By Ann Bednarz
Network World, 12/24/01

Venture capitalists and analysts have the power to influence an industry through their actions and their observations. They help shape vendors' product development plans, and they guide enterprise buying. If only they could answer with absolute certainty — and unanimity — the question on everybody's mind: When is the economy going to bounce back?

Frank Dzubeck
PRESIDENT AND CEO, COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK ARCHITECTS

Dzubeck is quoted often on the state of the network industry, and his comments reveal a no-nonsense, straight-talking kind of guy. This year, he's laced the pages of Network World with commentary on Lucent bottoming out, Nortel breaking up and ultrawideband wireless taking off — among many other topics. His candor is his power.

Paul Ferri
MANAGING PARTNER, MATRIX PARTNERS

A venture capitalist for more than 30 years, Ferri founded Matrix Partners in 1982 and made it one of the most profitable venture capital firms in the 1990s. His string of successes includes ArrowPoint Communications, Equipe Communications, Sonus Networks, Sycamore Networks and Xyplex. The company continues to invest, though at a slower pace than in previous years, Ferri says. Matrix Partners backed four new companies in 2001, each of which received typical first-round funding of $5 million to $7 million, Ferri says. One area where he sees traction is wireless infrastructure; Ferri sits on the boards of two wireless start-ups, including Winphoria Networks.

Christine Heckart
PRESIDENT, TELECHOICE

Telecom equipment vendors and service providers look to Heckart for help bringing new products and enterprise services to market. It's a challenge made more difficult by the fact that market momentum is no longer on their side. Not only is the market getting smaller, but the pace of innovation among companies in the public network sector — the service providers — is slowing, she says. One bright spot Heckart sees in the telephone company sector is that the fiber glut many people say exists isn't a reality. TeleChoice last summer completed a route-by-route study of network capacity and found that only four of the 22 largest long-haul routes in the U.S. are overbuilt — which is good news for infrastructure vendors.

Tim Kane
PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL TELEWORK ASSOCIATION & COUNCIL

When Kane began his two-year presidential term at ITAC on Nov. 1, enterprise interest in telework programs seemed at an all-time high in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. For the next few months, companies will be in scramble mode, focused on fundamental telework issues such as connectivity and security, Kane says. After that, they'll focus on long-term strategies for supporting a distributed work environment — and Kane is eager to help. Though a niche association, ITAC is in a position to influence widespread enterprise teleworking initiatives, with resources addressing business and technology aspects.

Thomas Nolle
PRESIDENT, CIMI CORP.

Clients turn to Nolle for thoughtful, honest advice. A self-proclaimed industry realist, Nolle says he feels an obligation to be accurate as an analyst, not entertaining. He predicts the market for IT products and services in 2002 won't shrink further, as some are suggesting, but will instead grow slightly over this year's figures. But don't expect a turnaround overnight. In the IT industry, "nothing important can happen quickly, unless it's bad," he says. Instead of extravagant, investments will be "pedestrian and [return-on-investment]-driven," he says.

Dave Passmore
RESEARCH DIRECTOR, THE BURTON GROUP

What's the hot technology these days? There isn't one, according to Passmore. Other years he could point to optical networking or wireless LANs, he says, but today "there is no more hot area." Passmore leads network infrastructure research at The Burton Group and continues to shape NetReference Architecture, a planning model for networks that he helped develop and The Burton Group acquired two years ago when it bought the company Passmore founded.

Winn Schwartau
PRESIDENT, INTERPACT

Schwartau teaches security awareness to commercial and government clients. Just about every government agency in the U.S. and several foreign government organizations have used his services. One tendency he sees across clients is that people view network security exclusively as a technology issue. But Schwartau advocates a "new security triad," which is a synthesis of three security components: cyber, physical and people. It's not a new concept for Schwartau, but more people are listening to his advice following the terrorist attacks. "Bittersweet" is how Schwartau describes the recognition that his theories about an Electronic Pearl Harbor — a term he coined — are not just scare-mongering.

Linus Torvalds
LINUX DEVELOPER

Torvalds started 2001 with the release of the long-awaited Linux 2.4.0 kernel — a debut that is helping the open source operating system make significant headway in corporations. Developers and users were eager for the new code, which offers increased symmetrical multiprocessing scalability and other features to make it easier for users to run corporate applications on Linux-based servers. IBM and Hewlett-Packard are working on carrier-grade servers suitable for telephone companies and large enterprise deployment.

John Walecka
FOUNDING PARTNER, REDPOINT VENTURES

While other venture capitalists may be lying low, Walecka isn't. He says the best time to invest in new companies is during a recession, and Redpoint has backed 12 new companies in 2001. "People are more patient, and there's time to get things done [during a recession]," says the venture capitalist who backed infrastructure companies such as Agile Networks, Optimight and Xylan. Market focus these days is on selling to enterprise and traditional carrier customers, he says, as the CLEC market has essentially vaporized. Walecka sees opportunity in wireless data technology and says there's room for innovation in the enterprise storage market, which is going through "major discontinuity."

Phil Zimmermann
CRYPTOGRAPHIC CONSULTANT

The inventor of Pretty Good Privacy, Zimmermann remains unwavering in his beliefs that privacy is paramount. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Zimmermann released a statement reiterating his belief in the importance of cryptography for protecting privacy and civil liberties: "Did I re-examine my principles in the wake of this tragedy? Of course I did. But the outcome of this re-examination was the same as it was during the years of public debate, that strong cryptography does more good for a democratic society than harm, even if it can be used by terrorists. Read my lips: " 'I have no regrets about developing PGP.' "