Networking

New Mexico Business Journal, Sept, 1995 by Arlene Odenwald

A computerized office used to mean a number of dumb terminals -just a monitor and a keyboard - connected by dedicated circuits to one mainframe computer - the brain behind the system. That's the way it used to be up until the late 1970s.

Since then a quiet but radical information-sharing revolution has been occurring in small businesses, large corporations, and educational institutions across the country. It's called networking, or what those in the know like to call distributive computing.

By whatever name, it consists of a number of desktop PC computers and several file servers or computers connected by a networking system, such as Ethernet, one of the more popular systems used today. Why networking over mainframes? Networking became an option when microcomputers became more powerful, says Glenn Perkal, director of sales for Integrity, a local purveyor that specializes in networking systems and that also sells related hardware and software. Integrity, by the way - a business that likes to bill itself as a "total solution" kind of computer service company - has grown 100 percent a year since it opened for business more than three years ago.

Networking gives you more computer power for less cost, says Perkal. It cuts down on overhead and other administrative costs.

"It's also a better way to share resources," says Kelly Mentzer, telecommunications manager at the Albuquerque Technical-Vocational Institute, which converted its mainframe into a network that includes 20 file servers and several hundred PC desktops.

Sharing Resources

But what does it mean to share resources? Ask Randy Willet, a network specialist at Sun HealthCare, who says that without networking each desktop computer would need its own printer, for example. With networking PC users share printers. That's a simple example.

With the ability to share resources comes the democratization of power among users. The demise of the traditional top-down structure of mainframes and the conversion to networking has also changed the power structure within the office. Networking places more power in the hands of PC users. David Heil, president of High Tech Associates, another computer purveyor, says this in turn augments the sale and importance of security systems.

Security is a driving force when configuring a network, said Heil, and it's all relative. A bank's security is more important than a small machine shop's, and Sandia National Labs' security is more vital than a bank's.

PC users also share other devices, such as fax modems and file storage. Local computers - unconnected to networks - have their disadvantages, says Willet. First, PC users generally don't back up their local computers, and second they have limited storage capacity in their hard disks. With networks, however, storage capacity increases exponentially and backups are done routinely and automatically once a day.

In fact, the more companies computerize, the more pressure grows on those who haven't. Competitors can get passed by unless they computerize, says Perkal. Computers talk to computers and computers talk fast. Computers mean speed and access to information - information like projects and contracts that are not available to those who aren't computerized.

Engineering companies, in particular, have taken the lead in the recent networking frenzy. Indeed, engineering companies that do not computerize may find themselves eating the dust of those that have. Wilson and Company Engineers is a good example of an engineering company that decided to computerize, seeing some practical and substantial benefits in the process. Six years ago the company hired Ted Ortiz, manager of the company's microcomputer and information systems, to lead the company into the computer age.

Needed: More Computer Specialists

Ortiz is a one of a growing number of computer specialists who are becoming a fixed part of today's companies. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of jobs for computer system analysts, engineers, and scientists will go from 1.3 million today to 2.1 million in 2005, a 55 percent increase.

Ortiz' first job with the company was to get an up-front economic commitment. "We had two computers. But I wanted to put a computer on each person's desk, and there were 60 people," says Ortiz. That meant big money. Getting that commitment was a big hurdle, he said. But once that hurdle was jumped, "we came up with a five-year budget to implement the system."

The next hurdle was educating the engineers and other employees. "They were still thinking manually about doing things," Ortiz said. Once that was accomplished, productivity jumped.

"We discovered that networks encourage group work." It's easier to share information, therefore people don't work alone as much. The next problem was how to handle and store all the data company engineers were creating.

Wilson and Co. then connected its office's local area network (LAN) via modem to its accounting firm's network in Salina, Kan., creating a wide area network, which communicates between locations within cities, or between cities and states. Communications that used to take days or at least a day at Wilson today takes seconds.