Baton down the hatches and ready the network…

By Ray Smyth, editor

When I look at the IT and networking sector, it strikes me that two things are required to continue its development. The first is a new approach using the products on offer in a radically different and objective way. This new approach should be better at selecting products (building blocks) on the basis of how they meet a specific objective or fulfil a need, while at the same time integrating them in a more intelligent and unified way to create Your Network.

The second also requires a radically altered and integrated approach, but this time concerning how the network is managed at both the macro and micro level; it has to become unified under a single management interface that provides all of the necessary access to whatever the customer considers to be important. You might call it an über management solution. In a way, it is a little bit like dealing with security. You can either purchase every single solution to mitigate every know threat or be more focused and define your risk appetite (what you can and cannot tolerate) and mitigate only those. Network management has to be selective as the complexity grows ever greater.

Even if you could afford the wonder child solution, could you use it all? So, what I mean to say it is that the network is mostly a disparate collection of point (even mega point) solutions and it needs to transition to become a bespoke network based on standard solutions that you select. For some this will not be a new approach. But if you believed it all to be ok, a careful and discreet check would be well advised as we all start to suffer the deepening grip of recession. Managed services (like the one reviewed in this issue) and new technologies (virtualisation) are offering organisations new ways of owning and benefit from the network and all its resources. Again, recessionary times dictate that these should be looked at again (and again) and considered in at least a five year view.

My guess is that we will be in recession for a while. This being so, IT and Network managers should be working out where their points of network strength, as well as their weaknesses, lie. This is not the time for financial surprises; it is the time for previous and frugal investment to deliver. NC

Ray Smyth - Editor