When it comes to the year 2000, the older the network gear the bigger the problem.
That is because vendors regard discontinued equipment as too old to deserve a fix. Users have to patch it themselves or toss it and get something that is year 2000 compliant.
Network Equipment Technologies, Inc. (NET), for instance, will not write a fix for older hardware modules that fit into its venerable IDNX multiplexer chassis.
And IBM says unglamorous components, such as old bridges based on 286 PCs, may face year 2000 problems but IBM will not fix them because they are outdated. "In the worst case, they stop working and won't pass data," said Richard Tobacco, solutions manager for IBM's networking hardware division.
Cisco Systems, Inc. has a similar attitude. The company will not even check whether a piece of hardware is year 2000 compliant if it no longer sells it.
The good news is that most networking hardware vendors are upgrading whatever products they currently are selling to be year 2000 compliant. Those upgrades generally are incorporated in new software releases and may be free, depending on service contracts.
Old and expendable
"Products that we're not going to do anything about are the ones that are end-of-lifed. They're old products. We're trying to let our customers know they need to start talking about a migration," said Paul Klepac, Cisco Systems, Inc.'s year 2000 program manager. That includes Cisco 1000 remote-access router cards, which are being phased out in favor of the Cisco 1600 or 3600.Fortunately, dumping hardware does not always mean tossing out an entire box. For example, NET's IDNX chassis can be upgraded with new cards that can run newer, year 2000-compliant software. "There may be cards and memory upgrades customers may have to incur in order to get to the current software release," said Bill Dolby, vice president of sales for NET.
Cisco also has some answers. "Our policy is if it's not compliant, then we want at least a migration path or a compliant version," said Cisco's Klepac. The fixes will be distributed through service packages and some can be downloaded from Web sites.
In some cases, swapping out gear that is not year 2000 compliant would be the user's choice anyway, particularly with low-end gear, said Dennis Breen, network services manager for Branch Banking & Trust Co., of Winston-Salem, N.C. "With the cost to upgrade, you'd be better off buying a new one," he said.
Management problem
The year 2000 problem itself is relatively simple. Many operating systems and applications register dates using only two digits. They cannot distinguish the year 2000 (00) from 1900 (00), so when the clock rolls over, devices or applications that rely on that date information could go haywire.That could wreak havoc with monitoring the network if error reporting or the logging of device uptime is disrupted.
Management software for networking hardware faces the most severe threat from the year 2000 problem, according to Al Hawtin, vice president of network and service management for Newbridge Networks Corp.
Newbridge already has a year 2000-compliant version of its MainStreetXpress 46020 management platform. But network managers need to be aware that interoperability among products from different vendors is not guaranteed, he noted. "Something could go wrong, but it's hard to know what," he said.
Is it really necessary?
Some users already had plans to replace noncompliant hardware before 2000. "Based on our upgrade patterns, none of the [potentially problematic gear] will exist in our network by the year 2000," said Ken Mangold, IS manager for J.B. Hunt Transportation Services, Inc.Some industry observers are skeptical about the problem and vendors' motives for pushing compliance. For example, some vendors are coming out with new releases of software and labeling it year 2000 compliant, according to Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corp., a technology assessment firm in Voorhees, N.J. But many such programs already were year 2000 compliant, he noted. "It's like announcing fat-free fruit," Nolle said.
