Yes, 2002 should be a good year for IT. Are you ready to capitalize on it? Allow me to offer some suggestions:

Learn Windows 2000
This will be the year for Win2K. It's been around long enough to prove its stability. More and more organizations are planning to migrate to Win2K this year, and they will need competent technical resources to do it. Add to this the fact that you can't really purchase NT 4.0 anymore, and the need to be proficient with Windows 2000 becomes even more obvious.

As you delve into Windows 2000, focus on two or three main areas. Active Directory is, of course, a great one to choose, and so is enterprise management (group policies, remote installation service, etc.). Hey, if I could find someone who has actually worked with group policies in a real world environment I'd probably hire him (or her) on the spot. (Headhunters beware -- don't even think of contacting me!)

Do You VPN?
Know what Diffie-Hellman groups are? What about pre-share keys and IKE (Internet Key Exchange)? Know your Phase 2 proposals from trusted or untrusted subnets? Did I say 2002 was the year for Win2K....I meant to say it was the year for VPNs.

Broadband Internet connectivity is getting cheaper every month. Firewall appliances with built in VPN capability are available for under $500. It should be no surprise that VPN usage is exploding. But no matter how user friendly the Web interfaces are; no matter how "simple" the appliance vendors claim their products are to use, getting a VPN up and running is no easy task.

Go Beyond the Firewall
Just a few short years ago, all an organization needed to do to protect their network was install a firewall. But firewalls don't help much in preventing the myriad attacks that bombard today's networks. Enter the intrusion detection system (IDS).

An IDS monitors traffic passing through your network that your firewall thinks is legitimate (say, the Code Red worm, for example). An IDS infrastructure is complex to set up and configure, and needs ongoing administration to keep working properly. That translates to great job security for an IDS expert. Check out www.snort.org to learn more.

Learn Linux Already!
IBM advertises on national network television about their server running Linux ("The servers! They took all the servers!"). More than 65 percent of the Fortune 500 are using Linux in some capacity. Linux is not just for geeks anymore. I even heard about a small business consulting firm that is implementing Windows-less (as in no Microsoft products) solutions for its customers entirely based on open-source Linux software. The owner says he has more business than he can handle.

Now when I say learn Linux, I mean learn it! I'm talking using the command line, tweaking your own kernel, editing cnf files -- the way the geeks do it. In fact, here's a challenge for you: Download the Linux distribution of your choice and install it manually. From scratch. No GUI or installation program.

Get Certified
I know there's been a lot of flack lately about the dwindling value of certifications. But the fact remains that certified IT professionals are preferred over their non-certified peers. Particular certifications to consider include the CISSP, RedHat, Citrix and, of course, the traditional standbys: Microsoft and Cisco. (Click here to see CertCities.com's predictions of the hottest certs for 2002.) Of course, this site is an excellent resource you can use to research these titles.

Network
I'm not talking about TCP/IP or the OSI model here. I'm talking about people, contacts, schmoozing -- in other words, relationships. Stay on good terms with fellow employees, supervisors, clients-anyone and everyone you interact with as you work your IT magic. This may prove to be your best selling point.

Have your own ideas about making it in IT in 2002? Drop me line, or better yet, post your comments below.