| There was another post in here that I found poignant to this discussion. It dealt with desire to learn. I think there are many times you have IT guys who think the telecom stuff is ancient and wil be out of date soon enough that they don't have to bother with it. By the same token you have Telecom guys that think the data stuff is all over the place and no one knows what they (telecom) know which somehow validates their position and therefore makes them not want to learn anything new since they have a lock on some information.
Both cases are wrong. Yes it's important to know telecom staples because it has similar uses in IT and Yes it's important learn new things because in technology, knowledge is fleeting.
If IP Tel gets me to retirement as a productive worker, then I will be one lucky SOB. But I'm playing it with a hedge that I'll be doing something completly different in 10 years.
For anyone reading this in IT who believes they don't need to learn telecom info because it's basic or outdated, try to think about all the PHd's at Bell Labs Nortel and AT&T that invented the stuff. Do you realy think it's easy? Think about al the cable buried in the ground and in walls of buildings. Do you realy think it will all just disapear overnight?
And for the telecom guys that think it will be easy to pick up the IT side and that they already know the hard stuff.....please.....There have been millions upon millions spent on R&D by Cisco, Avaya, Foundry, Extreme, etc. just to get to this point today where they can justifiably replace old POTS equipment. To quote a band leader I heard once "Give it for them folks, that $h1t ain't easy...it ain't hard, but it ain't easy neither."
So both sides will have to get off their high horses and take a dip in the waters that are convergence. __________________
Deus ex machina |