Understanding The Network Skills Gap

Organizations are looking to IT to bring cost savings and efficiency to the business in the unsure future of 2009. In most organizations, this has led to IT being tasked with increasing network design complexity through the uptake of higher-level networking communication tools as well as network infrastructure consolidation, often in tandem. In many organizations, IT may have mastered the initial design and implementation steps, but optimization and integration to the design of future technologies have not matured as a key network operations and management skill set. Understanding where this skills gap takes place in the networking technology life cycle, and taking steps to mature network operations beyond "install and run" competencies, will help ensure IT operations — and more specifically, network operations — rise to the challenge of making the business more efficient.