Postal Service officials eventually may take the system wireless and use the architecture for other applications as well, said Clayton Bonnell, manager for international operations systems and support in Washington. For the most part, because federal agencies often outsource their WAN operations, the primary focus for feds is increasing services at the WAN edge. Upgrading the campus infrastructure also figures in the overall strategy to meet speed and capacity demands, with more agencies moving their LANs to Gigabit Ethernet technology, Deutsch added. At NASA, chief information officer Lee Holcomb is focusing on improving LANs. That's an area where a lot more work is to be done.
Work lies ahead For federal network managers, the challenges ahead are manifold.
We're going through a paradigm shift, from the standpoint of doing business on the Internet and with convergence. The paradigm shift creates complexities that put stress on organizations. Along with that, the whole planning cycle is changing so quickly. You've got to figure out how to react much more quickly. Planning well in advance is critical, especially for LAN managers.