170795987_bcd6f292ff_m.jpgI was once talking with a friend of mine about wireless networking and I indicated that my company had no plans to deploy it within the company. He looked me square in the eye and said a sentence that chilled me to the bone:

“Either prepare to deploy this technology for your company’s employees or they will deploy it for you!”

The truth of the matter is that he is right, and not just about wireless networking. There is a history of technologies gaining popularity out side the enterprise and then creeping into the corporation. A good example is e-mail.

This is why it is so important to not only know and understand new technology but be in control of it in your enterprise. Arguably, the most critical component to this is the sandbox. According to Wikipedia, a sandbox is:

… a testing (or virtual) environment that isolates untested code changes and outright experimentation from the production environment or repository, in the context of software development including web development and revision control, and by extension in web-based editing environments including wikis.

Nemertes Research has written an excellent article entitled Build an Open Source and Web 2.0 Sandbox. It talks about the importance of the sandbox as part of your testing and control management process along with some important considerations when setting up a sandbox.

I believe that it is important for every company, regardless of how small it is, to have access to a sandbox. This can be something as small as an old desktop no longer in use or as large as an entire server room running several virtual servers. Regardless of the size, make sure that you are segregating the sanctioned from the unsanctioned to protect your company’s IT assets.

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Tim Fehlman