Making the most of what you've got

Chris Gabriel, product marketing manager for Europe at Cabletron, says it's time Vars took advantage of everything a good network can offer

What's the difference between deploying technology and leveraging IT?

No, this is not a very poor joke - it's a question we should all be asking ourselves every time we look at implementing another piece of hardware, or spending money on a user service.

The networking industry is a great example of how leveraging technology for the benefit of the business can be seen as different from simple deployment.

A network is there to host and transport company data. I am not going to discuss the merits of 10/100 to the desktop, ATM or Gigabit in the backbone, or if Rmon per port is mandatory in a network switch. Why? Because the physical topology of the network - the port density of a switch or the pros and cons of Gigabit versus ATM - is a technology decision, not a business decision.

A business decision is: how do I allow users to access their data more effectively? How do I enable MIS departments to deploy and control services more rapidly? How do I ensure that every pound spent on the network has quantifiable payback to the company? Technology isn't irrelevant, but every organisation has a 'business fingerprint' and as far as I am aware, no company structure was devised around the limitations of IP or the choice between packets and cells in the backbone.

Companies are flexible, organic entities, which may not change their structure in 10 years, or may change people's roles and functions on a daily basis. Networks have to be able to cope with different types of organisations, be they highly structured and secure or flexible, innovative and dynamic.

So the advent of directory enabled networks (Den), application and user quality of service, policy management and accounting services should be seen as important progress in the networking world.

Den, for example, will allow the user the application, the operating systems and the network to be integrated around a single directory structure, enabling a more flexible operating environment. Den will provide companies with far simpler management of their entire IT implementation and enable more effective leveraging of technologies such as voice over IP and video services.

Companies including Netscape, Microsoft and Novell are creating standards-based directory servers where a user's complete profile can be stored and accessed by any compliant device. The MIS department now just has to administer a single database entry for each user, and disparate services can then use that information to configure themselves. This allows for real hot-desking and automated network changes. As a result, less cost is involved in managing the IT.

This enables all the different disciplines within the MIS and business departments to formulate a company/user policy and implement it across all components very quickly and simply.

Accounting services can then track these policies, providing detailed reporting of who is using what, for how long, how much data they are transmitting and receiving, and any other transactions that the user undertakes.

These developments make the network smarter. They allow resellers to map their network to customers' businesses, rather than making the business fit the network.

Every company has a unique identity, with unique working practices. The IT infrastructure has to be able to cope not only with the demands made of it now, but also in the future, adapting to additional services as and when the business plan requires it to.