In the last WAN newsletter, we discussed some of the research that we performed in 2005 to identify whether or not there was an innovation gap in 12 selected components of IT. That research was based in part on a survey that we administered to 131 IT professionals. In this newsletter, we will discuss those components of IT in which there is the smallest innovation gap, as well as those areas in which there is the greatest innovation gap.

The components of IT with the smallest innovation gap were mobility, metro services, voice and LAN. It is important to realize that these results do not necessarily mean that innovation is not important in those components. For example, mobility had the absolute smallest innovation gap even though the survey respondents clearly indicated that they thought innovation in this area was very important. However, the survey respondents also indicated that they perceived there was more innovation occurring in mobility than in any other component of IT. As a result, there was a very small innovation gap.

The areas with the greatest innovation gap were security, performance management, management other than performance management and WAN services. Since security is often thought of as a management discipline, it is reasonable to say that three areas of management were at the top of the list, followed by WAN services.

Future newsletters will look at the innovation that is occurring in three key areas. Those areas are securing the WAN, improving the performance of the WAN, and implementing better overall management of the WAN.

One of the topics that will be discussed on the forthcoming Network Management tour being produced by Network World is the use of innovation to create more effective network management tools. That tour will take place in New York on Feb. 23, Denver on Feb. 28, Houston on March 2, and Washington, D.C. on March 8. I hope that those of you who live near one of those cities will get a chance to attend. More details of the event can be found here.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Jim Metzler is vice president of Ashton, Metzler & Associates.