Free services: When rules work to your advantage

Wide Area Networking This newsletter is sponsored by EMC Get Your Infrastructure Under Control Accurately manage change impact and enrich your configuration management database. EMC Smarts ADM software discovers and creates a real-time, interactive model of a business' overall application environment. Discover the steps required to automate the management of IT environments to effectively respond to changing business demands. Click here to download this whitepaper today! Network World's Wide Area Networking Newsletter, 05/15/07 Free services: When rules work to your advantage By Steve Taylor and Jim Metzler Since we first started following the controversy between “free” phone service providers, the telephone companies that host these services and the major service providers, the backbone of the controversy has become a bit clearer. In short, smaller independent phone companies receive significant revenue for providing the terminating services for the calls. And services like freeconferencecall.com are able to make arrangements with these phone companies because it’s to the advantage of the local company to have more inbound calls. But the companies that are providing the inbound service – and cellular companies in particular, see this as an abuse of the rules because of the alleged “loophole” that drives traffic to the area that is not necessarily destined for the residents of the area. We see this as being analogous to the rules of college basketball in the late 1960s. At this point, there was no shot clock in the college game, so a team could stand at midcourt and dribble for an entire half if desired. (This was especially desirous for a team that was significantly outmanned by the other.) For followers of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball, this was highlighted in the 1968 tournament semifinals when North Carolina State was a significantly stronger team than Duke. Duke held the ball, and led at halftime by a score of 4 to 2. The eventual result was a 12-10 state win – and the institution of a shot clock in college basketball. VoIP: Lessons from Early Adopters Experts say VoIP isn't a magic wand that will solve all of an organization's communications challenges right out of the box. Learn why VoIP may not produce expected savings and productivity gains, and other lessons from early adopters. Click Here to Watch In both cases, this is a situation where the parties involved decided to use the prevailing rules to their advantage. And the solution is simple. If the rules are wrong, then change the rules. But don’t penalize the users of the services (again using freeconferencecall.com as an example) for using the services according to the prevailing rules. For the time being, if the service is there, it offers something useful and it’s not illegal, there’s no reason to pay a premium because the services are being priced and used at a level that is advantageous to the corporate (or individual) user. After all, that’s been the challenge of corporate networking management forever. Take the rules, the services and the prices as they exist, and build the best possible network for your company.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. For more detailed information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter, connect to Webtorials, the premier site for Web-based educational presentations, white papers, and market research. Taylor can be reached at taylor@webtorials.com Jim Metzler is the Vice President of Ashton, Metzler & Associates, a consulting organization that focuses on leveraging technology for business success. Jim assists vendors to refine product strategies, service providers to deploy technologies and services, and enterprises evolve their network infrastructure. He can be reached via e-mail. This newsletter is sponsored by EMC Get Your Infrastructure Under Control Accurately manage change impact and enrich your configuration management database. EMC Smarts ADM software discovers and creates a real-time, interactive model of a business' overall application environment. Discover the steps required to automate the management of IT environments to effectively respond to changing business demands. Click here to download this whitepaper today! ARCHIVE Archive of the Wide Area Networking Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007