The decade in review - And the decade ahead

Insightful analysis by consultants Steve Taylor and Jim Metzler, plus links to the latest WAN news headlines

Dec. 31 marks the passage of not only another year but also of a decade. Consequently it seems like a most appropriate time both to look back and to look forward and to venture forth with some reflections on what has transpired and some ideas as to what we might expect.

Also watch: End-of-the-decade technology quiz

We'll start by thanking the readers of this newsletter. Even though the exact name of the newsletter has evolved, it's kinda amazing to us that we've had the distinct honor of chatting with you twice a week since June of 1998. So we'll start with a couple of comments from what (we think) are the first two newsletters written by Steve and Joanie Wexler (before Steve and Jim even met each other.)

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Dec. 31 marks the passage of not only another year but also of a decade. Consequently it seems like a most appropriate time both to look back and to look forward and to venture forth with some reflections on what has transpired and some ideas as to what we might expect.

Also watch: End-of-the-decade technology quiz

We'll start by thanking the readers of this newsletter. Even though the exact name of the newsletter has evolved, it's kinda amazing to us that we've had the distinct honor of chatting with you twice a week since June of 1998. So we'll start with a couple of comments from what (we think) are the first two newsletters written by Steve and Joanie Wexler (before Steve and Jim even met each other.)

The first newsletter had a title of "Frame Relay: Still Just a Replacement for Leased Lines?" The focus of the newsletter was on the ability of frame relay to provide meshed connectivity to replace "star" configurations to the data center. So while some of the topics mentioned there seem SO "Twentieth Century," there were a couple of comments that show that a lot of the issues remain the same. In particular, the tag-line for that first newsletter was "You might want to rethink your star-configured network if there is multimedia in your future."

Of course, at this point, multimedia IS the future. And in returning to this document, one of the most intriguing parts - which we cut for some reason - was a quote from the vice president of data communications from one of the major carriers of the time, stating, "The ability for users to do major damage to the network is greater than ever."

And indeed that has proved to be the case. If the potential for the network to run out of bandwidth is a major issue now - and also is behind a lot of the arguments concerning net neutrality - don't be fooled into thinking this is something new. The second newsletter stated, "If you think getting QoS guarantees across two disparate Frame Relay carriers is difficult, just wait until you try this with two ISPs."

Yup! So far we've been able to get excellent QoS in Internet-based networks simply because of the availability of bandwidth. But this issue still looms the same as it did 12.5 years ago.

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

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