The poetry of departure

11/13/08

In the novel "From Russia with Love", author Ian Fleming describes the waiting platform for the Orient Express as throbbing with the "tragic poetry of departure". The phrase aptly describes the feelings we have when we separate from friends or family. Whether we are the ones boarding the train or the ones standing on the platform watching others depart, the act of departure often brings feelings of emptiness, loneliness, and sadness.

Extremism in defense of security is no vice

09/04/08

During his acceptance speech for the 1964 Republican presidential nomination, Barry Goldwater proclaimed "…extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." As a supporter of a strong defense during a time when the Vietnam peace movement was gathering momentum, Goldwater was portrayed as an extremist by his political rivals. Even though this image of a hawkish warmonger would be used to the Democrat's advantage during the presidential campaign, Goldwater stood by his principles.

Get your head into this cloud

07/07/08

Cloud computing is starting to billow, and soon could be taking the business world by storm.

Is your reputation at risk?

05/19/08

What we hear or read about someone can shape our ideas well before we actually meet them. That makes some believe that reputation could be the next online-identity risk.

A call to action on Web 2.0

03/20/08

In the book "The Life of Reason", the Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana states that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Those of us in IT who want to be viewed as something more than a "utility" need to harken to these words, for we are on the verge of repeating the past and being condemned to the role of "commodity".

A New Year’s wish list

01/30/08

IT wish lists often resemble a technology shopping list — new PCs, routers, servers, and applications, more training and bigger gadgets. My New Year’s wish list contains none of these, but if my wishes come true, 2008 can be one the best years for IT.

Watch out for e-mail hijack scams

11/13/07

I received an interesting e-mail the other day. It was an advertisement for a Web site (i.e. spam) that supposedly offered Swiss watches for sale. Now I get a lot of this type of spam every day, but there was one thing that set this one apart – it was from me!

The Magic of IPv4

08/02/07

Early in my network career I had to explain to my boss why we needed head-end routers in the data center. Coming from an application background, he didn’t understand data connectivity and thought the packets somehow went directly into the mainframe through the “ether” net I kept talking about. Somehow I survived that career-challenging meeting and adequately explained basic network connectivity in a way that allowed me to keep my job and purchase the needed routers.

ITIL — It’ll more than do

06/04/07

Version 3 of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library was released officially on May 30, and from what I have seen, it takes a giant step toward elevating the importance of ITIL from a business standpoint.

Voice vs. data: how times have changed

03/28/07

I remember the day I focused my career on data networking. It was 1993, and I was supporting Novell LANs, X.25 WANs and, as part of a departmental cross-training initiative, PBX installations and international voice services.

2007 IT strategy: More of the same

01/11/07

It's a new year and time again for technology analysts and industry pundits to make their annual predictions on IT trends and technologies.

Engineering, finance are no longer separate

10/23/06

For all the knowledge of technically astute network engineers and architects Yoke has known, he says many could not accurately calculate equipment costs, implementation costs and total cost savings.

The 'me' in team, and what it means

08/07/06

Motivation is a primary factor in whether goals are missed, met or exceeded. Motivation determines whether people can't wait for their feet to hit the floor in the morning to get to work - or hit the snooze button and spend another five minutes dreaming of a better life.

Here we go again . . . sort of

06/05/06

In network computing, everything old is new again. Grid computing touts many benefits that sound very familiar to those of us who worked with 1980s mainframe computing.

Learning to live with spam

04/03/06

Common sense is the best defense against becoming a victim of spam. Never send your bank account information to anyone via e-mail. Never enter your credit card information unless you have verified the validity of a Web site. And no matter what the e-mail says, the IRS never, repeat never, gives someone an additional tax return.

Visit the IT SPA in 2006

01/16/06

Just as a trip to a real spa is meant to invigorate the body, mind and spirit, a dive into the IT SPA can invigorate your career and provide bigger challenges, bigger rewards and hopefully bigger paychecks. Take time to visit it in 2006.

The Ten Years Ago Blues - not!

10/24/05

The 1995 networking world was vastly different than the one I support today.

The Internet - redundant, reliable and risky

09/05/05

The one potential issue with VPNs is stability - and here is where the confusion comes in. VPN supporters argue the Internet is fully redundant and has never gone down - and they are correct. VPN opponents argue Internet connectivity can be unstable, with extended outages that can impact the revenue stream - and they too are correct. How can both be right?

For service management, ITIL have to do

07/11/05

With the emerging emphasis on IT as a service provider and the need for all organizations to become compliant with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and HIPAA, ITIL and all the other frameworks will become more prevalent as a way for IT organizations to organize in a way that will monitor and maintain their value.

So where is all the IPv6?

05/09/05

Even with all the hype about IPv6, I know of very few implementations outside of educational institutions, the federal government, telecom companies or research organizations. In the corporate world, IPv4 remains king. And from what I can see, it will remain king through this decade.

'86' the VoIP cost savings

02/28/05

If you are analyzing VoIP and see substantial cost savings, re-check your numbers. You probably left something out. To paraphrase my old kitchen staff: 86 VoIP cost savings. There ain't none.

DSL: The best (and worst) of times

01/10/05

From my recent experience, carrier-provided, business-class DSL appears to be an over-rated and overpriced service that does not bring the value to justify the added cost. The value of DSL - higher bandwidth at a lower cost - can best be offered by the LECs that own the entire infrastructure and can resolve problems in a timely manner.

The best laid plans

11/01/04

Poet Robert Burns' words reflect many IT managers' sentiments regarding projects that started strong but ended miserably.

Training for convergence

08/16/04

Converged networks will create the need for specialized knowledge that will elevate the status of network engineering to levels not seen in the last few years. To capitalize on these opportunities, network engineers need to put in place a training plan to gain not only IP skills but also the knowledge of voice technologies. Now where did I put my copy of Newton's Telecom Dictionary?

Take a SIP, but don't bury H.323

06/07/04

H.323 is as "dead" as SNA, ISDN or COBOL. While it may no longer be part of the overall VoIP strategic direction, it will continue to be used well into the next decade.

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