Recession-proofing your WAN strategy

It's a recession, all right. Unless, of course, it's a depression. Either way, the financial news isn't bright. Finance wonks can debate whether we've hit bottom and are now ready to rebound, or whether the worst is yet to come. But one thing we can be sure of is that things aren't going to improve right away.

So what's a telecom manager to do in these tight times? The good news is that there are steps you can take to save your company in the near term, future-proof your WAN architecture, and protect you and your team. Some pointers:

* Review your WAN contract. It's never too soon to revisit a contract, even if you signed it last week. If your team is sidelined, issue an RFP. The incumbents are likely to offer deals to keep you on board — and aspiring providers will do the same to get you to jump ship (including covering any early-termination fees). If you're within 12 months of contract expiration, you should expect significant cost savings. Because communications costs comprise 20% or more of organizations' IT budgets, a cost savings here can have a major impact.

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It's a recession, all right. Unless, of course, it's a depression. Either way, the financial news isn't bright. Finance wonks can debate whether we've hit bottom and are now ready to rebound, or whether the worst is yet to come. But one thing we can be sure of is that things aren't going to improve right away.

So what's a telecom manager to do in these tight times? The good news is that there are steps you can take to save your company in the near term, future-proof your WAN architecture, and protect you and your team. Some pointers:

* Review your WAN contract. It's never too soon to revisit a contract, even if you signed it last week. If your team is sidelined, issue an RFP. The incumbents are likely to offer deals to keep you on board — and aspiring providers will do the same to get you to jump ship (including covering any early-termination fees). If you're within 12 months of contract expiration, you should expect significant cost savings. Because communications costs comprise 20% or more of organizations' IT budgets, a cost savings here can have a major impact.

* Invest in videoconferencing. If your company hasn't instituted a travel freeze, it probably will soon. And layoffs may have already reduced the number of people you have available to work on projects — which means having folks out of the office is a real productivity issue. If you've got the budget for high-end telepresence systems, go for it — these systems are the first to fully realize the promise of "as good as being there". But even if not, vendors such as LifeSize, Polycom and Tandberg are offering cost-effective solutions that can deliver real value.

* Explore telecommuting as a way to minimize facilities costs. In the last downturn, the CEO at my then-employer faced a stark choice: he could maintain office space in the dozens of geographies where we did business, or shut down the offices and save hundreds of jobs. As the CTO, I managed a team of geographically dispersed engineers, most of whom worked out of their homes. My team and I were able to demonstrate that an all-virtual organization could work effectively. My CEO went for shuttering offices rather than slashing jobs — and saved a bundle.

* Explore managed services. Service providers may be able to cut operational costs in areas such as security, router management, desktop support and VoIP services. If you're issuing an RFP as I've already suggested, you should include managed services offerings.

* Take the time to build out your long-term strategy. You may not be able to spend money for a few more quarters, but having a long-term strategy for improving services will prove essential. Key areas to pay attention to are unified communications, mobility, security and the impact of virtualization (desktop, application and server) on the network.

Tackling these steps should help save your company money, protect your job, and position you competitively for the recovery — which will eventually come.

Read more about lans & wans in Network World's LANs & WANs section.