When Microsoft began installing its campuswide wireless network five years ago, it was something of a pioneer.
Microsofties scooped up the Net capabilities and soon everyone was surfing the Web during meetings. Five years later, though, the network is due for an overhaul. "The equipment is nearing end-of-life," said Sunjeev Pandey, a senior director in Microsoft"s IT unit. Newer technologies are faster and better, he said, as well as more secure and manageable.
The software maker has been taking bids for the new network and expects to pick a winner by the end of the year, according to Chief Information Officer Ron Markezich. By early next year, the company expects to be doing pilot projects with the new gear. The wireless deployment comes at the same time Microsoft is shifting much of its telephone infrastructure from traditional systems to those that rout calls over the Internet, so-called voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, technologies.