IP networks will feel traffic pain in 2009. By Dave Rosenberg

Many are concerned about cell phone networks getting overwhelmed on Tuesday during the U.S. presidential inauguration.

Cell phone networks are built to be oversubscribed, using statistical analysis to bet against a certain of users flooding a network all at the same time. While it's never been a fool-proof strategy, it's worked reasonably well until recently when smartphones and bandwidth-intensive applications have moved to mobile devices.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10145480-62.html

Going With the Netflow for Network Management. By Drew Robb

For over 15 years, network monitoring for most companies meant using a utility which pings all of the critical devices on the network.  If the device doesn’t respond, a notification is sent out.  Since the early ’90s these utilities have become increasingly sophisticated, using synthetic transactions to ensure the actual application is running. Response time and availability reports can also be generated from the polled data and most network monitoring applications are even providing SNMP trends.

http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/_featured/article.php/3797511/Going-With-the-Netflow-for-Network-Management.htm

The Packet Trace. By Matt Brunk

When I was first introduced to Ethereal, it was to do the legwork--run the application, a packet sniffer (protocol analyzer), and then upload the data for the engineers to review. Pretty simple, but it still meant rolling the truck so the factory guys could figure out what was wrong--at our expense. Since those days we’ve been running the same application now renamed Wire Shark.

http://www.nojitter.com/blog/archives/2009/01/the_packet_trac.html

Know the risks of running industrial control systems on IP networks. By Shamus McGillicuddy.

In the never-ending quest to save money and boost performance, many organizations are migrating their industrial control systems onto IP networks. As network engineers get to know these new systems, they must tread carefully -- one mistake can lead to disaster.

http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid7_gci1344304,00.html

Comcast: New Network Management Policies In Place

Will 2009 be a better year for Comcast?

The cable operator seems to be off to the right (federally mandated) start. Comcast has fulfilled its pledge to put in a place a protocol agnostic network management policy by year's end, according to filings with the Federal Communications Commission.

http://www.appscout.com/2009/01/comcast_new_network_management.php

The NOC on systems management. By Jim Frey

EMA recently completed a major landscape survey on network management, including updates on technologies, process, and organization affecting the tools and practices used within network operations. One of the more interesting themes that emerged was the overwhelming indication that systems management is now part and parcel of most network operations teams' daily lives.

http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2008/122908-emamgmt.html

Data Mining For the Masses. By Seth Grimes

Data mining is becoming a must-have for enterprises analytics, but it still faces several obstacles to achieving everyday BI usage.

Data mining is a "must have": but can it overcome obstacles to mainstream BI inclusion?

http://www.intelligententerprise.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=WUUGTKOLX2WQCQSNDLPSKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=21400394