Communications News articles from May 2006

Communications News archives from May 2006

The iPod goes to ...(readers survey)(Viewpoint essay)
May 1, 2006... One of the more interesting exercises we have yearly at Communications News is to poll our subscribers on their reading habits and decision-making responsibilities. If you have not been asked to participate this year or in the past, what we do...

Maximum security.(SHORT TAKES)(OfficeMax Inc. contract with Lancope Inc. for StealthWatch system)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... OfficeMax, a leader in both business-to-business and retail office products distribution, has deployed Lancope's StealthWatch system for identification and remediation of worms, viruses, spyware and other malicious activity. "The clear...

Check it out.(SHORT TAKES)(Banta Corp. contract with Netcordia for NetMRI)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Banta Corp., which provides a combination of printing and digital imaging solutions to publishers and direct marketers, has deployed Netcordia's NetMRI for analysis of its entire distributed network, assisting Banta in identifying, preventing...

Managed services taking hold.(Trends)
May 1, 2006... Enterprises are increasingly looking to service providers for managed connectivity, voice, security and other Internet protocol (IP) services. In fact, the managed-services market is expected to reach $41.5 billion per year by 2009, according...

Events.(Trends)(Brief article)(Calendar)
May 1, 2006... Globalcomm, June 4-8, Chicago, features a conference program and exhibitions focused on information and communications technology suppliers, service providers and enterprises in a business-to-business environment, www.globalcomm2006.com ...

Cabling choice.(SHORT TAKES)(Countrywide Financial Corp.'s contract with ADC Telecommunications Inc.)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Countrywide Financial Corp. has selected ADC's TrueNet Structured Cabling System to support the opening of financial centers in California, Florida and Texas. "We made a strategic decision as a company to focus on technology which we believe...

Better training.(SHORT TAKES)(J.C. Penney Corporation Inc.'s contract with Helius Inc.)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Retail giant JCPenney has selected a satellite- and terrestrial-based network solution from Helios to deliver corporate training to more than 150,000 employees throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. Helius' customizable MediaGate Router...

A good return for IBS.(Trends)(Internal Revenue Service)
May 1, 2006... This time, the government maybe got it right. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has completed the deployment of an extensive connectivity platform for remote IRS workers--a full nine months ahead of schedule. Better yet, the IRS says the new...

EnterpriseWeb Services Security.(PUBLICATIONS)(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... Enterprise Web Services Security teaches how to build security policies and select appropriate security mechanisms and strategies in a Web services environment. It covers the underlying protocols and technologies, including how to implement...

Better traction.(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... An optical solution provided by the Southeast operating division of Charter Business-the commercial business unit of Charter Communications, is providing secure network services for enhanced business continuity between the U.S. corporate office...

Secure network.(Virginia Hospital Center)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... A custom-built secure network, built by OnFiber Communications, is now providing the critical disaster-recovery infrastructure needed by Virginia Hospital Center, The converged transport solution will support storage, IP, data, voice and other...

New air waves for airport.(Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport)
May 1, 2006... Major airports are constantly upgrading their networks to accommodate increasing passenger traffic. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (HAIA), the world's busiest passenger airport, is no different. As HAIA has continually...

Storage insurance: Dan Simpson, CIO at Physicians Mutual, engineered his firm's launch of a major business transformation initiative, including the re-engineering of its business processes.(Dan Simpson)(Cover story)
May 1, 2006... Transforming business processes in a 100-year-old company is never easy, but Dan Simpson, senior vice president and chief information officer at Physicians Mutual, and a 25-year veteran of the IT industry, has the benefit of a long perspective...

Software delivers perfect prescription: healthcare services firm strengthens its offsite data backup and recovery operations.
May 1, 2006... Historically, Northeast Health, a not-for-profit group of healthcare services, had been manually backing up approximately 4 TB of data from 12 servers to direct-attached standalone tape drives on a nightly basis. The tapes would then be...

E-mail challenges storage environments: the regulatory need to archive and manage records calls for advanced capabilities.
May 1, 2006... Organizations are flooded with data. Volumes of e-mail and documents are routinely generated over the course of daily operations. Product and sales personnel share pricing and competitive information online, and buyers and suppliers transact...

Buyers guide.(Directory)
May 1, 2006... Companies listed in this Storage Technologies Buyers Guide can assist you in selecting the products and services that work best for your organization. CACHING * Cisco Systems 800-877-0519 www.cisco.com Cisco's intelligent...

Compact storage array.(New Products)
May 1, 2006... The $2500 storage disk array delivers tiered storage through its support of a mixture of high-speed Fibre Channel (FC) disks and low-cost, high-volume SATA disks within a single cabinet. The 3U disk array offers a storage capacity up to 32.7...

LTO tape drive.
May 1, 2006... The 220LTO half-height tape drive features a high transfer rate, backing up 100 GB (native capacity) at a 16-Mbps transfer rate (native). The unit also features a unique airflow and single PCB design, with low power consumption to provide high...

Remote site backup solution.(New Products)
May 1, 2006... Televaulting 6.0 is high-performance agentless backup/recovery software for remote office protection. The solution provides distributed site backup management, and now features hot agentless database backup for DB2, Oracle 10g and SQL...

Fibre Channel and iSCSI.(New Products)
May 1, 2006... The SANbox 6000 Series intelligent storage router allows customers with existing Fibre Channel-based disk/tape storage to create a multiprotocol storage solution, allowing the same storage array to serve up both Fibre Channel and iSCSI...

RAID storage array.(New Products)
May 1, 2006... The PCI Express RAID Storage Array supports 12 hot-swappable SATA or serial-attached SCSI drives, and includes an upstream host interface board and PCI Express cable. The RAID storage system becomes fully accessible by a host PC when the host...

Encrypted data access.(New Products)
May 1, 2006... Designed for heterogeneous storage security environments, the CryptoStor KeyVault is an open security key management system. The solution allows organizations to centrally manage and distribute encryption keys among multiple internal locations,...

Plenum-rated fiber.(Cabling Infrastructure Products)
May 1, 2006... The 24-strand indoor/outdoor plenum-rated fiber-optic cable permits building owners to connect buildings with fiber-optic cables that can run directly between the telecommunication rooms of the buildings being linked. By eliminating the need to...

Connector cleaner cartridge.(Cabling Infrastructure Products)
May 1, 2006... The Fiber Optic Connector Cleaner Cartridge uses cleanroom-grade cleaning media to remove dirt, dust, oil, grease and debris from connector endfaces. A rubber pad beneath the cleaning surface prevents scratches and a sliding cover protects the...

Highly bendable fiber.(Cabling Infrastructure Products)
May 1, 2006... AllWave FLEX ZWP single-mode fiber is a zero water peak G.652D fiber designed for applications where small bend diameters may be encountered. The fiber maintains low bending loss across the full usable spectrum of wavelengths, from 1,260 nm to...

Stereo audio over CAT 5.(Cabling Infrastructure Products)
May 1, 2006... The Stereo Hi-Fi Balun allows one line-level analog stereo audio channel to be connected via CAT 5 twisted-pair cable, thus replacing two standard audio cables. Used in pairs, the balun has a bandwidth of 20 Hz-20 KHz and is designed for...

Remote power control.(Cabling Infrastructure Products)
May 1, 2006... Control and maintain electrical devices from anywhere with the iBoot DC. The direct-current (DC) version of its iBoot remote power solution is a single-circuit power switch that allows remote equipment to be rebooted or power-controlled over an...

Rack cooling.(Cabling Infrastructure Products)
May 1, 2006... The CoolFrame solution integrates Liebert XD cooling technology with the Egenera BladeFrame EX system, enabling customers to deploy high-performance servers while adding virtually no heat to their facilities. Adding CoolFrame reduces the heat...

Preconfigured server cabinet.(Cabling Infrastructure Products)
May 1, 2006... The preconfigured Core VPR "Viper" server cabinet is designed to accept high-density server deployments. The cabinet has two sets of EIA-310 square-hole rails with silkscreen U markings, and is 2,600-lb. static load tested. Eighty percent...

10-Gbps fiber testing.(Cabling Infrastructure Products)
May 1, 2006... The WireScope Pro is a hand-held cable and fiber tester that offers fast cable certification for CAT 3 to CAT 6a/7. The unit delivers superior near- and far-end crosstalk measurement performance, as well as alien crosstalk (AXT)...

Laptop storage cart.(Cabling Infrastructure Products)
May 1, 2006... The lockable Laptop Cart is designed to store, protect and transport important media. The cart can store up to 24 units at one time and, while not in use, they can be recharged using the two power strips that come standard. The cart provides a...

Multimode fiber testing.(Cabling Infrastructure Products)
May 1, 2006... The Sunset MTT-45 Module for IEEE's new C37.94 standard allows the SunSet MTT platform to be an all-in-one test solution for xDSL, SONET/SDH, E-1/T-1, Ethernet, ISDN, VoIP, data communications, optical fiber and copper wire testing. The...

Cable tester/certifier.(Cabling Infrastructure Products)
May 1, 2006... The Validator-NT is an all-in-one Ethernet network-management tool that certifies CAT 5, CAT 5E and CAT 6 cables to be IEEE compliant to 1-gigabit speed. The product allows the testing for TIA568 interconnect problems and allows the detection...

Combine the best security options: managed security offerings target threats where they are best defeated.
May 1, 2006... The Internet is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it provides the enterprise with an unprecedented ability to reach new and existing customers, driving new revenue while decreasing costs; at the same time, it opens the enterprise network...

Converged wireless saves $2m: wireless VoIP system provides seamless roaming and improves staff productivity.(Voice Networks)(St. John's Hospital)
May 1, 2006... Gretchen Niehaus, manager of IT and telecom at St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Ill., knew the advantages wireless mobility could provide to caregivers and other hospital staff. After all, the regional healthcare center had made an...

Portable labeling.(New Products)
May 1, 2006... The Spirit portable label printer allows data files to be downloaded from and uploaded to personal computers, and even transferred to other Spirit printers. Label data that is already in a database, such as Excel or Access, can be uploaded to...

Exchange migration tool.(New Products)
May 1, 2006... InMotion automates upgrades, maintenance and migration tasks for Microsoft Exchange Server. The solution simplifies and automates the migration of Exchange databases to an entirely new Exchange server, the distribution of Exchange databases to...

Web-application security.(New Products)
May 1, 2006... WebInspect 5.8 is a Web application security-assessment product offering support for automated security assessments of Web applications that use asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) software-development technology. In addition, the solution...

RFID solutions.(New Products)
May 1, 2006... PEAK Compliance is an RFID solution suite available in three distinct modules to match each client's compliance strategy: PEAK Compliance Express, PEAK Compliance Mobile and PEAK Compliance Gateway. Each offering is a turnkey solution,...

Web to mobile device.(New Products)
May 1, 2006... A Podcosting Solution provides clients of the company's Webcast services with the ability to offer podcasts of both audio and video Webcasts. Attendees have the option to download an MP3 file or subscribe to a podcast channel for automatic...

SQL services.(New Products)
May 1, 2006... Services for SQL Server 2005 provides customers with best-practices design and implementation expertise. New additions to the company's services portfolio for SQL Server include Upgrade and Migration for SQL Server that provides assessment and...

Environment monitoring.(Product Spotlight: Testing)
May 1, 2006... Real-Time Alarm Software automatically notifies users via cell phone text messages or e-mail when temperature, humidity and other conditions exceed user-defined limits. The plug-in software module to the company's HOBOware software package is...

End-to-end VoIP testing.(Product Spotlight: Testing)
May 1, 2006... ClarusIPC Operations is an IP telephony testing and management solution that delivers active, end-to-end testing of the functionality of each phone on the enterprise network, throughout the entire network lifecycle. By automatically and...

VoIP network monitoring.(Product Spotlight: Testing)
May 1, 2006... XelorRate Service Quality Manager is a Linux application that automatically integrates with IP telephony systems and uses SNMP to automatically discover and configure network elements and topology for QoS. The software enforces the QoS policy...

WLAN survey tool.(Product Spotlight: Testing)
May 1, 2006... InterpretAir WLAN Survey Software is a laptop-based wireless LAN survey tool that helps network engineers and system integrators plan network deployments, verify actual performance and optimize access point placement. The software displays...

Historical data analysis.(Product Spotlight: Testing)
May 1, 2006... The GigaStor 2T is a high-capacity, gigabit-analysis and stream-reconstructive appliance. The 2-terabyte appliance features a time-based navigation utility, allowing network professionals to navigate through hours, days and weeks worth of...

Ruggedized power meter.(Product Spotlight: Testing)
May 1, 2006... The Ruggedized Fiber-Optic Power Meter has an impact-resistant, waterproof housing. The unit has 850-nm, 1,310-nm, 1,490-nm and 1,550-nm calibrated wavelengths, with 0.01-dB resolution. It tests at +5 dBm to -65 dBm, and a CATV version is also...

Contact center monitoring.(Product Spotlight: Testing)
May 1, 2006... OneSight application-management software features monitoring profiles built for Cisco CallManager, the software-based call-processing component of the Cisco IP telephony solution. Enterprises using the offering can now simultaneously monitor...

Optimize application performance.(Product Spotlight: Testing)
May 1, 2006... EdgeSight for Desktops 4.0 is a platform for application performance visibility and diagnostics. The solution features a flexible reporting system integrated with Microsoft Reporting Services, data-analysis capabilities and configurable...

NetFlow data analysis.(Product Spotlight: Testing)
May 1, 2006... NetFlow Analyzer 5.0 is a Web-based bandwidth-monitoring tool that collects Cisco NetFlow data, exported from routing devices, to analyze network traffic and report on bandwidth usage across the network. It provides real-time bandwidth usage...

Early adoption brings risks.(IT Insight)(Chris Baldwin of Northeast Health of Troy)(Interview)
May 1, 2006... As vice president of corporate MIS for Northeast Health, one of Chris Baldwin's primary missions is to oversee the unification of patient information among more than 35 remote locations. In comments to Associate Editor Raymond Peckham, Baldwin...