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About seventeen years ago (that is painful to say) I was
working at an advertising agency in Newport Beach, CA. We had two IBM
Personal Computers and we had purchased an accounting system that I had set
up so that we could begin using a personal computer for accounting functions. The problem was we had this
program on one computer and the controller (my boss) and another accountant in the
office who worked along side me could not get into the program unless they came
to that computer. There were also some other people in the office that needed
an ability to view reports from this system which were printed on a large dot
matrix printer. Laser printers were expensive and
we had one of them connected to the other computer. As well we had a staff writer
that needed access to a computer for word processing. You guessed it we needed
a network. We went with the dominant choice at the time Novell. We used Arcnet
network cards, which if memory serves were connected by coax cables. Today the
dominant standard is Ethernet, this standard existed back then as well but was
much more expensive. What we did was called a Local Area Network (LAN).
Networking was not at all new but not every company was doing it back then. It
was considered kind of expensive so only larger organizations would do it. The
company I worked for was not large but they were thinking ahead to the
advantages. Now any size company can network, I even have a small network in my
house as do many others.
If a large company had two offices and wanted to connect
those systems together they could set up a Wide Area Network. The cable
connection between offices could be of a few different types which would
probably be boring to talk about here. If you are having trouble getting to
sleep some night however I could write something for you that would be sure to
put you to sleep. Routers that would route traffic from one site to another
would connect these two sites. Once connected the two sites could share
resources such as drive space, databases, printers and could even send messages
between each other. So there were a few Universities and some Government
organizations that had some great databases that they needed to share with each
other. They all got connected so they could collaborate on the research
projects they were doing. The end result of this project is what we today call
the Internet. Basically the system just kept growing until we are all connected
to each other. We don’t even call it a Wide Area Network any more it is just
“The Net”. The World Wide Web component of this is more of a software marvel
associated with this Internetworking of computers based on a programming
language called HTML.
When we were all getting used to this Internet thing most
of us connected to the net by dialing in to an Internet Service Provider. Most
of us are not an integral part of the Internet and do not provide any of the
“backbone” components. We are only clients of the Internet and that is why we
need a Service Provider. In our last article we talked about Application
Service Providers. This is a similar concept we do not maintain the major
hardware necessary to be on the network, we are just a client of the companies
that do. (I suppose this is the original “Web Service”.) Actually even some of
that is changing although most of us would not be happy with how it is changing
but more on that later. Now just a few years later many of us connect to the
Internet by faster methods such as DSL and Cable. Everybody on our network can
use this connection and it is amazing the difference this is making. The number
one software company in the world has had to completely change themselves to
accommodate this revolution.
We all are now part of one big network, we no longer are
just part of our Local Area Network we are part of the World Wide Network. When
I first got my cable connection I connected the Ethernet Cable to the Hub for my
Little Network and made a few changes to my computers settings and I was on the
network. I went to my network browser to make sure I could still “see” the
other computers in my network. What I saw was other people’s networks. I could
also see other people’s individual computers and I could even access other
people’s hard drives and printers. I disconnected my computer from the cable
and worked hard to get my firewall in place. There was no separation between my
network and other’s networks. We were all networked together. I could access a
computer clear across the country as easily as the computer across my office.
Of course this brings up the big issue of security, which to my amazement is
being largely ignored by many companies.
When I first set up a network 17 years ago it often took
many weeks just to get the software installed and configured with user ID’s and
proper security, when I sold networks we had it down to a week or less. Wide
Area Networks were later the thing that took more time to design and configure
properly. Today it is almost too easy to connect networks together. In fact
the thing we spend more of the time on is not connecting the computers but
trying to keep everybody else out. A common method of connecting remote offices
together today is called Virtual Private Networking (VPN) Network traffic for a
VPN travels over the Internet but is only intended for your desired guests. VPN
can be used to connect two offices together so that they can securely work
together. Some people are beginning to use this method to connect two offices
and I think in the near future many more people will do this as well. This
technology can be expanded on greatly. It can be used to connect remote job
sites such as are common in construction. Also remote or traveling sales staff
can connect to the corporate network. An idea which has not quite caught on but
obviously will soon is telecommuting. Certain employees can work from home
accessing the corporate network just as if they were sitting in the office.
Also some companies will choose to connect with their customers by allowing them
to network with them. Many large organizations already are doing this and it
will trickle down to the smaller companies.
There are some disadvantages of this network structure.
The biggest problem that should come to everyone’s mind is security. I will be
talking about security issues more extensively in a future article but now is
the time to introduce some of them. Most people are worried about intruders
from outside their systems and that is definitely an issue to be concerned about
but I believe the first threat comes from within. Something I have seen with
the advent of the Internet, employees are threatening the integrity of the Local
Area Network. My biggest source of concern is with free downloads. This is an
issue with some emotion involved for me. I lost a customer because the network
users were not controlled and the workstations were damaged as well as the
entire network. The entire system became unstable and I took the blame for the
problem. Beautiful or Humorous screen savers are cute but they take up valuable
resources and slow down the workstation. Other file swapping software such as
that used to download MP3 music files and some programs that claim to deliver
discounts on your computer also slow down workstations. A new twist is programs
that are downloaded along with these free programs designed to catalogue your
preferences essentially spying on you and also programs that allow outsiders to
use your “idle” processor to run their jobs. This last area turns your little
computer into a portion of the Internet backbone in most cases without you being
completely aware of it. This processing can effectively slow down your entire
network and it will be difficult to explain unless you paid for some expensive
monitoring of the network traffic.
In spite of the problems of one big global network I
believe these obstacles will be overcome. I believe this because of the extreme
advantage that comes from being connected to more people. Your business has
untapped employees that could be working for you and improving your business.
You also have more customers you can reach that you currently do not. There are
a number of great employees or consultants that your business needs to grow, but
they live too far away or are staying at home with the children because
traditional work does not have an advantage after paying for child care and
driving to work. Absentee and sick days could be reduced if your employees can
work from home easily with all the tools they have in the office. You may even
use this unified network to survive a natural disaster. (The original design of
the Internet took into account surviving the nuclear wipe out of a city, and you
can take advantage of that also.) Large companies connect with their suppliers
and work with them to manage projects by being connected. This gives those
companies huge advantages and saves all kinds of money in travel and meeting
time. Video conferencing is a big part of this that has not yet been fully
exploited. With the Internet and VPN as well as fully utilizing E-mail and
Terminal Servers even small companies can gain many advantages. The obstacle to
over come here is your own mind. The disadvantages must be considered and
addressed but try not to focus only on that, try instead to think about the
opportunities you will miss if you do not connect with more people through your
network. Think of the opportunities you can take advantage of by embracing this
key component of the Information Age. There are new business advantages you can
gain by being connected with your customers. Would you buy a car but refuse to
use the road systems that have been created? There are more specifics but I
have got to save that for another time.
In the future I believe this concept of one big network
will save your company in some way. Think of a way to take advantage of the
Internet, not just by being a user but by being an exploiter. You don’t need to
think about becoming the next dot com, remember most of those businesses
failed. But your company can exploit the resources and information available on
the Internet to make greater profit. I believe that is the future explosion of
the Internet that will blow away everything we all currently believe it is
about.
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