Communications News articles from June 2008

Communications News archives from June 2008

The ABCs of <begin strikethrough>ASPs<end strikethrough> SaaS.(Viewpoint)
June 1, 2008... Fifteen years ago, there was a small city in northern California that had just a single city employee--a city manager. City government had no accounting staff, wastewater treatment plant employees or road maintenance crews. Instead, the city...

Larger enterprises taking to SaaS.(TRENDS)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SAAS More than half of Fortune 500 and other large enterprises expect to spend more than previously or the same on software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for their organization in the future. More than seven out of...

Unified system.(SHORT TAKES)
June 1, 2008... Clarkson Construction will use NEC Unified Solutions' Elite IPK II communications system to unify business communications while its team builds the kcICON-Christopher S. Bond Bridge in Kansas City. Clarkson is also utilizing ViewMail, a form of...

802.11n to school.(SHORT TAKES)(Ohio Wesleyan University)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Ohio Wesleyan University has selected and commenced deployment of Aruba Network's 802.11n adaptive wireless LANs across its Delaware, Ohio, campus. The wireless network will consist of redundant centralized MMC-6000 Multi-Service Mobility...

CIOs jump on UC bandwagon.(TRENDS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS CIOs are seeing the benefits of unified communications, according to IT infrastructure firm Ensynch. This is a recurring theme among midsize and enterprise organizations in Arizona and Southern California, says Gene...

VoIP expanding on campuses.(TRENDS)
June 1, 2008... VOICE OVER IP A growing number of colleges and universities have embraced voice over IP (VoIP), but the technology continues to see limited use on the average campus, according to the latest member survey by the Association for Communications...

Faster WAN.(SHORT TAKES)
June 1, 2008... The North West Company, a provider of food and everyday products and services to remote communities across northern Canada and Alaska, will deploy Stampede Technologies' Application Acceleration Series with Stampede's multiuser client solution...

Healthier network.(SHORT TAKES)
June 1, 2008... Concord Hospital, a regional medical center with the second busiest acute care hospital in New Hampshire, has selected Juniper Networks to provide a high-performance network infrastructure with application acceleration, routing, remote access...

Events.(TRENDS)(Conference news)(Calendar)
June 1, 2008... Infrastructure Operations & Management Summit, June 23-25, Orlando, explores the impact of emerging technologies, such as virtualization and service-oriented architectures, new challenges with the growing consumerization of IT, green IT and the...

The New School of Information Security.(PUBLICATIONS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The New School of Information Security, by Adam Shostack and Andrew Stewart, shows readers how to spend money on security more effectively and offers new ways of thinking about and overcoming security challenges, www.informit.com

New Tech, New Ties, How Mobile Communication is Reshaping Social Cohesion.(PUBLICATIONS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... New Tech, New Ties, How Mobile Communication is Reshaping Social Cohesion, by Rich Ling, examines how the mobile telephone affects interactions mediated by mobile communication and those that are face to face. www.mitpress.mit.edu

Cisco Networks Simplified, Second Edition.(PUBLICATIONS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Cisco Networks Simplified, Second Edition, by Jim Doherty, Nell Anderson and Paul Della Maggiora, covers the latest networking topics, including network architecture, secure wireless, unified communications and telepresence, with an illustrated...

What was hot at Interop?(TRENDS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... INTEROP Attendees at Interop Las Vegas 2008 signaled strong interest in voice over IP (VoIP), virtualization and WAN optimization technologies, according to a study re leased by Network Instruments and NetQoS. The on-site survey of 117 network...

Proper design is important.(TRENDS)
June 1, 2008... IT DESIGN While CIOs frequently change the structure of the IT organization to reduce costs, improve services or increase responsiveness, the wrong IT organization structure can degrade business relationships, reduce effectiveness and damage...

Chip to chiller energy strategies: school system uses holistic approach to downsize data center and save on power costs.(Power Play)
June 1, 2008... The urgency and compelling need to curb energy use has forced companies to evaluate various elements of their business structure, focusing on information technology and, in particular, the data center. The energy used to power data centers...

A practical approach to integration: business communications platforms allow enterprises to add telephony capabilities to internal processes.(IP Connections)
June 1, 2008... Enterprises have long sought ways to add real-time communications to business applications to improve customer interactions, streamline workflows, more quickly respond to critical events and more efficiently execute time-sensitive transactions....

NFS offers virtualization benefits: new appliances provide an alternative to typical Fibre Channel and iSCSI approaches.(Business Continuity)
June 1, 2008... Running virtual machines on network file systems (NFS) provides a number of architectural advantages, starting with the fact that virtual machines use files to store their image information. Since network-attached storage (NAS) systems are...

Race to the finish: the Alameda County Fair Association knew it needed a long-term infrastructure solution to solve its antiquated network issues.(Cover story)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The country's oldest one-mile horse racetrack sits among 267 acres of lush fairgrounds maintained by the Alameda County Agricultural Fair Association. Today, jockeys and trainers run their horses on the same grounds...

Downtime in the desert: how the city of Safford maximized network availability and improved business continuity.(Special Focus: Storage/Business Continuity)
June 1, 2008... Six hours after the e-mail system went down, Derek Kruger fielded his 39th anxious caller. "When will my e-mail be up again?" As IT and communication supervisor for the city of Safford, Ariz., Kruger is responsible for the networking and...

Storage array.(STORAGE PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2008... Infortrend's 16-bay SAS-to-SAS/SATA RAID arrays include the single-controller EonStor $16S-G1030 and the dual-controller EonStor $16S-R1030. The 3U arrays feature four SAS host ports that provide 12 Gbps of bandwidth per port. Via expansion...

Business-continuity solution.(STORAGE PRODUCTS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Designed to work with existing hardware, operating systems and applications, Business Continuity Server version 2.6 helps manage the demand for continuous availability and data protection, while offering thin-provisioning capabilities to...

Network-attached storage.(STORAGE PRODUCTS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Offering centralized network storage for up to 200 users, the six-bay gigabit network-attached storage appliance ReadyNAS Pro series includes the 1.5-TB RNDP6350, the 3-TB RNDP6310 and the 6-TB RNDP6610, which allow users across the LAN or WAN...

Data storage archiving.(STORAGE PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2008... Utilizing an event-driven policy engine, the Archive Facilitator discovers, classifies and moves fixed content to archival storage to free space on primary storage. The system scans, manages and classifies data based on frequency of access,...

Buyers' guide.(Special Focus: Storage/Business Continuity)(Directory)
June 1, 2008... Companies listed in this Storage/Business Continuity Buyers' Guide can assist you in selecting the products and services that work best for your organization. DATA BACKUP AND RECOVERY Asempra Technologies 408-215-6833...

RAID controller.(STORAGE PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2008... STAR-X RAID controllers allow RAID units to be configured as RAID O, 3 or 5. The Star-X-F5 (4-GB Fibre) and the Star-X-S5 (eSATA) are five-bay units, scalable from 1.25 TB to 20 TB with an eSATA interface. The 12.25" x 4.75" x 8.38" desktop...

Data storage management.(STORAGE PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2008... Based on a file system with 128-bit addressing, NexentaStor Enterprise 1.0 offers large capacity file system sizes and an abundant number of incremental backups, known as snapshots. The program uses storage virtualization to make all storage...

eSATA connector.(STORAGE PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2008... Aimed at singlelane external storage applications with less than six feet of cable, the eSATA I/O Connector enables external data backup and protection at speeds up to 3 Gbps. The device is available with eSATA and USB 2.0 in the same connector...

iSCSI SAN.(STORAGE PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2008... The iSCSI TeraStation storage solution uses the existing Ethernet infrastructure to communicate SCSI storage commands over the network. Featuring four 7,200 rpm SATA drives, the storage solution is available in pedestal or 2U rackmount...

Are you ready for UC 2.0? Rich Internet application technologies help deliver a more engaging digital experience.(Unified Communications)
June 1, 2008... Unified communications (UC) breaks down the barriers between once siloed communication and collaboration technologies, bringing messaging, voice conferencing, information sharing and presence together in a single user identity or account. With...

IP telephones.(TELEPHONY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The IP 706 six-button phone and the IP 712 12-button phone are designed to meet the needs of enterprise users using hosted or premises-based solutions. Along with a large, graphical backlit display, the SIP-based...

VoIP gateway-routers.(TELEPHONY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2008... To streamline deployment of unified communications into existing networks, SmartNode VoIP Gateway-Routers are available with a unified communication agent (UCA) that integrates IP-based communications with existing TDM/PSTN telephony and...

VoIP intrusion prevention.(TELEPHONY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2008... In order to maintain VoIP quality and reliability, VoIPguard provides protection against security threats for VolP systems from Avaya, Cisco and Nortel. Able to protect against known and zero-day attacks, the VoIP intrusion-prevention system...

Unified communications solution.(TELEPHONY PRODUCTS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Designed for enterprises with 30 to 500 employees, Software Communication System 5,00 (SCS500) is based on open source technology and works across different networks and devices. The SIP-centric solution, accessed via a Web portal GUI,...

VoIP conformance testing.(TELEPHONY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2008... Designed for SIP and Megaco protocol conformance testing, Message Automation and Protocol Simulation (MAPS) is a SIP test tool/traffic generator, which can be used to simulate any interface of the VoIP network and perform protocol conformance...

Define your mobility strategy: companies can equip a mobile workforce for greater productivity, cost savings and enhanced security.(Wireless Mobility)
June 1, 2008... Mobile solutions for enterprises have primarily consisted of personal or business-owned mobile phones deployed on an ad hoc basis that permitted little control by the company. Today's dramatically growing virtual workforce, however, requires...

Flexibility is fundamental.(Wireless Mobility)
June 1, 2008... To address their indoor coverage needs, companies typically deploy in-building wireless coverage systems to bring wireless signals inside and then distribute those signals throughout their facilities. As the communications industry continues to...

Touchscreen smart phone.(WIRELESS PRODUCTS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Featuring a 2.8-inch TFT LCD touchscreen with LED backlight, the XV6900 provides a virtual, all-touch QWERTY keyboard and accepts finger/stylus input. Built-in components include a 2.0 megapixel camera with video capture, speakerphone and...

Bluetooth headset.(WIRELESS PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2008... Featuring self-stabilizing, custom-fit eartips, the Discovery 925 Bluetooth Eorpiece is designed to Follow the contours of the Face and draw the microphone closer to the mouth. Noise reduction technology helps remove background noise while...

Dual-function wireless headset.(WIRELESS PRODUCTS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... For both traditional and PC-based telephone environments, the dual-function Jobro GN9350 OC wireless DECT headset is optimized for Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and features wideband sound quality. The plug-and-play headset maintains a...

10GigE just fine on copper cabling: 10GBASE-T enables network managers to scale their networks to 10-gigabit speeds.(Cabling Infrastructure)
June 1, 2008... Ratified in 2006, the IEEE 802.3an 10GBASE-T specification for 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GigE) on unshielded twisted pair copper cabling offers two important attributes to network managers and IT professionals planning data centers and enterprise...

Surge protector.(INFRASTRUCTURE PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2008... The Eco-Logical Smart Strip protects electronics from power surges and helps conserve energy by turning off unnecessary peripherals (e.g., monitors, printers, speakers) when plugged-in computers ate in the sleep mode. Available in seven- or...

Industrial Ethernet switch.(INFRASTRUCTURE PRODUCTS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... In addition to eight gigabit ports for auto-sensing 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet links, the fully managed Slim Line SL-8MG has four flexible combination ports that offer copper R J-45 and pluggable fiber-optic connectors. All standard IEEE 802.3...

KVM switch.(INFRASTRUCTURE PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2008... Available with eight ports or 16 ports, the AdderView CATx 1000 allows a user to control up to 16 computers connected to the KVM switch via CAT 5 cable locally at the switch or remotely up to 1,000 feet away. The KVM switch can be rack mounted...

E-waste: whose problem is it? Manufacturers have a responsibility to ensure the proper disposal of their products.(GreenTech)
June 1, 2008... The IT industry's recent commitment to environmental initiatives, with an economic focus on energy efficiency and a political focus on global warming, seems to have swept the mounting problem of electronic waste (e-waste) under the rug, or at...