The bankruptcy of Europe's largest data network provider offers a
wake up call to all IT managers
As Computer Weekly went to press, the fate of Europe's largest data
network was hanging in the balance. KPNQwest, the bankrupt telecoms
and Internet service provider with more than 100,000 corporate
customers across the continent, was pleading with its customers to
honour outstanding debts in order to keep the network afloat.
An estimated 40% of European Internet traffic journeys across the
company's fibre optic network. To use a road traffic analogy, its
collapse would, for corporate Europe, be the equivalent of closing
the M1 motorway.
Fearing that they might lose access to the public Internet, the
more far-sighted clients of the ailing network were scrambling to
make alternative arrangements. For them, KPNQwest's problems were
creating unwelcome network reconfiguration headaches. But for the
companies that preferred to sit tight and keep their fingers
crossed, nothing less than total network downtime loomed
large.
Against such a background, it is ironic that elsewhere in this
week's Computer Weekly IBM Global Services should be arguing the
case for viewing hosted IT services as a utility.
The concept is undeniably appealing. True utilities are inherently
useful, and inherently reliable. However, the worrying turn of
events at KPNQwest serves to remind us how far IT provision is from
becoming the new utility.
When did 40% of Europe last turn on a tap to find not a drop of
water? When did the lights last go out across half of the continent
at once? And when did your gas fires or cookers last suffer
"downtime"?
The problems at KPNQwest must serve as a wake up call for corporate
users of IT. We can call until we are blue in the face for
heightened monitoring and regulation of the voice and data market,
and for Ofcom to be given real teeth; but ultimately the
responsibility for the smooth flow of corporate data must lie
squarely with the network managers of corporate UK.
We live in the information age. When the success or failure of an
enterprise can hinge upon its access to, or presentation of, timely
information, a head-in-the-sand approach to your Internet and
corporate data provision is sure to backfire.
It is not sufficient simply to build a service level agreement into
your network provision contract and think your data traffic is
guaranteed. SLAs are worth nothing if your provider routes traffic
across other, third-party networks, whose quality of service it
cannot guarantee.
Network managers should have contingency plans in place to counter
threats to connectivity. They should avoid reliance upon a single
network carrier (the Enron debacle underlined the fragility of even
the most prolonged business successes). And they should explore the
potential that co-location providers offer for re-routing onto a
fresh network at speed.
If they do not, then as sure as taps yield water and sockets pass
electricity, they will encounter data traffic problems.