You: Roundtable - A look ahead

A look ahead

Network World, 7/26/99

Note: Click on highlighted words to bring up a definition of them and links to additional resources.

The participants:
Russ Davis
Ass't. director, network services, Ernst & Young in New York

Mike Hinkle-Morrison
Former CIO at Pier One Imports and CTO at TGI Friday's restaurant chain

Gene Rindels
CIO of Respironics, Inc., Pittsburgh

Brook Smith
Mgr., network engineering, Forum Financial Group, Portland, Maine

George Sullivan
Sr. network architect,Northrup Grumman, Bethpage, NY

George Yeager
Mgr., architecture and design, Columbia Energy Group Service, Columbus, Ohio
What would you say are the most important steps you can take today to prepare your network for the years ahead?

Davis: By this point in time, you probably should have positioned your company's network to take advantage of the cost-saving technologies like frame relay and even ATM. And you should be well on the way to providing some cost-effective, high performance network solutions that accommodate the business needs of your company. And as new technologies, like DSL and voice over IP surface, they probably should easily integrate into some roadmap that you've developed as part of your overall strategic vision for the company.

Right now, you should not be focusing on simple network connectivity, or even LAN connectivity, but more on application connectivity across the enterprise with performance and service level objectives that are well defined. If you're not there by now, you'd better get there quick because there's a dramatic change in the network industry that's occurring and if you take that along with some of these rapid advancements and new technologies, it brings a whole new complexity to the networking industry.

Yeager: I agree completely. We're in the process now of installing an ATM backbone with frame relay internetworking. And we know that voice over IP is coming so we're buying routers that support voice. We know that thin client technology, and VPNs are ways to efficiently and rapidly incorporate large numbers of small offices into a network. Those are the steps we're taking.

Sullivan: We have a project underway called Infrastructure 2000, which is a refreshing of most of our infrastructure. One of the interesting things is that networking isn't necessarily driven by the network itself. We've had a goal since 1995 to have an all IP network. But probably like a lot of companies, we're not quite there yet. We're working on it. One of the goals of our infrastructure project is to replace those systems that can't, or don't, or won't use IP. For example, we're replacing a lot of the older Novell devices, specifically to get to the all-IP network.

Hinkle-Morrison: I agree with that comment. The word that I have been using is we need to simplify things. We inherited a lot of complicated networks. And the good thing about Y2K is it gave us a bit of an excuse to get rid of the old stuff and try to consolidate down to, hopefully, one protocol. In some cases, people have to have two protocols. But, really, the word for me is to simplify as much as we can and get rid of the complexity. And we used Y2K as an excuse for some of it.

Rindels: We want to try to position ourselves to best take advantage of new technologies, things that are emerging, such as convergence. So a key thing we're trying to do is to build in interoperability, and then also ensure that high availability is a key attribute of that architecture so that we can continue to meet our service levels and also be positioned to take advantage of some of the new emerging technologies.

Smith: It's interesting, from my perspective, being a much smaller company, to listen to all of you folks talk about simplifying your networks because you've got disparate systems that have been created over decades, in some cases. We're a fairly small company. We're in the opposite mode right now where we're trying to add-we're not trying to add complexity, but we're trying to add layers of redundancy and availability to our network. We're already an all-IP network because we're a fairly new company and we started out that way. But [we need to add] layers of availability.

Sullivan: If you mean things like back up links and so on, that makes a lot of sense. One of our projects at Northrup Grumman was to develop, over the past year, an inexpensive method of having a dial-on demand ISDN type backup for our customers that want it. Now, granted, it adds a level of complexity, but it also introduces the comfort factor and a safety zone in case of a failure of some network link or access point.

What skills would you say will be most important for network managers to have as we look ahead two or three years?
Davis: For network managers and even network engineers, there's a need to move away from some of the technical and physical aspects of networking. These are really not strategic, especially the physical things like DSUs and circuit testing - that's all been moved into the carrier space.

Overall, there's been this ongoing shift occurring with the entire data processing industry, including the networking area, toward letting vendors assume a much larger role. Years ago, carriers sold circuits. Then they rented DSUs. Now they configure routers as part of a network solution. That shift is going to continue to occur and quickly move into the LAN environment, and even eventually include things like voice over IP, which we talked about, so everything will be bundled as a total solution.

So, really, all these technical and physical tasks should be viewed as operational-oriented, and not as strategic jobs or projects for the network engineer folks. It's important to have an in-depth knowledge of these areas so you can manage the vendors, but the real value to companies today is the ability to understand network technologies. How can they be used to provide a foundation for new business initiatives within companies or what is the impact on the network of an application architecture? So the network engineer of the future needs to be tied to things that are strategic, like capacity planning, trend analysis, strategic network designs, and even things like cost modeling, which enables you to model different designs that carriers are providing and proposing to you.

Sullivan: I kind of agree with you. But I think we're talking about two general skill sets which are more people oriented as opposed to technical oriented, and they have to do with relationship management. The network is basically the relationship between a whole bunch of systems. And the systems are run by people. Probably the most important job for a network manager to understand, and to become very actively involved with, is being a relationship manager between the different people and the different business units.

The other important skill, and it's always been important in our area, has been project management. How do you get something done in your business environment? How do you go and actually go ahead and put it in? And it could be managing an outsourcer. But the point is that you still have to know all the buttons to push and the wheels to spin to get the project off the ground, funded, and justified. I would say those two are probably the most important skills.

Any tips for how you develop those skills?
Hinkle-Morrison: It's through experience, on the job. Project management and those kind of skills you can preach all you want, but it really has to be part of how you run your business. You have to have a methodology that's not just used in network management, but throughout the company. That way it's bred into the culture and you learn from that.

Rindels: I agree both with George and Mike. I think what I hear described are just raw leadership skills. There are many attributes of fine leaders and we seek to try and develop those at every opportunity. To become network managers, you typically have to have sound technical fundamentals or have been a technologist. In the coming two to three years, it's no longer going to be good enough just to be proficient as an engineer or manager. The business is demanding that you also be a sound leader so you can navigate, manage projects, and also be able to develop and mentor the staff that works with you or under you. And these things are often lacking in some of the very bright folks that we have.

Yeager: I agree. We're clearly moving away from the nuts and bolts. We need leadership skills, project management skills. We need to be able to create, maintain, and present for our customers a clear and steady vision. We've got to make things happen quickly, creatively, and we've got to have good measurements to demonstrate quality of service for our customers. And if we can't do these things, we're not going to make it.

Hinkle-Morrison: One thing that's been interesting in this question is that we talked about skills needed and I didn't hear any telecom technical skills. We're talking about a high level of skills and I've heard hints of outsourcing. The position is being raised to a different level. In many IS organizations, it is becoming a manager/leader, project manager role versus a nuts and bolts person. At least that's what I'm seeing in some of the organizations I'm working in.

Rindels: It's all about where we can add value to the business, and the business is asking us to add value in new areas. The senior folks now who are moving into the network management area typically have more intimate business knowledge and can have a more profound impact on the business. And this is where our leaders would like us to focus resources and energy.

Other sections of the roundtable:

Intro
Putting this discussion into context.

The press and e-commerce
What happens when non-technical execs read about the latest technology in the general media? And what impact has e-commerce had on your company in general and the network group in particular?

Convergence
If you could only focus on one network initiative for the next year, and Y2K is off the table, which one would it be?

Staffing and advice to vendors
What are your secrets for keeping and hiring the best people? If you could make the CEO of one vendor take your advice, which CEO would it be and what advice would you give?

Stress
I think anyone would agree that your jobs are fairly stressful. What would you say are the keys to handling that stress, and keeping your head?

The whole thing
The entire roundtable transcript.

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