US:PA-3: Network Support a Critical Need
Network Support a Critical Need
Wes Fasnacht (wfasnacht@chesco.com)
Wed, 1 Oct 1997 11:01:29 -0400
A common theme throughout the responses of the people from the field has
been the lack of technical support people to maintain their networks.
Being involved with both the county library system and the local school
district, I see that need on a daily basis. While the e-rate is very
important to providing the external infrastructure, unless there is
DEPENDABLE ON-LINE SERVICE within each library/school district, the
capabilities we're trying to provide will not become the ubiquitous
communication medium we all recognize as being vital to our nation's
future. Each person in a library or school district ultimately needs to
view the PC as a basic communication device, just as they view their
telephone today (in fact, somewhere down the road, they'll probably be
one and the same).
Until my retirement a year ago, I was responsible for Information
Technology at a major state university. Of my 40+ staff, two very
talented people were dedicated fulltime to maintaining our network.
Schools and libraries have a much more difficult network environment to
maintain, with buildings scattered over a large geographic area, and
technical staffs totaling 2 or 3 people, if they're lucky.
Unfortunately, the number of technical people available to provide
networking support is very limited compared to the demand. And, the
business world has a larger pocketbook to throw at them than do the
libraries and school districts. We're probably some years away from the
time when networks are simple enough and the technical people plentiful
enough to provide the dependable service.
Meantime, we need to make the best use of the people who are available.
Some of the major networking organizations are operating "Communication
Nerve Centers" that continuously monitor their clients' networks and
trouble-shoot problems as soon as they arise. A handful of good
technical people are able to maintain the dependability of a large
number of networks. Networks naturally lend themselves to such remote
maintenance. Software issues can typically be resolved from the Nerve
Center, and relatively untrained local lay people can usually swap
hardware devices that fail (with directions from the Nerve Center).
I wonder if there is some way we could provide for such Nerve Centers to
service our libraries and schools? Perhaps part of the e-rate savings
could be channeled to that end. Since most of the networking companies
that will be providing connectivity to our libraries and schools operate
such Nerve Centers in one form or another, perhaps they could be
enlisted to provide the support all the way to the desktop.
Without some form of technical support over and above what they have
now, it is going to be some years before schools and libraries can take
full advantage of those wonderful pipes we're going to be running to
their doorsteps with the e-rate initiative.