Likewise, Computer Associates is giving McCarran a discount on its Unicenter network-management package in exchange for signage. The software, which replaces Hewlett-Packard's OpenView, is being implemented with the network upgrade. Both should be completed by August, Hughes says. McCarran is paying CA $725,000 for the software. Hughes would not disclose the full price.
The Gigabit Ethernet upgrade will enable a range of new applications for airport management, security personnel and consumers. McCarran plans to provide videoconferencing and wireless networking for managers, and it's exploring wireless connectivity services for consumers. Also, the TSA has said it wants to equip security personnel with wireless handheld computers that can call up surveillance video or photos of fugitives instantly. Photos already can be displayed on flight monitors to alert police when someone is trying to evade capture.
There's always a chance the TSA will insist on installing its own network for such purposes, as the federal government has been known to do. But McCarran officials would like to persuade the TSA to house everything on one network, as it has done with the airlines. The security regulations coming down from the TSA are perhaps the most pressing reason for the network upgrade, which has been planned for some time. "It's moved from a 'nice-to-have' to pretty much a must-have situation," says IS manager Ingalls.
McCarran's top executives agree that they don't necessarily apply a rigid return-on-investment model to every IT purchase. They know in hindsight that common-use equipment has saved them money, but there's no way they could have been sure of that in advance. "Once you've made a commitment [to technology], you can't shortchange yourself," Johnson says. "You have to have the best all the time. We determined early on that there was a significant operational benefit, and [IT] gave us better control of our facility."
Glimpse at Airports' Future?
Aviation experts and even one former McCarran IT manager call the airport's transformation to central IT control an astonishing achievement. They consider McCarran a proof of concept for common-use technology in U.S. airports. Among the other airports now considering common-use systems airportwide are Miami International, Oakland International, Orlando International and Seattle-Tacoma International.
Howard Kourik, the recipient of Walker's tongue-lashing when the network went down in 1995 and later McCarran's IS director, describes the incident as "a defining moment in my understanding of his modus operandi--you keep things working, and I'll tell you how much you can spend to do it."
Kourik, now director of IT at San Diego International Airport, describes Walker as more tech-aware than any other boss he has worked for. "He always wanted to understand the implications of spending different amounts of money," Kourik says.
It helps that Walker has IT experience. As an accountant working for Exxon Oil Co. in the late 1970s, he was trained as a computer programmer and developed mainframe applications for two years. "I worked on the biggest, newest, fastest IBM machine at the time--the IBM 333. I think it's in the museum now," he says. "But at least I got an appreciation for the ability [of] the computers to automate things and make things more efficient."
Throughout the IT department's rise to prominence in the past decade, Walker has been its biggest fan and harshest critic. At either extreme, one thing has always been certain: He keeps a close eye on what the tech folks are doing. He's even tough when he describes his own thinking about glitches like the one that downed the network those years ago: "It has to be unique. It has to be unforeseen. And it better not happen twice the same way."
Experts point out that central control has been effective not only for the airlines and their passengers but also for IT management, which has lost only a few staffers in recent years, even as turnover became a problem for IT shops in the late 1990s. Remember that the next time your CEO threatens to fire you for attempting to save money.
David Joachim is Network Computing's editor/business technology. Write to him at djoachim@nwc.com.
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