These devices are indispensable to businesspeople now, and IT simply must support them. Yet none of the departments wants to chip in to pay for the extra manpower and security such support would require.

Meanwhile, you’re wrapping up a phone call with your regional Bell operating company account manager. She’s been lobbying you to sign on for the RBOC’s new DSL service to give teleworkers high-speed, always-on access to corporate resources. Until this aggressive pitch, you’d been leaning toward inking a deal with a national competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) specializing in DSL. You’ll have to put your decision on hold and reevaluate. You’ve heard whispers that the DSL CLEC is financially unsound, so maybe the RBOC is the right choice after all.

All this and it’s only 9:10 a.m. Staying on top of the routers and switches pumping data across the company’s network can be challenging enough. Keeping informed on what’s happening throughout your company and in the network industry at large is enough to bury even the most organized IT executive.

We’re here to help you sort it all out. Here’s a look at 10 power struggles in the network world that are sure to have ripple effects in your organization:

• The growing clash between users who bring unsanctioned applications and devices to work and net executives who must control them.
• The battle between RBOCs and CLECs for your DSL business.
• SBC Communications’ fight with regulators to decommission copper plant and replace it with fiber. Is this a bellwether case?
• The ongoing struggle of voice over IP. Which is better, an IP PBX or a voice-over-IP gateway?
• How network management framework vendors and point product makers are striving to build all-in-one solutions.
• The struggle to understand and choose a directory service.
• Quality of service vs. big bandwidth.
• Linux’s battle against the operating system titans.
• The jousting among network infrastructure, storage start-up and Fibre Channel vendors over storage-over-IP standards.
• The continuing contest between Sun and Microsoft on the application development front.