There's an influx of conversation focused on Bring Your Own Device, the consumerization of IT and how organizations can cope in today's multi-device environment.

IT and business leaders are being asked to securely connect thousands of devices competing for network resources; both wired and wireless while simultaneously supporting greater productivity in the workplace.

With this in mind, how can mobility be addressed at an infrastructure level to tackle challenges and enable opportunities for organizations and employees?

Recently, I participated in a Future of IT podcast episode with Craig Mathias, Principal at the Farpoint Group. We discussed how an IT infrastructure is key to enabling innovation and the role seamless mobility and why organizations should future-proof their mobility strategy through an infrastructure-centric approach.

One central themefromour discussion focused on theneed for simple, intelligent, secure IT infrastructure.

The reality of the situation today is that without the network we really can't get anything done.

When I look at most workplaces, Wi-Fi has now become the primary source of connectivity for user centric devices. As Craig mentions in the podcast, employees expect to be able have the same (or greater) level of connectivity as they would tethered to a cable over Wi-Fi -including making FaceTime calls and managing a host of other applications.

It is critical infrastructure evolves to support this growing volume of traffic including mission critical voice and video-conferencing over a WiFi network.

Craig described it best when he said, "Network managers need to be thinking about how to keep mission critical applications, voice data and video available on anytime, anywhere basis to a wide diversity of users who have a similarly wide diversity of devices and applications."

By addressing mobility at an infrastructure level, IT and business leaders can position themselves to take advantage of thegreater productivity and collaborationthat mobility enables.

Networks will become useless if they don't have the integrity necessary to provide the services businesses need to be productive. There are many challenges still ahead of us, such as security; however, the basic steps are in place and we have the technology to move forward.

It's my hope that as organizations evolve their IT infrastructure and department, they will consider how to support mobility in the most collaborative way possible, so that businesses can capture the value of a quickly evolving environment.

For more, listen to the new Future of IT podcast episode. The podcast is available for free download via iTunes.

Tweet us @Cisco_Mobility for questions or comments.