IKANO PRESS RELEASES

Imagine the demands on the man behind the Olympic Data Network. Meet Bob Donohoo, Senior Network Engineer at IKANO Communications, the Official Data Networking Services Supplier for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Once a mild mannered engineer, he has been transformed by the Olympian demands of ensuring the Olympic Data Network is as flexible, hardworking and reliable as he is.

Donohoo leads a team of 24 IKANO engineers, five employees of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) and one employee of Olympic co-sponsor SchlumbergerSema. It's their job to make sure all 100 routers and 800 switches over 30 locations work together in perfect harmony, unaffected by mountainous terrain, sub-freezing temperatures, and inclement weather.

"As far as checking my e-mail at eight every morning, or anything like that, there is no typical day," says Donohoo. "I have put in my fair share of 18-to-20-hour days. I have found myself driving to work at midnight."

Donohoo's role as a mentor is the linchpin in ensuring the highest-quality network and a semblance of normalcy in his personal life. With his trademark self-effacing humor, he explains, "A lot of what I do is people skills, which is pretty amazing for a guy with no people skills."

Donohoo's ability to train and manage young engineers means all his team members can respond equally well to any of the network's needs. He divides his workday into three main functions: interfacing with SLOC officials, monitoring the data network and mentoring his engineers.

Testing and Development
Long-term commitment and extensive preparation and testing over the last two years have gone into this mammoth network. In one rehearsal there was a power outage at the data center. Classic network architecture used in the corporate world would require a reconnect or reboot. During the time of the outage no one using the system in the Olympic Results Room batted an eye. Everyone kept working with no idea the data had been switched to an alternate path.

Once again Donohoo's team came through with flying colors. "I've spent a lot of my time giving hands-on training to take care of weaknesses. I see myself as the Maytag repairman. No one wants me to touch any of their equipment. No one wants to be the first to have old Bob step in. It's a very competitive spirit that develops and it's working. If I have to stand around and do nothing, that's golden."

"We consider the IKANO-built data network to be the central nervous system of SLOCs IT solution," said Dave Busser SLOC Chief Information Officer.

Added Donohoo, "We've got this data network set up so that you can take any device on the network and just turn it off and the network will keep going."

Personal Transformation
And Bob Donohoo keeps going too, preparing to finish a job many years in the making but less than two months in application. "My patience has grown as I work with younger engineers who often want to try new features at the risk of the Olympics as a whole. My smile is broader and my laughter has been restored as I rely on people with a variety of skill sets to build a rather large network. My personal standards for building a solid network are high, but we've met those standards."

In turn, that effort has freed Donohoo to spend more time with his family. "If I was working a horrendous amount of hours at this point, then it would mean I had not trained people properly. I once read an article about Colin Powell and how people working 12 hours a day did not impress him. He expects a job to get done, and if they're skilled enough managers to go home at night, that's fine.

"Now, I get to play with my kids every day. I just don't know exactly when, because at a moment's notice I can be paged by the Olympics Data Network telling me where it hurts."

About IKANO Communications
IKANO is a Full Service Provider (FSP) of Internet networking infrastructure and private label Internet services. IKANO provides turnkey processes for businesses and organizations wishing to leverage the Internet to deepen relationships with customers. For more information, please visit www.ikano.com.