Anybody who has used a PC flight simulator knows it takes a lot of time and effort to master the controls and complete a successful 'flight'. [Top tip: don't forget to retract the undercarriage after takeoff otherwise it will be torn off as you accelerate into the wild blue yonder: landing a wheel-less airliner can be very tricky, and it scares the passengers.]

But even these fairly sophisticated PC packages aren't really proper flight simulators – those usually cost millions, and are made by the likes of Thales. They throw you around a box on hydraulic legs, have wall-to-wall screens and ear-piercingly lifelike sounds. Even so, they still can't prepare pilots for some of the situations they'll encounter when they finally get their wings. Remember British Airways flight 009? It was a 747 that flew over an erupting volcano, and the dust cut out all four engines. The pilot eventually managed to restart them all, by which time passengers had already written their last goodbyes to planet earth.

What about simulators for networks and security infrastructures? Well, there are some firms that are in the business of modelling such structures, like Shunra Software and Skybox Security.

Shunra's Virtual Enterprise can model your network, including remote locations and local users. You can change parameters such as latency and bandwidth and see how your network might react or how much bandwidth that client application you are about to roll out will gobble up.

Shunra can also simulate "the idiosyncrasies of wireless networks", which include access point handoff times, as well as limited bandwidth, congestion, channel "noise" and that all-important feature, quality of service. You can also have a bash at designing your own Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network or even tuning your existing one.

Skybox can simulate your security infrastructure. Skybox View and Skybox Assure can simulate network attacks, and can calculate how security flaws in your software will affect your business.

"But who's got time for this?" I hear knackered network administrators cry. "We're too busy putting out network 'fires' and sorting out zombified laptops to even think about simulating things."

Well, valid point, and software like Skybox's doesn't come cheap – from $50,000 upwards, they say. Try putting that in a proposal and getting the CFO to sign it off – you wouldn't need a simulator to predict his reaction.

However, when the CFO has finished turning the air blue, try pointing out that Shunra and/or Skybox software just might have predicted that your new database software, rolled out at a cost close to £4m (capital cost plus retraining for all the users plus consultants' fees) was not fit for purpose because the current WAN infrastructure couldn't support it.