Let the Good Times Roll

These are good times for Network Computing. Our October 27 issue was the largest in well over a year, and though it's hard to describe exactly, I feel as though our editors and contributors have hit their stride through the past few issues. This one is no exception. While such coverage has always been a part of the NWC fabric, over the past nine months we've recommitted ourselves to addressing the hottest topics you face. To that end, you'll continue to find extensive stories on the most important and FUD-filled topics in our industry, including NAC, SOA, WAFS, AFE, VoIP, SaaS and a pile of other TLAs (and FLAs) that were unknown just a few years ago.

From a news magazine, you'd certainly expect nothing less. However, from a magazine that prides itself on hands-on testing, it's a whole different matter. Stalwarts in other industries, such as Consumer Reports, Car and Driver and Stereo Review, have a different task before them. Sure, cars get new features, appliances do more and stereo speakers are made with cool new polymers that challenge a test, but the basic point of the technology remains the same. Not so for us. Our industry evolves incredibly quickly, and that presents a unique challenge that only NWC consistently meets.

Our drive to meet that challenge is our not-so-secret sauce. This issue's cover story is a great example. Although I'm not the betting man I once was, I'd wager relatively few of you have considered the convergence of physical and logical security. (Executive editor Lorna Garey has coined the term physicalogical; we'll see if it sticks.) The Department of Homeland Security is pushing convergence, so you can bet it'll be a priority for any business that contracts with the government.

As we do our best to "crystal ball" the future with our coverage at NWC, Dave Molta reminds us in his column just how futile that effort can be--if you take it too far. However, where Dave faults simplistic models, I tend to fault the certainty in what are always uncertain assumptions.The Ethernet versus Token Ring battle is a classic example. The assumption was that advances in IC technology would render the relatively lower-cost-to-implement Ethernet irrelevant (Token Ring requires about five times more circuitry to implement). Ethernet's simplicity, however, lent itself to implementing many interfaces on single chip when it wasn't possible with Token Ring--and thus was born Ethernet switching. Fairness is irrelevant when each connection has its own link.

Alas, early prognosticators thought fair access to shared media would be the deciding factor, and so they predicted that by now Ethernet, like ARCnet today, would be a networking footnote. We keep both feet in the real world--your world--so we won't make recommendations like that. You can bet on it.

Art Wittmann is editor in chief of Network Computing. Write to him at [email protected].