Chapter 2
Understanding Networking Roles
Modern organizations depend on their computer systems to serve customers and reduce costs. The most susceptible part of any IT system is its computer network. Whatever your official title may be in the networking realm, your goal is to create and maintain a service that keeps the organization up and functioning.
This goal involves a number of responsibilities, each with its own job titles. This chapter describes the generally accepted usage for job titles. However, don't be surprised if your employer takes some poetic license and uses a slightly different title or job description.
Reviewing First Principles
The most basic reason for an organization to have a computer network is so that employees can collaborate; access relevant information stored on other computers, both local and remote; and engage with customers. The ideal network is so reliable that users can ignore it. Networking professionals get a lot of unwelcome attention the minute things do not function. The following are some reasons why networking professionals are needed:
- Companies grow. A company should have resources in place for new employees so that they can be productive fast. These resources may include a physical network connection, wireless network access and appropriate access to the IT system and various applications needed to perform the tasks assigned to the new user.
- Companies shrink. Companies fire or lay off employees. The company must freeze, or disable, the accounts of these employees to protect information assets of the company. Often the task of disabling access must be done without deleting the user files or work product so the access is only disabled.
Some salespeople feel a close tie with their customers, some doctors, with their patients, and some lawyers, with their clients. However, when they are let go, the law is clear that the employer owns the records associated with the customer or patient or client. State laws vary, but it is usually considered intellectual property theft for a former employee to take customer records.
- Employees move. An employer moves the office location of each employee on average once a year. A company that relies on wireless LAN connections may have less physical rewiring to do, but many companies still prefer good old wired connections.
- WANs, in particular, are flaky. The moment you want to connect outside your property line, you rely on someone else's network (unless you happen to be employed by a telecommunications carrier). Backhoes rip up cables, backup generators fail, lightning strikes, and more. This, in turn, can cause remote offices or data centers to go offline. You may have service level guarantees from these suppliers, but that is cold comfort when the network is down during your peak revenue day.
- The security situation is evolving rapidly. Information security and networking are intimately related, so security solutions require close collaboration between the two.
- New apps are added. IT regularly adds new and updated applications. Many of these have implications for networking.
- Networking technology standards evolve. Networking is high-tech after all. New equipment and services are coming to the market all the time.
- Network elements needs to be watched. Some routine tasks can be automated, such as backups and alarms. But ultimately, a human must make sure that everything is operating within normal limits and decide what to do when things go sideways.
- End-users are impatient. Individuals and department heads dislike waiting for the IT department to support their device or new application. They figure out a way to use their insecure personal device to connect to the corporate network or find an application that is available in the cloud. IT ends up either supporting their stopgap measure or gets roped into helping them with migration from the unofficial solution. The current acronym for users attaching to the network with their own computing resources is BYOD, or bring your own device. The definition is more commonly defined among networking professionals as bring your own disaster.
Performing Essential Tasks in Networking
Regardless of title and the size of the organization, the networking department performs certain tasks. They include the following:
A given company may choose to have the networking department specialize and assign titles to clarify roles. In times of emergency, however, you can almost certainly count on an “all hands on deck” approach.
Navigating Networking Job Titles
The titles associated with networking are vexingly similar. However, we have to start somewhere. In this section, you explore the following titles and the skills typically associated with them:
Service desk analyst
A service desk (or help desk) analyst assists users who have problems with their computers, user accounts, or business applications. In some companies, this position is the equivalent of a help desk technician.
In many ways, service desk analysts have one of the most important positions because they are in contact with users in all levels of the organization. For many non-IT employees, service desk analysts are the only IT people they will ever contact.
A service desk person must be able to recognize several types of issues, including the following:
A service desk analyst is a good entry-level position for those with good customer service skills. You must know, for example, how to defuse irate people and help them overcome their frustration.
Network administrator
A network administrator often administers the following:
Network administrators are on the front lines of access control, and effective access control practices reduce the likelihood of a number of security-related problems. A network administrator will find violations such as active user accounts for terminated personnel, granting excessive privileges, group accounts (a single user account shared and used by multiple users), and user accounts with nonexpiring or noncomplex passwords.
Much of this work is performed in front of a computer terminal, and communication with end-users is conducted through email. Communicating only through electronic means is one step removed from the front lines. Having empathy and the right personality are no less important to achieving user satisfaction than being accurate and performing duties on time.
Network engineer
The network engineer has more technical responsibilities than the network administrator role. Network engineers focus more on system upgrades, evaluating vendor products, and testing for security flaws.
The individual that holds this role should either have or be pursuing some of the education and certifications explored in Chapters 5 and 6, respectively.
Some companies use the title network administrator and network engineer interchangeably. The latter title sounds more serious, and the former has the connotation of a passive clerk. This role should be taken seriously, but the naming choice for this role is an HR decision taken by many companies.
Network architect
The title of network architect implies that the network engineer is focused on technical issues and free from administrative tasks. This role only makes sense in larger organizations where this kind of specialization is necessary.
Although no organization likes network downtime, some organizations face serious issues if the network is down for an extended period of time. The cost of a network outage on a financial trading floor, for example, can be measured in millions of dollars a minute. A network disruption to the military or to emergency first responders may be measured in lives lost.
Adding a wireless broadband connection through satellite or microwave to augment the landline solution is prudent. Ensuring that these wireless alternatives achieve the objective requires someone with more technical chops than a typical network administrator. That person is a well-trained network architect.
Network manager
The network manager is the boss of the department. This role often includes the administration of the following:
The network manager does not need to be the most technical person, but it helps if he or she understands the department's importance to the business and has credibility in the rest of the organization to prioritize the needs of the department as business priorities evolve.
This role typically is involved in negotiations with third-party solution providers, both network services and hardware. It is enjoyable to be wined and dined by vendors, but this is a small part of the job. The network manager needs to be able to walk the tightrope between pursuing new network technology for technology's sake versus achieving the business needs of the organization.
A network architect can make a company's network as close to invulnerable as unlimited funds would allow. No organization has unlimited funds, so trade-offs must be made. Ideally, budget decisions are not made arbitrarily by some faceless, nameless budgeting manager but are decided collaboratively. Ultimately, this job calls for an individual with good decision-making skills and the graciousness to take irate calls when the network fails from the very managers that just cut the budget and prevented the acquisition of the very tools that would have prevented the network from failing in the first place.
Wireless network engineer
A wireless network engineer uses his or her training and skills to complement the network design of cables and landlines with wireless technology. Wireless technology adds a new dimension to networks. Adding wireless offers the following features:
At the same time wireless technology has several issues:
A wireless network engineer can design a system to ensure that the wireless part of the company's network is every bit as secure and reliable as the wireline network. A network engineer trained in wireline technology can do a respectable job in many companies. Additional training in wireless technology, however, can take the network to the next level by making it more convenient for users.
Telecommunications manager or specialist
A telecommunications manager or specialist has responsibility for planning for the voice usage of the network.
The traditional usage of a network refers strictly to the data network. However, unified communication (UC), which employs Voice over IP (VoIP) technology, allows voice and video communication to take place over the same network, and this convergence blurs the distinction between data, voice, and video technologies. Many companies find it more economical to have a single data network for all communication. This solution can also enables intracompany collaboration, among other benefits.
Combining voice, video, and data on a single network is not as simple as adding more capacity. For example, data communication requires perfect reception of the information no matter how long it takes. Digitized voice, on the other hand, can accept some loss but needs to get there on time and can then be enhanced to be recognizable. Video communication is somewhere in between.
A consideration of the different communications types (voice and data) has an effect on planning. Voice packets need to arrive on time but can take some loss. Data packets need to arrive perfectly and can tolerate some delays. Plus, the type of equipment used by employees is different. The result is a different title that refers to telecommunications instead of just network. Again, different companies have a different spin on the use of this title.
Pre-sales engineer
In companies that offer solution sales, the ideal is to have such a close working relationship with your customers that you provide network-engineering services on their behalf. The customer does not need to hire a well-trained network specialist.
To make the customer/vendor relationship work, the vendor must have competent network engineering staff. This situation involves the creation of a pre-sales engineer. This role is a good fit for individuals who like new networking challenges and are willing to forgo the satisfaction of seeing the fruits or their labor and watching the network perform on an ongoing basis.
Getting Networking Experience Where You Are Now
Workers early in their careers have the following complaint:
I want to get this new job, but it requires experience. How can I get experience if I don't have this job?
Sounds like a chicken-or-egg problem, right? Not necessarily. Most networking professionals didn't have a non-networking-related job one day and a networking job the next. Instead, they gained and built upon networking skills in their current IT job or in places where they volunteered.
The following are a number of examples of non-networking roles in IT organizations:
Even if you never want to perform these functions, it's good to know about them because you'll interact with people in these roles.
In this section, you explore these IT roles and discover how to build your networking knowledge and skills while in those roles.
Computer repair specialist
A computer repair specialist is the person who saves the day when an end-user's hard drive crashes or the laptop screen is cracked.
Webmaster
The webpage of the company is a critical part of how people outside the organization learn the vision of the organization and connect with the products and services offered. For each website, one person is identified on the Internet as the webmaster, and this individual has the responsibility for what is posted.
In practice, the web is a compromise of priorities among the different functions in an organization. The two greatest challenges in this role are: Everyone thinks they are an expert on what the web page should look like, and each department believes that their area should be more prominent on the home page.
Although most organizations chose to have their web page hosted by a professional service, the development of the site and the testing of the links typically reside in IT.
Software developer
A software developer (also referred to as programmer, software development engineer, or programmer-analyst) develops systems software, application software, tools and utilities, and system interfaces. Software development involves several activities, including the following:
Database administrator
A database administrator, or DBA, is responsible for the care and feeding of databases that reside on servers as well as external storage systems. A large portion of the intellectual assets of a firm, including information on the depth of key customer relationships and ways the companies performs its business, are found in these data. This data needs to be protected, but it also needs to be available for people to do their jobs. Making the data available to those who need it and keeping it away from the folks that don't are the responsibilities of the DBA.
A database management system is a sizeable piece of software in its own right, often with myriad configuration settings and its own user accounts and related settings. The database administrator must follow sound principles with regards to system hardening as well as user account management. Further, the DBA also controls access permissions to databases and their components.
Business analyst
Depending on the organization, a business analyst may be a jack-of-all-trades or focused on one set of activities. In this book, a business analyst is the former. Examples of business analyst activities include
A business analyst can also be thought of as a technical assistant.
Like other IT workers, a business analyst must be familiar with the concepts of safe computer usage and prudent handling of sensitive data, so that they don't unwittingly bring harm to the information by compromising sensitive data and systems.
All IT positions require security skills
Security is the responsibility of not just the security manager but also every IT worker in the organization. Every position in IT requires security skills and knowledge related to each particular position.
Information security analyst
An information security analyst's work can range across the entire spectrum of security management, security operations, and security administration. A security analyst may spend time conducting research — interpreting current events, new encryption algorithms, or many other things, and then figuring out how these external developments should shape the organization's short-term operations or long-term strategy.
Project manager
Have you seen those sleek racing rowboats, with the coxswain in back shouting, “Stroke! Stroke! Stroke!” to keep the rowers in sync? Similarly, project managers keep a project going in the same direction and at the right pace to ensure that it is completed correctly and on time.
Project managers, or PMs, keep projects running smoothly and ensure that all required resources are available as needed.
The status of networking in IT
Which IT area is the most important and where should you aspire to work? Database managers are highly valued. Information security professionals get a lot of resources and attention. Application developers are clever. IT bosses get schmoozed by vendors. Networking folks get dirty pulling cables, sometimes have to work late and during off hours, and get attention only when the vendor's network fails.
Many people start their career in IT in networking, and there is always the opportunity to either reduce costs or improve output in this area. What is best for you is explored in Chapter 17. Keep in mind that the prestige of any role is determined by the professionalism and integrity of the individual. Plus, it is always a good idea to improve you qualifications and try multiple roles in IT. Cross-experience makes you a better employee and allows you to smile politely when a newbie asserts that his or her department is the key to success in the IT department.
IT auditor
An IT auditor (also known as an IS auditor or a security auditor) determines the effectiveness of security controls, and communicates that level of effectiveness to others through written reports that describe controls, their intended function, and how well they carry out that function.
If you're picturing an auditor as someone with a checklist, you're right: Experienced auditors use checklists to make sure they don't forget any aspect of a control they are examining. However, they also have a deep understanding of the technologies and details involved in the controls they examine, and they understand that the true effectiveness of a control requires more than a checklist.
IT auditors must be independent and objective, so it is best if they are not members of the department they are auditing. Otherwise, it might appear that the auditor was being controlled by the department that he or she was auditing.