Magazines
The number of periodicals that cover some aspect of this field is vast and growing. A few of the most useful are discussed in this section.
Business Communications Review is a very useful monthly, oriented toward the business user, that integrates data and voice communications well. Besides clearly written features covering communications technology, management, and applications, it has a stable of well-qualified columnists writing on everything from the Washington regulatory scene and network management to the latest in broadband technologies.
Network Magazine is a monthly magazine that provides excellent coverage of the industry, including a regular column on communication tariffs, articles on particular companies, statistics on communications-related stocks, and coverage of industry trends and regulatory issues. The magazine also regularly features buyers' guide articles on particular products and services. In addition, every month there are one or two case-study articles that relate the experience of a particular company that has installed some sort of distributed system or network. Usually, these articles are written by someone with the company.
Telecommunications is a monthly magazine that contains both industry-related and technical articles. The magazine concentrates heavily on long-distance networking topics, such as telephone, telecommunications, and regulatory issues.
Network World is a weekly tabloid-size newspaper that's an excellent source of information about the industry and market for information communications products and services. The coverage is quite thorough and includes buyers' guides on products and services. Each week there are one or more in-depth articles that touch on a single area, such as network management. The treatment is from a management rather than a technical orientation. The newspaper also provides product comparisons.
Network Computing focuses on networking products, but also has some technical articles. Combine this magazine with Network Magazine (discussed above) to provide an excellent means for tracking new product releases and for obtaining comparative analyses of product offerings.
IT Professional, published by IEEE, is intended for developers and managers of enterprise information systems. The magazine is good at explaining technology to help you build and manage your information systems today, and provides advance notice of trends that may shape your business in the next few years.
netWorker, published by ACM, is another good source of information for developers and managers of enterprise information systems, but with more emphasis on networking and data communications than IT Professional.