Predictions for Network Administrators

Computerworld - We had an overwhelming response to our request for industry predictions regarding network and systems management -- more than we could fit on a printed page. So here are more looks into the crystal ball for network and systems administrators, compiled by Computerworld's Mitch Betts.

CHAT OVERLOAD
Instant messaging (IM) will overtake e-mail as the largest traffic type on corporate networks. End users will resist the deployment of "corporate" IM systems -- those that record the messages in log files -- and continue to use AOL and Microsoft IM programs.
-- John Parkinson, chief technologist, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young US LLC, Rosemont, Ill.

IS SNMP DOOMED?
Mass adoption of XML-enabled end-to-end transaction services will force network management tools and people to assume responsibility for critical elements of transaction integrity -- orders, schedules, delivery management and other elements of the business value chain. Infrastructure managers will be held to a higher standard of accountability and performance justification. CIOs will want to outsource network reliability and transaction reliability from a single vendor, while management software and service vendors will have to dramatically improve their products. This will also doom many SNMP management systems that are essentially unaware of any application-related activity and status. New XML-based management standards will emerge.
-- Steve Sanazaro, partner, Tatum CIO Partners LLP, Atlanta

MOTHER OF ALL NIGHTMARES
Managing the performance of a Web services application that accesses remote services will be the greatest hurdle of Web services deployment. Call it Web services, .Net or Sun ONE, all these application frameworks are designed with one goal in mind: to break the monolithic application into tiny code segments that can reside on any networked host. Using this approach, business partners can access each other's applications and access global information services.
From an application designer's point of view, this sounds like a dream come true. However, from the performance manager's point of view, it is almost the sum of all fears: an application hosted on multiple servers in remote locations, with some of those servers not even under his or her control.
-- Benny Daon, CEO, Shunra Software Ltd., New York

VOICE ISSUES
Voice over IP will be one of the bandwidth hogs of future networks, changing the network management paradigm. This will create the need to monitor, report and configure classes of services based on applications rather than on devices. Companies that aren't ready to manage their networks based on applications won't be able to take advantage of this voice/data convergence.
-- Gerry Roy, director of product management