This book purports to be about return-on-investment, and, in fact, it is, but not in the usual financial modeling, or even directly economic, sense. This is really a book about contingency thinking in a modern, complex, networked enterprise. The options theory approach presented here champions flexibility in network infrastructure investment, and this is a core idea of this text. This is, however, mostly a book about maintaining architectural adaptability in a wide range of unstable, unpredictable markets.

Three parts make up the book. The first part provides historical background, and develops the options theory. The second part presents case studies. The third part examines modern, leading edge infrastructure decisions within this context, addressing, for example, 802.11, third generation (3G) cellular, and voice over Internet protocol (VOIP), and examines the latest generation of Web-based applications and services. The book concludes with advice to its readers.

The heart of the book is chapter 5, “An Intuitive View of Options Theory,” and the appendix, “A Formal Theory and Real Options-Based Model.” The theory of contingency finance forms the framework for options theory, encouraging management to continually revise network investment decisions over time, and thus mitigate financial risk. According to this theory, managers should plan financial contingencies and make choices as uncertain events unfold around them. The author is talking here about the concept of options (like one finds in stock markets), applied as a modular, staged approach to network infrastructure development. This is a very rich and provocative managerial perspective. This approach provides a different (and, one might say, an even more modern) mindset about network design and construction, which could fundamentally change how managers approach these tasks.

This is an important book for today’s professional network managers and executives. Most such individuals have long recognized the need for contingency management in building out increasingly larger and more complex networks. But the extension of that viewpoint to include a well-formulated, contingency-based financial framework for network management is potentially a very valuable strategic and operational contribution to the network technology management discipline.