the conversation around AI has moved past skepticism toward a stage of active adoption. According to our 2026 State of IT Trends Report: The Human Side of Autonomous AI, nearly 90% of IT professionals view AI as a net positive, and this optimism is well-founded. We are seeing agentic AI move beyond simple automation to actively streamlining complex data insights and eliminating the manual toil that has long hindered innovation. However, as we integrate these autonomous agents into our ecosystems, the fundamental DNA of the IT role is evolving ...
AI workloads require an enormous amount of computing power ... What's also becoming abundantly clear is just how quickly AI's computing needs are leading to enterprise systems failure. According to Cockroach Labs' State of AI Infrastructure 2026 report, enterprise systems are much closer to failure than their organizations realize. The report ... suggests AI scale could cause widespread failures in as little as one year — making it a clear risk for business performance and reliability.