The Changing Face of the Network: The User and IT Perspective

Is 2010 going to be a year of huge change for the network? With the increasing use of video conferencing, web 2.0 and other emerging technologies, will users demand that the network and IT better support these performance hungry services?


Loudhouse Research, a UK based firm thinks so based on a survey of 152 IT decision makers in companies with 1000+ employees. The trend would tie the business to the network and the network engineer to the user more closely than ever before. The key question – is the network ready for these services? The user and IT perspective on the challenges with the network today can be viewed in the chart below.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
An interesting difference of opinion is in terms of performance which is at the heart of the network and new services.


I agree with the trend that Loudhouse points out is coming, but I’m not as sure about the timeline. What do you think? Do you see these changes in your organization?

We do know that the network is constantly changing, so it’s always better to be prepared. In my experience I’ve found it to be helpful to use tools, such as dopplerVUE to manage the network to make sure users are satisfied with performance and that IT is aligned with the goals of the business. There is a free 30 day download available if you’re interested in trying it for yourself.

IT Hiring Improving?

Here are some interesting data points about IT hiring from an industry article I just read. As usual there are some mixed indicators, but hopefully the market continues to improve.

• IT unemployment rate (5.5%) is only about half the overall market (9.8%)

• IT budgets are expected to grow a bit in 2010 (IDC predicts 2.9% growth and Gartner estimates a 1.53% increase)

• Hiring is increasing in areas including New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston (according to Robert Half Technology)

• Robert Half reports that health care organizations plan to increase IT hiring by 5 percent in the fourth quarter, while overall IT hiring is expected to remain flat

• Network security, especially securing government data, is one of the most desired skills (according to Dice.com)

• Many projects with higher paying skills have been put off, but the associated skills remain in demand : .Net, ERP development, SharePoint development, Virtualization (according to Dice.com and Robert Half Technology)

• Much of the hiring is occurring on the desktop side, desktop support analysts, PC techs, as well as program analysts and web development (according to Robert Half Technology)

If you’re looking for open positions, check out the careers section of our website. We currently have a web developer position open as well as many other IT positions in various geographic locations.

Will you Cause the Next Cyber Security Breach?

Friday’s edition of the USA Today contained an interesting article on the front page of the Money section “Virus targets firms’ financial accounts”. It goes on to explain how the Clampi virus is focused on attacking business computers where the administrator account is being used. Once hijacked, this account is then used to access PCs that perform banking transactions. Once the virus gains access to banking information, the damage can be quite severe.

The article discusses a series of steps to prevent these types of breaches, but, one in particular stands out. Don’t use your administrator privileged account for anything other than administrator duties. Create and use a “Normal” account for your day-to-day duties and ANY time you are surfing the net.

IT staff often use their admin accounts for everything. It’s simpler and saves time. Of course, this posting is written using my admin account… promise by tomorrow I’ll stop using it…

Networking Spending to Keep Steady, Despite Gloomy 2009 IT Outlook

Came across some information on IT spending that I thought I would share. Spending across IT sectors is set to remain low throughout 2009 and is not expected to pick up until 2010, according to a new report by TheInfoPro (TIP). The bi-annual global survey has seen budget cuts across the board, with only networking holding its own with 36 percent of organizations planning to increase spend (at least there is some good news) compared with 41 percent looking for cuts. This information is in line with Gartner’s survey where nearly half of businesses reduced their IT budgets in the first quarter of this year.