On Thu, 6 Dec 2001, Pete Kruckenberg wrote:
Though I can name off several 'credentialed' network engineering gurus and the 'bibles' of network engineering, a recent discussion about the source of network operations 'best practices' left me speechless, and curious.
Who is/are the network operations equivalents of people like Peter Drucker and Jack Welch--people who are looked at not only has role models for operations success, but as luminaries in the industry for having established and educated the masses about best practices?
A very intersting question. I too can think of people, books, and practices that lay out best practices for network design, but not operations. [One can argue that if those practices are followed, operations becomes simple - but, as we all know, that 's not the case]. I can also think of a few people who can be considered luminaries as regards network security - Cliff Stoll, Mark Eichin and Jon Rochlis, and more recently, the CERT organization. But for general operations, your statement seems to hold true:
Most network-oriented training seems to focus on the technology, not on operations (and those subtle but ever so critical differences between knowing how something is /supposed/ to work and how it /really/ works, and all of the effort it takes to create a smooth-running operations engine).
What are the network operations equivalents to business programs such as Six Sigma? What about something similar to
I recall a lot of very good people from my days at BBN, and we certainly developed a lot of internal policies and procedures - particularly for our government customers, who tend to insist on such things. I expect there ar also a lot of people, policies, and procedures hidden within various carriers, ISPs, and corporate IT/networking departments - but a lot of that doesn't get visibility, at least in part because carriers tend to consider such things to be proprietary information. We really do need such information. Miles Fidelman ************************************************************************** The Center for Civic Networking PO Box 600618 Miles R. Fidelman, President & Newtonville, MA 02460-0006 Director, Municipal Telecommunications Strategies Program 617-558-3698 fax: 617-630-8946 mfidelman@civicnet.org http://civic.net/ccn.html Information Infrastructure: Public Spaces for the 21st Century Let's Start With: Internet Wall-Plugs Everywhere Say It Often, Say It Loud: "I Want My Internet!" **************************************************************************