Network technology is fantastic in many ways. Properly used, it can save your company money and make it more efficient. However there’s one downside regardless of specific technology - it all moves so fast. New standards, protocols and advances seem to crop up every day in the fields of security and wireless, for example.

The same is true in the area of storage, and this week’s Management Strategies story in Network World examines how you and your employees can stay on top of this fast-changing market:

* Hands-on training. Pros say this is the No. 1 way to learn the ins and outs of a storage net.

* Mainstream training. Companies such as Global Knowledge offer a SAN Boot Camp.

* The Web If money’s an issue, a ton of information can be gleaned from specific vendors’ sites. White papers, case studies and more can be found to guide your way. Pros also recommend the Storage Networking Industry Association (see link below) for tutorials and more.

* Best practices and case studies. Learn from the mistakes of others. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

IT pros also say if they had to do it over again, here are the things they’d do differently when it comes to their SANs:

* Use a consultant. It can be pricey, but those who have used them say it’s money well spent and can save implementation hassles.

* Schedule as much time as possible between SAN installation and data migration.

* Check with software vendors to see if they recommend certain configuration settings.

Check out this week’s Management Strategies story in Network World for more advice, information and tips: http://www.nwfusion.com/careers/2003/0811man.html