Networking World

Daily News: PM

Network World Daily News: PM, 05/31/07

The top 10 most-read NEWS STORIES this week

1. Michigan man fined for using free Wi-Fi
2. Verizon planning iPhone killer
3. Novell goes public with terms of Microsoft Linux deal
4. Cisco, Nortel weigh in on switches of the future
5. Palm set to unveil 'smart phone companion'
6. Report says Avaya in talks for private-equity buyout
7. Cisco routers cause major outage in Japan: report
8. Second part of $20B government telecom award imminent
9. IPS app available for free
10. Researcher: Don't trust Google Toolbar

The top 5 most-read IN-DEPTH STORIES this week

1. Windows Server 2008 includes something for everyone
2. Are security pros worrying about the right stuff?
3. End of BMC's .Net Identity Management suite highlights stink with Microsoft
4. Don't sniff at used network gear
5. Zigbee: The new Bluetooth?

The top 5 most-read BLOG ENTRIES this week

1. FiOS TV? Maybe Verizon ought to stick to phones
2. FAA plan to make business flights easier
3. Open source envy over 235 violated Microsoft patents
4. You might be digitizing books on the Web without knowing it
5. Cisco: The end of a religion?

The most-read REVIEW this week

NAC players on experimental show network

Questions? Feedback? Contact NetworkWorld.com Site Editor Jeff Caruso.

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LANs & Routers

Network World's LANs & Routers Newsletter, 05/31/07

100-gigabit network processor in the works

By Jeff Caruso

Semiconductor company EZchip Technologies revealed that it is working on a 100Gbps network processor that's scheduled for sampling next year.

The NP-4 is being designed to reduce costs by integrating many key components of line cards into a single chip. Switch system makers would have enough headroom to build line cards at 20Gbps, 40Gbps or 100Gbps in carrier Ethernet switches and routers (CESR), EZchip says.

The chip is just the latest example of how multiple components continue to get smaller and integrated into fewer pieces. The trend generally leads to simplicity, reliability and cost savings.

The chip has 100Gbps of throughput, with a 100Gbps port, eight ports of 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and 24 ports of Gigabit Ethernet.

Traffic management would be integrated, allowing managers to granularly control bandwidth. Service providers could use this feature to deliver "triple-play" services in Ethernet networks, according to EZchip. Individual traffic flows can be assigned specific levels of quality of service. SLAs can be enforced for applications, services and users.

The company lists these other features of the chip:

* Integrated 100Gbps, 10Gbps and 1Gbps Ethernet serial ports.
* Integrated fabric interface chip for direct connection to Ethernet switches that are used as switch fabrics while providing system-wide quality of service.
* Operations, administration and management processing offload.

EZchip quotes Infonetics Research as saying the market for CESR equipment, which the NP-4 would fit into, will grow from $5 billion last year to $9 billion in 2010.

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

Jeff Caruso is managing editor of online news for Network World. He oversees daily online news posting and newsletter editing, and writes the NetFlash daily news summary, the High-Speed LANs newsletter and the Voices of Networking newsletter. Contact him at jcaruso@nww.com

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Network/Systems Management News Alert

Network World's Network/Systems Management News Alert, 05/31/07

ITIL V3 goes live, 05/30/07:  The keepers of the IT Infrastructure Library Wednesday made available a refresh of the ITIL best practice framework, which industry watchers, vendors and IT executives anticipate will provide adopters with more how-to guidance. Click here for more.

Teleworkers continue to multiply, 05/30/07:  The virtual workplace is becoming a reality. A recent Nemertes Research survey of 120 IT executives found that 62% plan to increase the number of their branch-office locations. The research firm says branch offices will grow 11% in 2007, up 8.9% from 2006. Survey respondents also said close to 20% of their employees telecommute. And respondents said that some 80% of companies are virtual workplaces, which means some of the employees work at a different location than their supervisors or workgroups. Click here for more.

Brocade unveils file management software, Fibre Channel enhancements, 05/30/07:  Brocade on Tuesday launched wide-area file services and storage virtualization products intended to consolidate and manage remote office data. The company also announced new capabilities for its hardware-based Fibre Channel switches and directors. Click here for more.

Survey: Nearly 30% of businesses not ready for a disaster, 05/30/07:  According to AT&T’s annual business continuity and disaster recovery preparedness study, 72% of IT organizations have plans in place in case of a natural or manmade catastrophe. Click here for more.

Network/Systems Management Newsletter: BMC updates products with IT operations in mind, 05/30/07:  A few years back management software maker BMC started its journey toward automated IT service management with the introduction of its business services management (BSM) strategy. Click here for more.

BMC picks up ProactiveNet, 05/29/07:  BMC Software today said it acquired privately-held software maker ProactiveNet for an undisclosed amount. Click here for more.

Senior Editor Denise Dubie covers network and systems management for Network World.

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Unified Communications

Network World's Unified Communications Newsletter, 05/31/07

Making a profound business case for new technologies

By Michael Osterman

Last October, I was involved in a client’s advisory board meeting in New York and sat next to a senior manager from a large, U.S.-based company. That company’s senior management, concerned about the potential breach of sensitive data resulting from the loss of company laptop computers, issued an edict that all laptops had to be secured within a period of two months. Any laptop that was lost after that time and that was not equipped with appropriate encryption software would result in the immediate firing of the employee who lost it.

That’s a good example of a profound business case for technology: implement it or risk getting fired.

However, there are a variety of messaging technologies for which such a profound business case is a tougher sell. For example, in talking with someone the other day from a leading provider of enterprise instant messaging (EIM) systems, that individual related that they are seeing a somewhat soft market for EIM and presence, softer than what many people might have anticipated a few years ago.

Part of the issue is that many IT departments and business units have not yet found a really compelling reason to implement EIM and presence technologies, perhaps because they just don’t see enough business benefit from them relative to the other technologies they are faced with implementing. For example, a messaging decision-maker is faced with perhaps 15 different initiatives, technologies, etc. and must prioritize among them. If decision-makers in an organization have to solve problems around image-spam, phishing, spyware, archiving, policy creation and enforcement, outbound content filtering, e-discovery, etc., they will be less likely to consider the benefits of EIM and presence simply because these technologies are too far down the list to be addressed in the near term.

The key for vendors, then, is to move EIM and presence up the list through the marketing of a clear business case for these technologies. We are currently conducting a survey of prospective EIM and presence customers in North America and will have some results to share on this topic in the next couple of weeks.

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

For webinars or research on messaging, or to join the Osterman Research market research survey panel, go here. Osterman Research helps organizations understand the markets for messaging and directory related offerings. To e-mail Michael, click here.

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Cool Tools Alert

Keith Shaw's Cool Tools Alert, 05/31/07

* LATEST COOL TOOLS VIDEOS:

Robots: More than meets the eye
Keith visits the RoboBusiness 2007 in Boston to check out the latest and greatest in robotic technology. Is Rosie the Maid a reality yet?

* LATEST COOL TOOLS COLUMNS:

Turn your iPod into a digital recorder
MicroMemo for iPod with video, by XtremeMac, about $60. This is an add-on attachment with a microphone for iPod video (30GB or 60GB versions) that turns the audio player into a digital audio recorder.

* FROM THE NETWORK WORLD VIDEO LIBRARY:

Interop 2007 video notebook
Network World's Keith Shaw tours the Interop 2007 floor looking for the best 70's game and talking with the booth "help."

* LATEST TWISTED PAIR PODCAST:

Twisted Pair Podcast: Interop 2007: No lonely cowboys here
Recording live from Interop 2007, Jason and Keith chat about what they learned at Interop, Google's auction idea for wireless spectrum, the 5-year-exclusive agreement between AT&T and Apple for the iPhone, and why cowboys are so lonely (41:24).

Keith Shaw is an award-winning editor at Network World. In addition to creating the Cool Tools universe of columns, blogs and videocasts, he also edits the weekly DEMOletter newsletter and is the Programming Director at Network World, responsible for the multimedia strategy for the Web site.

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Storage in the Enterprise

Network World's Storage in the Enterprise Newsletter, 05/31/07

RenewData refreshes data for e-discovery, archiving

By Deni Connor

RenewData, a start-up in Austin, Texas, launched a new service last week aimed at helping companies migrate their historical e-mail systems to new systems.

The company, which does e-discovery of e-mails and other unstructured data for compliance and litigation purposes, is rolling out its Data Migration Services.

The service uses RenewData’s ActiveVault Conversion Engine to do the migration. It supports CA’s Message Manager, Lotus Notes, Novell’s GroupWise and Microsoft Exchange environments and works with e-mail archiving systems such as Symantec’s Enterprise Vault and EMC’s EmailXtender.

RenewData’s ActiveVault Conversion Engine de-duplicates e-mails and converts the data into a format that can be used by the e-mail archive. The migration service can also be used for data such as Word files, instant messaging and chat.

The process of the migration results in a full chain-of-custody for litigation.

RenewData also performs electronic discovery services, in which information needed for litigation is pulled off of tape and other media. Its technology can identify keywords, dates and files and generate custom reports of the results.

RenewData was founded in 2001 as the result of the merger of DSTX Limited and Progressive Data Recovery. The company is funded by ABC Capital Partners and CIBC Capital Partners. It just received $5 million in Series D funding after receiving $30 million Series C funding last summer.

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

Deni Connor is senior editor for Network World magazine covering storage, archiving and compliance, IT in healthcare, Novell and data center-related issues. E-mail Deni.

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Servers

Network World's Servers Newsletter, 05/31/07

AMD, Intel bunk together in OSS server

By Jennifer Mears

I first spoke with Open Source Systems last year when the company was called Open Source Storage. It has since changed its name to better reflect its focus on servers, as well as storage hardware. But its basic philosophy remains the same: to let buyers custom design industry standard-based systems optimized for open source deployments.

Last year, Open Source Systems introduced its Gemini line of servers, all based on AMD’s Opteron processor and promising better energy efficiency. Now, OSS is expanding its Gemini Line with the Green Series of Gemini Servers. The Green Series servers are designed to be more energy efficient. They use a high efficiency power supply that runs at 93% energy efficiency, enabling the servers to use up to half the power and emit up to half the heat of traditional servers, OSS executives say.

In addition, the servers are modular, so buyers can swap parts, including mother boards, in and out, as needed. And speaking of motherboards, the new server packs two motherboards into the 2U, 25” long chassis. That means buyers can run both Intel and AMD processors in the same box, enabling a single server to run two distinct operating systems and two completely different tasks, such as Web serving and database serving, without needing virtualization technology.

“The Gemini is built around open standards. The motherboard trays fit any standard ATX or E-ATX board. This makes future upgrades a snap,” an OSS spokesman says. “In two years when motherboards offer more features, all the customer needs to do is upgrade the motherboard. You can't do that with a machine from HP, Dell, Sun, or IBM. They use their own motherboard reference design, made exclusively for a particular chassis.”

First of the Green Series servers, the Gemini 2U, supports up to 16 CPU cores, OSS executives say. The servers are available now and pricing ranges from $4,000 to $104,000, depending on memory (1GB to 12GB). Get more detail on the Green Series Gemini 2U here.

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

Jennifer Mears is a freelance journalist based in Arizona. She was previously senior editor at Network World focusing on server issues. E-mail her at jlmears@gmail.com.

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Network Optimization

Network World's Network Optimization Newsletter, 05/31/07

Getting down to application specifics

By Ann Bednarz

Just as network gear evolved from routing all traffic indiscriminately to treating it differently based on the type of content, WAN optimization appliances have done the same to speed traffic according to location, system and user-level priorities.

In the application acceleration arena, Certeon stands out among vendors looking to take specialized traffic handling to new levels.

Certeon’s S-Series appliances provide application acceleration and security for HTTP- and HTTPS-based applications running over the WAN. Customers also have the option of using embedded “Application Acceleration Blueprints” that Certeon builds to optimize specific application environments, including Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Office and Oracle E-Business.

Its latest Blueprint, unveiled last week, is aimed at users of EMC’s Documentum Content Server and eRoom applications. The embedded software helps the S-Series appliances to understand the specific object and messaging semantics of EMC’s content management and collaboration applications and use this knowledge to improve responsiveness and minimize traffic and chatter over the WAN.

For example, the technology can identify Documentum and eRoom application objects contained within documents and Web traffic, perform object differencing to identify new information, and then only send the compressed differences over the network.

“The Blueprint is specifically designed to recognize semantics and objects from eRoom and Documentum. It deals with the fact that 98% of this traffic goes over Web protocols -- HTTP and HTTPS -- using what Documentum calls Webtop, which is their Web front end,” says Gareth Taube, vice president of marketing at Certeon. “Above Documentum and eRoom objects and files, there are all sorts of custom applications and compressed and obscured content that needs to be accelerated. Our Blueprint accelerates all of these.”

Users of these EMC applications can speed file downloads and page renderings by over 90% without replicating, synchronizing or modify the existing environment, Taube says.

Certeon worked directly with EMC Documentum, through its partner program, to develop the Blueprint. Having access to EMC content management specialists and technical resources helped Certeon refine the Blueprint, Taube says.

Certeon’s Blueprints, including the new EMC Documentum one, are available bundled for no extra charge with its S-Series appliances. Prices for the appliances range from about $6,000 to $40,000.

Founded in 2003, Certeon is a private company based in Burlington, Mass. and funded by Globespan Capital Partners and Sigma Partners.

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

Ann Bednarz is an associate news editor at Network World responsible for editing daily news content. She previously covered enterprise applications, e-commerce and telework trends for Network World. E-mail Ann.

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Wide Area Networking

Network World's Wide Area Networking Newsletter, 05/31/07

The ‘sweet spot’ for Metro Ethernet

By Steve Taylor and Jim Metzler

According to a recently published report by Kubernan, Metro Ethernet is poised to be the next generation of access technology. The report, based on an extensive survey of both enterprise customers and providers of the service, finds that 36% of the enterprise respondents indicated that they already had Metro Ethernet services in production and/or that they were in the implementation process. The biggest single barrier to this adoption rate seems to be the service availability – a situation that the service providers will soon be remedying.

In addition to higher speed access at lower cost being an obvious driver for the services, a stark contrast was found between the service providers and the perceived benefits. In particular, improved/simplified options for business continuity was the third-ranking overall driver for end users (cited by 39%), while only 19% of the service providers saw this as a major driver.

The study also found that there was a definite “sweet spot” in the speed range desired for these services. While there was moderate demand for all speed ranges, the peak was clearly in the 10Mbps to 100Mbps range. This is most reasonable. On the high end, 100Mbps leaving the campus/office is still a tremendous amount of bandwidth for many users. At the same time, on the lower end of the speed spectrum, there is tremendous competition in the sub-10Mbps range. In particular, while these services can be delivered by mid-band Ethernet services (see this newsletter and related follow-up discussions), they also are increasingly available as DSL and cable services which already deliver up to 6Mbps in many areas.

The report, with accompanying earlier releases of podcasts and phonecasts, is available at Webtorials.

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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.

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Network Access Control

Network World's Network Access Control Newsletter, 05/31/07

The good news for NAC vendors

By Tim Greene

The good news for the NAC appliance vendors is that the successful ones will make a lot more sales this year. The bad news is they’re not starting off with much.

“Most vendors will double their revenue 2006 to 2007,” says Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for network security at Infonetics Research, who recently completed his report, "NAC Enforcement Appliances." He puts growth at a conservative 105% from year to year starting with $83 million last year.

He says the vendors he has talked to claim it takes less time to complete sales as customers already know something about NAC before they come into contact with NAC vendors. Earlier, the customers needed more education about the gear, he says.

He says announcements that Cisco and Microsoft NAC gear can interoperate helped, as did Microsoft’s announcement that it's NAC (which Microsoft calls NAP) client-server protocol will be contributed to Trusted Computing Group as a standard. “Enterprises wanted someone to tell them there was a [readily available] NAC client there before they’d buy an appliance,” Wilson says.

The equipment Wilson is talking about are appliances that get installed in existing networks and enforce policy decisions about network access that are based on how healthy a machine looks based on a scan. It does not include network switches, which can be used as enforcement points, or back-end policy servers that might be tapped as part of the decision-making process.

If doubling revenue this year looks good, the next three years look pretty good, too. According to Infonetics’ projections, vendors will sell $629 million in NAC enforcement appliances in 2010. “I think three-quarters of a billion dollars in 2010 is nothing to sneeze at,” Wilson says.

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

Tim Greene is a senior editor at Network World, covering network access control, virtual private networking gear, remote access, WAN acceleration and aspects of VoIP technology. You can reach him at tgreene@nww.com.

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Daily News: AM

Network World Daily News: AM, 05/31/07

Novell says Microsoft deal is good for Linux business
Novell Wednesday said its deal with Microsoft is helping drive gains in its Linux business, but danced around questions concerning how that deal may be altered given coming changes in open source licensing.

Google makes Web applications work offline
Google Wednesday introduced an open source technology for building Web applications that continue to work even after a user’s Internet connection is disabled.

Researcher: Don't trust Google Toolbar
Makers of some of the most popular extension software used by the Firefox browser are not doing enough to secure their software, a security researcher said Wednesday.

After ten years, Yahoo CTO calls it quits
Yahoo's CTO Farzad Nazem is stepping down.

IBM lays off 1,500, mostly in services
IBM Wednesday laid off 1,573 employees, as part of a continuing overhaul of its services unit, the company said.

ITIL V3 goes live
The keepers of the IT Infrastructure Library Wednesday made available a refresh of the ITIL best practice framework, which industry watchers, vendors and IT executives anticipate will provide adopters with more how-to guidance.

Teleworkers continue to multiply
The virtual workplace is becoming a reality. A recent Nemertes Research survey of 120 IT executives found that 62% plan to increase the number of their branch-office locations.

F-Secure hit with antivirus vulnerabilities
F-Secure has patched several vulnerabilities in its security products, the most critical of which could be used to run unauthorized software on a victim's computer.

Google hits the street with new map features
Google has unveiled Street View, a new feature that gives a panoramic flavor to its Google Maps application by offering 360-degree, navigable photographic views of selected locations.

Private equity firm bids $7.3B for IT reseller CDW
CDW is the latest IT company keen to go private, a move that could give the large U.S. computer reseller the freedom to tinker with its business and growth plans without having to spell out those intentions every quarter for investors.

Video

Interop 2007 video notebook
Network World's Keith Shaw tours the Interop 2007 floor looking for the best 70's game and talking with the booth "help."

Blogs

Buzzblog: FiOS TV? Maybe Verizon ought to stick to phones
Yes, this is just one disgruntled customer in one Massachusetts community. But four regional service outages in eight weeks are enough to call into question whether Verizon has its TV act ready for prime time.

Today on Layer 8, where thankfully we can pick up the phone and call anywhere, anytime:
Since the military made it impossible for most service people overseas to communicate with home via YouTube and other social networking sites, they have at least stepped up the effort - along with the American public - to help soldiers talk with their families.

Questions? Feedback? Contact NetworkWorld.com Site Editor Jeff Caruso.

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Daily News: PM

Network World Daily News: PM, 05/30/07

Palm set to unveil 'smart phone companion'
Palm founder Jeff Hawkins is set to announce Wednesday a "new category of mobile device" from Palm.

20,000 leagues under the sea, network-style
Multimillion-dollar contracts have been awarded to researchers who have been tasked with building an elaborate network of sensors and data crunchers designed to give scientists and the public much better insight into understanding oceans.

Sloppy e-discovery can cost you millions
Your company has been hit by a lawsuit. Do you know the whereabouts of all its electronically stored information? Lawsuits are a fact of life for organizations today. Recent surveys show that the average U.S. company faces 305 suits at any one time; that number jumps to 556 for companies with $1 billion or more in revenue. With each lawsuit comes the obligation for discovery - production of evidence for presentation to the other side in a legal dispute. In the past, this evidence consisted primarily of paper records, such as contracts, bills of sale, printed correspondence and so on. However, with the rise of the New Data Center, 95% of all business communications now are created and stored electronically.

SOA adoption crawling at a snail's pace
Despite considerable hype, only a minority of enterprises have adopted service-oriented architectures and most that are using SOA do so only within specific departments or projects, rather than throughout a company, Saugatuck Technology says in a new ...

Cell phones to warn of earthquakes in Japan
Cell phones in Japan could soon provide a vital warning seconds ahead of a major earthquake.

Survey: Nearly 30% of businesses not ready for a disaster
According to AT&T’s annual business continuity and disaster recovery preparedness study, 72% of IT organizations have plans in place in case of a natural or manmade catastrophe.

Microsoft unveils table-top 'Milan' computer
Microsoft Corp. has chosen what it sees as the next-generation in PC form factors -- a computer the size and shape of a coffee table with a flat, touchscreen display -- as the third major product it has designed and is branding for the consumer ...

Schmidt: Internet is a powerful force for democracy
Speaking at a conference in South Korea, Eric Schmidt, the chairman and CEO of Google, ducked the question of whether his company's dominance of Internet search may ultimately distort democratic gains from improved information access. But he promised ...

Samsung embeds 4GB storage for 3G phones
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has squeezed 4G bytes of storage into a mobile phone chipset that the manufacturer believes could eliminate the need for external memory card slots.

Case study

Virtualization tames the storage beast for a veterinary school
When it comes to flexible enterprise storage, the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine doesn't horse around. Over the last six months, the college has been putting its 7TB storage area network through its paces, using it for nearline backup and primary storage, and has this insight to share: Storage virtualization is the cat's meow.

Questions? Feedback? Contact NetworkWorld.com Site Editor Jeff Caruso.

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Storage News Alert

Network World's Storage News Alert, 05/30/07

Former head of HDS to head up HP's storage business, 05/25/07:  In its quest to re-energize its storage business, HP has recruited the former president and CEO of storage rival Hitachi Data Systems (HDS).

Storage in the Enterprise Newsletter: Cisco to join storage encryption fray, 05/24/07:  Cisco plans to introduce encryption for its MDS 9500 and 9200 storage switches by the year-end.

EMC promises common management platform, 05/23/07:  EMC says that by year's end it will begin delivering "a common platform" for managing the company's myriad storage lines, an advance long desired by customers weary of juggling multiple interfaces.

EMC exec Lewis looks to the future, 05/23/07:  At EMC World this week in Orlando, Chief Development Officer Mark Lewis sat down with Network World Senior Editor Deni Connor to chat about EMC past, present and future. What follows is an edited transcript of that conversation.

Senior Editor Deni Connor covers storage for Network World.

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Cisco News Alert

Network World's Cisco News Alert, 05/30/07

Cisco to join storage encryption fray, 05/24/07:  Cisco plans to introduce encryption for its MDS 9500 and 9200 storage switches by the year-end.

Where does Cisco stand on 802.11n?, 05/21/07:  Wireless LAN vendors, one by one, have been opening their kimonos about their strategies to support the forthcoming 802.11n standard, still in draft form. These discussions usually also address how Wi-Fi architectures are evolving to support the much bigger traffic loads that will eventually arrive to fill 802.11n’s generous, airy pipes.

Cisco, Nortel weigh in on switches of the future, 05/23/07:  Ethernet switch makers Cisco and Nortel this week said network professionals should start paying a lot more attention to keeping their wiring closets cool and energy efficient as power consumption grows.

Senior Editor Phil Hochmuth covers Cisco for Network World.

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Whitepapers Download

Today we have 10 featured Whitepapers for you from Platespin, SWsoft, INS , Packet Design , LeftHand Networks, INS , Microsoft, D-Link, Panduit, and Oracle.

You can see all of the available whitepapers here.

Platespin

Optimize your Data Center
The data on your network is growing at a rapid pace that's only going to increase. This white paper provides best practices for optimizing the use of server resources, and how to get the most of out existing server hardware in the data center using OS Portability technology. Click here to Download.

SWsoft

Predict 2007: Brace Yourself for the Next Wave of Server Technology
Read this new analyst report to find out exciting new predictions about server technology including OS virtualization technology. SWsoft's Virtuozzo is the only OS virtualization technology available on Windows and Linux platforms.

INS

Best practices yield the best results
Get best practices for next-gen IP address management and ensure capacity when it's needed, where it's needed. Click here to download.

Packet Design

IP Route Analytics
This white paper introduces an emerging technology called Route Analytics that offers unprecedented visibility, analysis and diagnosis of complex IP networks by understanding them from the routers' point view.

LeftHand Networks

SAN/iQ: Enabling Technology for Effective VMware Deployments
IT organizations are recognizing the benefits of virtualizing their data centers, and many of them are enabling server virtualization with VMware Infrastructure 3. LeftHand's SAN/iQ platform offers features that complement VMware's virtualization capabilities by performing functions in storage that are analogous to those VMware performs in servers. Read this white paper to learn more about how SAN/iQ works with VMware Infrastructure 3.

INS

Best practices yield the best results
Get best practices for next-gen IP address management and ensure capacity when it's needed, where it's needed. Click here to download.

Microsoft

E-Mail Security: All facts, no PR
Download this exclusive Gartner Magic Quadrant report now and get an in-depth look at 18 enterprise e-mail security vendors and their offerings. Discover whose products are going to get more popular and whose popularity will decline, which companies are leading the pack and which are ripe for acquisition.

D-Link

D-Link Unified Switching Improves Network Efficiency
As businesses scale, blending traditional wireless and wired networks become a challenge. D-Link's xStack 3200 series incorporate effortless wireless switching and advanced wired functionality for a TOTAL unified network solution. Discover how D-Link can help take your network to the next level. Download your copy of "Unified Wireless Switching" to learn more.

Panduit

Testing 10 Gb/s Performance of Category 6 and 6A Structured Copper Cabling Systems
This paper outlines methods and strategies for certifying 10 Gb/s performance over Ethernet in the field over both Category 6 and 6A structured cabling systems. Both in-channel and between-channel (i.e., alien crosstalk) parameters need to be tested at swept frequencies up to 500 MHz for both Category 6A and Category 6 cabling systems. Internal channel testing will include measuring for NEXT, PSNEXT, ELFEXT, PS ELFEXT, propagation delay, insertion loss, and return loss. External channel testing will include measuring for PSANEXT and PSAACRF.

Oracle

Seven ways to boost application performance
There's no one-size-fits-all answer to getting the most out of your apps, however there are new technologies IT executives are leveraging to get the best performance. Download this guide now and also get exclusive access to the whitepaper "No More Limits - On Demand Goes Strategic.

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Windows Networking Strategies

Network World's Windows Networking Strategies Newsletter, 05/30/07

NetPro takes Directory Experts Conference to Europe

By Dave Kearns

I’d mentioned a couple of weeks ago that this year’s Directory Experts Conference was the biggest and most successful yet. Evidently that meant something to NetPro and its partners (especially Microsoft) as last week NetPro announced that – after a lapse of three years – DEC was returning to Europe. But you’ll have to plan quickly as it’s coming up in just a few short months. DEC Europe 2007 will be held Sept. 24–26, 2007, at the Sheraton Brussels Hotel in Brussels, Belgium.

Many of the same sessions and topics so recently covered in Las Vegas will again be on offer in Brussels, including:

* Directory services, with specific focus on leveraging and managing Active Directory.
* Identity lifecycle management, including all aspects of ILM, from user provisioning to cross-platform management.
* Federated identity, highlighting Active Directory Federation Services.
* Information protection, with specific emphasis on Windows Rights Management Services.

All under the general theme “Identity and Access in the Windows Server 2008 Era.”

NetPro CTO Gil Kirkpatrick will lead three live-demo afternoon working sessions on Longhorn Active Directory, designed to provide scenario-based instruction on AD in Windows Server 2008. The demos will cover everything from performing a fresh install and forest upgrade to managing Active Directory on Server Core and deploying and operating Read Only DCs. Assisting Kirkpatrick will be a team of Microsoft Directory Services Most Valuable Professionals (MVP), including industry notables Guido Grillenmeier, Jorge de Almeida Pinto, and Ulf B. Simon-Weidner.

The full agenda is now online so check it out, and get your registration in (there is an “early bird” discount through the end of June). I’m sure a number of you are headed to Tech-ED next week, and that will be an excellent venue for learning about Windows Server 2008, but DEC is much more highly focused; the speakers are much more approachable and the opportunity for hands-on experience is much greater.

I cannot reiterate enough that Windows Server 2008 will be the most important release of a server operating system from Microsoft since NT 3.5. The sooner you know about it, the more you know about it, the better off you will be. Plus, convincing your bean counters that a trip to Brussels is educational is got to be a lot easier than trying to claim Las Vegas as a “learning experience”!

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. He's written a number of books including the (sadly) now out of print "Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks." His musings can be found at Virtual Quill.

Kearns is the author of two Network World Newsletters: Windows Networking Strategies, and Identity Management. Comments about these newsletters should be sent to him at these respective addresses: windows@vquill.com, identity@vquill.com .

Kearns provides content services to network vendors: books, manuals, white papers, lectures and seminars, marketing, technical marketing and support documents. Virtual Quill provides "words to sell by..." Find out more by e-mail.

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Networking Technology Update

Networking Technology Update, 05/30/07

What you need to know about 4G

By Denise Pappalardo

If you’re wondering what fourth-generation wireless deployments and services mean to you, you’re not alone.

There’s plenty of talk about 4G, particularly since Sprint Nextel last year announced its $3 billion plan to build a 4G, mobile WiMAX network.

But it’s not always clear what all the fuss is about. In a nutshell, users can expect wireless services that support data-transmission speeds as high as, and in excess of, 100Mbps, with the promise of QoS and even traffic prioritization, industry experts say. With such features, it becomes possible to imagine a mobile employee using a cell phone to participate in a video conference or tune into high-quality streaming video.

It won’t come cheap for carriers, however. According to the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), carriers in the United States are expected to spend $4.4 billion on WiMAX infrastructure equipment in 2008. Considering that WiMAX is only one potential 4G standard, industry watchers are expecting carriers to drop a lot of dough on 4G gear.

Still, true 4G services are a long way from delivery. Here are some things you should know about 4G as you look to distinguish the hype from the reality of this next-generation technology.

For more on this story, please click here.

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Linux & Open Source

Network World's Linux & Open Source Newsletter, 05/30/07

Xen 3.1 brings open source virtualization to 64-bit

By Phil Hochmuth

A new version of the open source Xen virtualization stack was released last week, offering up improved support for 64-bit systems, improved virtual server maintenance tools, and a new API for Xen software partners to play with.

While Xen 3.1 has no earth-shattering new features, some incremental improvements will be useful to serious users of mixed Linux/Windows virtualized server environments.

Xen 3.1 now supports both 32-bit and 64-bit paravirtualized machines with its 64-bit hypervisor. This could allow administrators to consolidate legacy 32-bit Linux and Windows servers and applications onto a Xen machine also hosting new 64-bit servers and software. The 64-bit hypervisor also opens up virtualized machines to a whole new level of memory support, up to 64GB of, vs. the 4GB previously supported.

The 64-bit hypervisor could allow users to migrate from 32- to 64-bit machines more gradually, without having to maintain old hardware. Software testers might also find the feature useful for writing code against the two different types of machines.

Live Relocation is another new feature in Xen 3.1. This allows virtualized machines to be moved to another physical, virtualized box without taking the server down. This could be used to gradually move virtual servers off of a piece of hardware in order to service the physical machine, while keeping applications and services available to end-users.

For software developers, Xen 3.1 also includes the XenAPI, which can allow developers of network management tools to tie Xen-based machines into their systems. The API adheres to several virtualization management specifications and standards, including XML-RPC, and the Distributed Management Task Force's (DMTF) standard for virtualization management.

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

Phil Hochmuth is a Network World Senior Editor and a former systems integrator. You can reach him at phochmut@nww.com.

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Convergence & VoIP News Alert

Network World's Convergence & VoIP News Alert, 05/30/07

Video: Not all VoIP rollouts go as planned, 05/21/07:  Despite new building and fresh networking gear, a voice over IP implementation does not always go as planned - even for a high-tech outfit like the Argonne National Laboratory. Scott Pinkerton, manager of Argonne's core network infrastructure, explains the hurdles his group faced and the lessons learned from their failed VoIP project.

Report says Avaya in talks for private-equity buyout, 05/29/07:  A private-equity firm is reportedly seeking a buyout of Avaya, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Wi-Fi calls coming to the PSP this year, 05/28/07:  Internet voice and video calls are on the cards for some PlayStation Portable (PSP) owners later this year.

Linux & Open Source Newsletter: Vyatta, Digium, partner to combine open source networking and VoIP, 05/23/07:  Users of open source networking and telephony gear will get good news this week, as Vyatta and Digium have entered into a joint development and marketing agreement.

WAN optimization, VoIP and MPLS top IT managers' plans, 05/23/07:  WAN optimization, VoIP and MPLS are among the technologies most of interest to IT executives attending Interop this week, according to a survey conducted on the show floor.

Senior Editor Phil Hochmuth covers VoIP for Network World.

Senior Editor Tim Greene covers VoIP carrier issues for Network World.

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Daily News: AM

Network World Daily News: AM, 05/30/07

Windows Server 2008 includes a little something for nearly everyone
It’s been years in the making, but Microsoft’s next server platform is finally in the stretch run and while it doesn’t appear revolutionary, it’s looking like the final release will deliver a grab bag of goodies to users looking to ease management, network and security issues.

What would you ask Gates, Jobs when they share the stage today?
The last time the general public saw Microsoft chief Bill Gates and Apple head honcho Steve Jobs together was the 1999 docu-drama The Pirates of Silicon Valley. The two, who last appeared together in 1983 at an Apple event, will share their views on, and hopefully debate, the past and future of the digital revolution as part of an unscripted conversation with Wall Street Journal reporters Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. There won’t be any questions taken from the audience, but if there were, here are 10 we would like to ask.

Nacchio suing Qwest for legal costs
Former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio is reportedly suing the carrier to continue paying his legal fees as he appeals on his insider-trading conviction.

SAP appoints its first CTO
Two months after the resignation of Shai Agassi, a driving force behind SAP's product strategy, the German software vendor on Wednesday announced the appointment of its first CTO.

Schmidt: Internet is a powerful force for democracy
Speaking at a conference in South Korea, Eric Schmidt, the chairman and CEO of Google, ducked the question of whether his company's dominance of Internet search may ultimately distort democratic gains from improved information access.

Apple fixes serious QuickTime bug
One week after updating its Mac OS X operating system, Apple has patched a serious flaw it its QuickTime media player.

IPS app available
Network managers looking for an inexpensive way to better secure traffic crossing their nets might want to check out an application from Intoto.

Qualcomm infringed Broadcom patents, jury says
A federal court jury has found Qualcomm infringed three Broadcom patents and awarded Broadcom $19.6 million in damages.

China heads towards 500 million cell-phone subscribers
The number of mobile-phone subscribers in China is likely to hit 500 million before the end of June, according to government statistics.

Blogs

Managing Risk with Alternate Realities
Jeff Doyle writes: "Whatever you think about the various ideas of multiverses - personally I think they all belong solidly in the realm of metaphysics rather than science - most of us have occasionally wished that we could step back to an earlier point in time, knowing what we know now, and do a few things differently. Modern computer and router operating systems let you do just that. Sort of."

Buzzblog: ICANN taps GoDaddy to 'rescue' 850,000 RegisterFly refugees
Having sponsored the telecast of Sunday's rain-shortened Indianapolis 500, GoDaddy.com is now racing to the "rescue" of the owners of some 850,000 domain names caught in the tangled affairs of RegisterFly - fully expecting to turn a buck or two for its trouble, of course. ICANN has offered its full blessing of the arrangement, despite absorbing frequent and loud criticism from GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons.

Today on Layer 8, where we have no worker shortage:
Recruiters wanting to hire women for information technology positions have to go beyond the typical sales pitch emphasizing job promotion and security in order to get results, according to a Penn State research study. Human-resources personnel need to recognize that women have diverse values and motivations throughout their careers and tailor hiring and retention practices to fit those needs.

Questions? Feedback? Contact NetworkWorld.com Site Editor Jeff Caruso.

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Network/Systems Management

Network World's Network/Systems Management Newsletter, 05/30/07

BMC updates products with IT operations in mind

By Denise Dubie

A few years back management software maker BMC started its journey toward automated IT service management with the introduction of its business services management (BSM) strategy.

Now an industry buzzword, BSM underpins most of BMC's distributed management efforts, and in particular its Atrium configuration management database (CMDB) promises to serve as the foundation for greater IT management efforts, industry watchers say. Now the vendor is making sure it has all its bases covered by providing new and upgraded products designed to extend the values of BSM down to the operations teams.

"BSM as a story has mostly been about IT service management and IT process management," says Tom Bishop, CTO at BMC. "Now we are looking to help IT operations manage and configure IT assess in a way that maximizes business services."

The company last week announced a set of new products and upgrades to several others. For instance, BMC Transaction Management Root Cause Analysis will correlate transaction data from multiple BMC tools and pull out the pieces that matter to IT operations, reducing the mean time to repair on performance problems. And not only does this application speed problem resolution, it also does so with business priorities in mind, Bishop explains.

"All of this information is now being viewed in context, rather than on its own. We filter out the non-relevant information and try to bring customers close to pure-bred diagnosis," he says. Available now, the new and upgraded products have been integration so that they share similar dashboards and provide unified service-level management analysis.

"BMS is a lifestyle change for many IT shops. In a way, it is about providing business process management for IT, and it reflects the level of maturity the industry is reaching," Bishop says.

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

Senior Editor Denise Dubie covers the technologies, products and services that address network, systems, application and IT service management for Network World. E-mail Denise.

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Convergence & VoIP

Network World's Convergence & VoIP Newsletter, 05/30/07

Cisco and DiVitas Networks focus on mobility solutions

By Steve Taylor and Larry Hettick

Last time we began reporting on product developments timed to coincide with Interop 2007, today we highlight separate announcements focused on fixed mobile convergence and enterprise mobility from Cisco and DiVitas Networks.

Cisco announced a broad range of enhancements to its mobility solutions, including the Cisco Unified Wireless Network; Mobile Solutions for Unified Communications; Cisco Business on the Go Solutions; and Cisco Process Monitoring and Optimization Solutions. The enhancements include upgrades to provide better asset tracking, voice over WLAN improvements, and a targeted mobility package for the oil and gas industry. Although these aren’t a big deal as individual products or upgrades, they do point to the fact that Cisco wants to keep pace with advances in the mobility market.

DiVitas Networks had two announcements for Interop. First, the company announced the worldwide availability of its “mobile-to-mobile convergence (MMC) solution” for the Nokia Eseries. The MMC architecture runs on a “Mobile Convergence Appliance” sitting inside the enterprise network which works with client software running on the MMC-compatible handset. Mobile features supported include voice, presence, IM, e-mail, and PBX desk phone functions, according to the company’s statement, allowing users to roam “seamlessly, back and forth, between disparate Wi-Fi and cellular networks.” In their second announcement, DiVitas said they have also extended their MMC solution to include integration with Microsoft’s Office Live Communications Server 2005 & Office Communications Server 2007.

Our analysis: we’re still waiting to see fixed mobile convergence applications become as indispensable as e-mail or the phone to a business, but as we predicted in our January market outlook, “Fixed-mobile convergence will benefit from the 2005-2006 build out of mobile data networks and we will see actual services targeting enterprise vertical markets emerge in 2007.”

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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

Larry Hettick is an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience in voice and data. He is Vice President for Telecom Services and Infrastructure at Current Analysis, the leading competitive response solutions company. He can be reached at lhettick@currentanalysis.com

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Wireless in the Enterprise

Network World's Wireless in the Enterprise Newsletter, 05/30/07

Nortel, Trapeze diverge on Smart Mobile recommendations

By Joanie Wexler

Trapeze and one of its primary OEMs, Nortel, don’t quite see eye to eye on their recommendations for customers’ use of distributed wireless switching.

Last fall, Trapeze announced its Smart Mobile architecture, a twist on its centralized wireless LAN system that lets customers move select traffic forwarding out to distributed access points to alleviate back-end bottlenecks and associated latency. The idea was to combine the benefits associated with both centralized and distributed architectures onto one WLAN platform.

“We saw that the pure centralized architecture wasn’t going to scale for voice,” David Cohen, director of product marketing at Trapeze, told me last week at the Interop trade show, where he was demonstrating the company’s 802.11 Draft N access point, to ship late this year.

But Kyle Klassen, in the enterprise wireless marketing group at Nortel, which OEMs Trapeze WLAN gear under the Nortel brand, countered, “We’re not fully endorsing Trapeze Smart Mobile for all implementations.” He pointed to Nortel’s long-heavy emphasis on business voice systems and said it chose to resell Trapeze WLANs largely on the merits of its voice support with the centralized architecture.

Klassen said that Nortel recommends using the distributed Smart Mobile capabilities for stationary wireless—not mobile—devices. Stationary devices are Wi-Fi-enabled desktop computers and Nortel desktop phone sets. Using Wi-Fi cards in these devices, Klassen explained, is not about enabling mobility but, rather, about reducing the cost of computers for stationary workers and for reducing cabling requirements and associated expenses.

Klassen advised that all mobile and roaming access devices remain on the centralized Trapeze/Nortel system. Why? Because the centralized system is what initially solved the problem of having to move information about all a company’s virtual LANs (VLAN) out to distributed switches when users went mobile. In a centralized scenario, a roaming user remains associated with the appropriate VLAN through the central intelligence of the switch. In the distributed scenario, VLAN information must be pushed out to the distributed forwarding devices, which creates mounds of reconfiguration work for network administrators.

And what are Nortel’s plans to sell Trapeze’s 802.11 Draft N products?

“We’ll resell them with the Trapeze branding until the standard is ratified,” said Klassen.

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in California's Silicon Valley who has spent most of her career analyzing trends and news in the computer networking industry. She welcomes your comments on the articles published in this newsletter, as well as your ideas for future article topics. Reach her at joanie@jwexler.com.

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Service Provider News Report

Network World's Service Provider News Report Newsletter, 05/30/07

Orange Business adds managed services for Microsoft apps

By Carolyn Duffy Marsan

Orange Business Services is expanding its consulting, integration and managed services to support Microsoft’s unified communications, instant messaging, video and Web conferencing software.

Orange Business Services will help companies roll out collaboration tools on their IP VPNs or MPLS networks based on Microsoft’s Office Communications Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007, Forefront and Office SharePoint Server. Customers can choose to run the Microsoft applications themselves or hand off management to Orange Business Services.

Orange Business Services has dubbed the partnership "Business Together with Microsoft," and it is available immediately.

"We have 1,500 MPLS customers, and most of them are ready to launch collaboration solutions," says Axel Haentjens, vice president of marketing at Orange Business Services. "We now have a good solution for unified messaging, for workflow, for instant messaging. The solutions are there and the IP infrastructure is there. I think the market is mature."

Microsoft’s latest software will allow companies to give new collaboration tools to office, mobile and remote workers. End users will be able to access their mailboxes, view voice messages as e-mails, read faxes, make VoIP calls and access their contacts and calendars through a single Windows Outlook interface. End users also will be able to communicate in real-time with each other through audio, video and Web conferencing or instant messaging.

Customers are "happy to have a company like Orange come in and assess what the legacy situation is, build the business case for unified communications, tell them what the cost is and what they can expect and define a path to implement the solution," Haentjens says. "We offer consulting and integration and then we give the choice to the customer for us to manage the whole solution on a utility basis or we will just deliver it as a turnkey solution."

One early customer is NXP Semiconductors, a Dutch manufacturer that operates in more than 20 countries. NXP has an IP VPN, and now it is rolling out an instant messaging solution to more than 1,000 end users. Orange Business will be managing the instant messaging solution for NXP.

"Any kind of business needs to implement collaboration, video conferencing and Web conferencing, especially the multinational companies," Haentjens says. "The stronger contribution for Orange Business Services is for global warming. Our customers will be able to save travels, and people will be able to work more efficiently remotely from home or from the office."

Orange Business Services - formerly Equant - has a long-standing relationship with Microsoft.

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

Carolyn Duffy Marsan is a senior editor with Network World and covers emerging Internet technologies and standards. Reach her at cmarsan@nww.com

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Optical Networking

Network World's Optical Networking Newsletter, 05/30/07

Q1 was record for DSL

By Jim Duffy

Global shipments of DSL equipment in the first quarter increased 5% sequentially to a record 25 million ports, according to market research firm Dittberner.

The strong growth was mainly due to:

* Over 12 million new DSL subscribers worldwide, including 4.1 million in China;

* A large increase in Fiber-to-the-Building/VDSL subscribers in Japan;

* And the movement of 2 million ports in Western Europe to unbundled loops, which gave a temporary boost in shipments as incumbents retired the replaced equipment.

North American shipments declined for the third quarter in a row and will continue to decline due to the slowdown in AT&T’s buildout, Verizon’s shift to Fiber-to-the-Home and the absence of alternative service providers, according to Dittberner.

Alcatel-Lucent, the market leading vendor, saw its share drop from 36% in the fourth quarter of 2006 to 29% in the first quarter of 2007. And for the first time ever, the combined shipments of the second and third place vendors – Huawei and ZTE -- exceeded Alcatel-Lucent’s, Dittberner found.

Huawei, ZTE and Siemens all reported record shipments, the firm said. The top three suppliers all reported strong shipments into China and to Western Europe’s alternative service providers; the only vendor to record growth in North America was Adtran, the firm found.

Dittberner expects the growth of DSL on unbundled loops to continue at the expense of Western Europe’s incumbents’ wholesale DSL business. This should result in Huawei and ZTE increasing market share, the firm says.

The growth in IP DSLAMs accelerated during the quarter and now comprises 72% of all DSLAMs shipped, the firm says. Huawei remained the leader with 28% of the market share. Alcatel-Lucent, ZTE, Siemens and ZyXel round out the top 5 suppliers.

The number of IP DSLAMs shipped grew by 16% in the first quarter, while the number of ATM DSLAMs declined 13%. IP DSLAMs shipped have become the major driver in the growth of the edge router and Carrier Ethernet markets, Dittberner notes.

One main driver of IP DSLAM growth, VDSL and VDSL2, grew to 2 million ports shipped, according to the firm. ZyXel remained the market leader in this segment with a 40% share, Dittberner found.

Regional growth varied in the quarter. Even with the strong subscriber growth in China and the alternative service provider buildouts of Western Europe, Asia-Pacific and Europe/Middle East/Africa grew at or slightly less than the global market, Dittberner found. Shipments to Central and Latin America were up 45% to 2.3 million ports, almost as much as North America.

Market consolidation continues and will likely speed up if DSL subscriber growth slows, as the firm expects.

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

Jim Duffy is managing editor of Network World's service provider equipment coverage. He has 18 years of high-tech reporting experience, including over 12 years at Network World. Previously, he was senior editor at Computer Systems News and associate editor/reporter at Electronic News and MIS Week. He can be reached at jduffy@nww.com.

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Network/Systems Management News Alert

Network World's Network/Systems Management News Alert, 05/29/07

Web 2.0 meets the enterprise: complications ensue, 05/24/07:  "Web 2.0 creep" going on inside the corporate firewall is challenging enterprise networks to handle the real-time demands and bursty nature of the latest collaboration and social networking software, according to IT executives attending Interop. Click here for more.

Green computing driven by cold, hard cash, 05/24/07:  If a chance to save the world from climate change isn’t a compelling reason to embrace environmentally sound technologies, there is one incentive large corporations can’t ignore -- money. Click here for more.

Capgemini soon to have more staff in India than France, 05/24/07:  French IT services company Capgemini SA will have more staff in India than any other country by the end of this year, as it expands its offshore services delivery from that nation. Click here for more.

Senior Editor Denise Dubie covers network and systems management for Network World.

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Daily News: PM

Network World Daily News: PM, 05/29/07

News podcast: Network World 360
Report slams FBI network security; Microsoft publicly offers up a protocol for NAC; Verizon planning iPhone killer; and Q1 was record for DSL. (5:43)

Second part of $20B government telecom award imminent
The General Services Administration plans to award Thursday the second half of a $20 billion program that will provide telecommunications services to U.S. federal agencies during the next 10 years.

Report says Avaya in talks for private-equity buyout
A private-equity firm is reportedly seeking a buyout of Avaya, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Xirrus joins 11n product parade for enterprise wireless LANs
Xirrus is the latest of the wireless LAN vendors to announce an access point that supports the most recent draft of the IEEE 802.11n high-throughput standard.

Stealthy antispam system behind massive book digitization effort
You know those pesky but necessary CAPTCHA boxes whose squiggly letters and digits you need to retype to use certain parts of Web sites? A computer scientist from Carnegie Mellon is looking to replace many of those boxes with antispam boxes of his own for the purpose of helping to digitize and make searchable the text from books and other printed materials.

BMC picks up ProactiveNet
BMC Software today said it acquired privately held software maker ProactiveNet for an undisclosed amount.

End of BMC’s .Net Identity Management suite highlights stink with Microsoft, partners
BMC has killed its .Net Identity Management product suite in part because partner Microsoft is squeezing BMC out with development of its own identity software, according to an internal Microsoft memo.

Rugged-notebook vendor unveils 'sunproof' display
A new display technology from a maker of rugged computers promises finally to make touch screens readable in bright, direct sunlight.

Complete Interop roundup

From Web 2.0 to the latest switch news, our reporters and editors will get you up to speed on everything that happened at last week's Interop show in Las Vegas.

In depth

ZigBee: The new Bluetooth?
Although most IT professionals, as well as a majority of consumers, are familiar with the Bluetooth wireless data-communications standard, very few are aware of the new ZigBee wireless data standard.

From the blogs and forums

John Obeto says people who propose Microsoft Office-less offices are nuts. Green Your Network looks at Yahoo's plan to become carbon neutral. Miles Baska explains why he's switched to Avira's AntiVir Personal Edition Classic. The Alpha Doggs look at using captcha systems to help digitize books. Paul McNamara says feel free to admit you don't own an iPod.Mark Gibbs looks at a list of application-security weakpoints.

Users continue to debate the question: Cisco: End of a religion? They also ponder whether Argonne National Laboratory really needed to rip out a pilot VoIP installation - and the case of that substitute teacher who could get 40 years. One user explains why we're moving back to the glass-house model. Another wonders why the FBI can't secure its own network.

How to

Ron Nutter helps a user having problems upgrading the supervisor on his Cisco 6809 switch. Tom Bowers discusses how to inventory your intellectual property.

Video

Not all VoIP rollouts go as planned
Despite new building and fresh networking gear, a voice over IP implementation does not always go as planned - even for a high-tech outfit like the Argonne National Laboratory. Scott Pinkerton, manager of Argonne's core network infrastructure, explains the hurdles his group faced and the lessons learned from their failed VoIP project (Note: The article will also link you to the community discussion mentioned above).

Questions? Feedback? Contact NetworkWorld.com Site Editor Jeff Caruso.

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LANs & Routers

Network World's LANs & Routers Newsletter, 05/29/07

Switch sales slip

By Jeff Caruso

The robust activity around LAN switches that we saw at the Interop trade show this week was tempered by the release of market research that showed that the Ethernet switch market has shrunk.

As I mentioned last time, Foundry Networks led a charge ahead with its biggest chassis-based switch, the 5.1Tbps BigIron RX32. The network industry had a strong showing at Interop, as our editor-in-chief, John Dix, noted in an editorial.

Research firm Dell'Oro Group, however, then released a report showing a "substantial decline" in revenues for chassis-based Ethernet switches in the first three months of the year.

Seamus Crehan, senior director of Ethernet switch research at Dell’Oro, said the decline was greater than 10%. Chassis-based switches make up about half of the market; the other half is made up of fixed-configuration or stackable switches, which remained stable. So, the overall Ethernet switch market declined about 5% to about $4 billion in the quarter, the largest sequential decrease in more than five years.

North American enterprise companies spent less on network gear, and they tend to buy chassis-based switches more than other parts of the world, Crehan said.

So, why are those businesses spending less? Crehan said the overall economic outlook may have something to do with it. The economy is still growing, but more slowly.

Dell'Oro is forecasting the market to rebound later in the year, as it slowly recovers from this most recent quarter.

Cisco led the market for chassis-based switches, as you would expect. HP ProCurve is next, followed by Nortel, Foundry and Redback Networks.

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

Jeff Caruso is managing editor of online news for Network World. He oversees daily online news posting and newsletter editing, and writes the NetFlash daily news summary, the High-Speed LANs newsletter and the Voices of Networking newsletter. Contact him at jcaruso@nww.com

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Unified Communications

Network World's Unified Communications Newsletter, 05/29/07

Messaging migration is not for the faint of heart

By Michael Osterman

At some point, just about every organization will be faced with the decision of migrating to a new messaging platform, whether that involves migrating to the next major upgrade of the same vendor’s platform or migrating to a new vendor’s offering. Regardless of which path an organization chooses, the move will typically require a substantial commitment of IT and other resources to make the transition as painless as possible.

In a large research project that we conducted in late 2006, we found that only 17% of organizations planned to migrate to another vendor’s messaging platform during the next two years. This is in contrast to the 30% of Exchange-enabled organizations that indicated they would migrate to Exchange 2007 during the next 12 months.

The reason that I bring this up is that a survey conducted by a major, very credible and very well-respected consulting firm found that nearly one-quarter of respondents indicated that they would migrate from Exchange to either a Linux-based or open source messaging platform within the next 18 months. While I’m sure the methodology was sound and the research was conducted in an unbiased manner, I believe that the percentage of organizations that will migrate away from Exchange just won’t be as large as that.

To be sure, many organizations are considering alternatives to Exchange. Vendors like PostPath, Scalix, Zimbra, Rockliffe, CommuniGate, Ipswitch and many others offer messaging platforms that are less expensive, that can run on 32-bit hardware and that offer a number of important benefits, not least of which is Outlook compatibility and lower cost.

However, migrating to a new messaging platform is often a difficult and disruptive activity and one that most IT organizations don’t eagerly anticipate. The level of difficulty involved in migration puts serious brakes on organizations’ likelihood of migrating, even if another platform offers some desired advantages. Add unified communications into the mix and the integration of voice into the messaging platform and the decision becomes even more difficult.

What I believe ultimately will happen is that Exchange will lose some customers to Linux-based and open source alternatives, it will gain share from other platforms, and its user base will continue to grow. Further, I believe that the Exchange alternatives will also do very well as messaging continues to expand worldwide. What I don’t believe, however, is that huge numbers of users will be migrated from one platform to another in the short term. Migration is simply too much of a pain for that to happen.

I’d like to get your feedback on this – please send me an e-mail with your thoughts.

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

For webinars or research on messaging, or to join the Osterman Research market research survey panel, go here. Osterman Research helps organizations understand the markets for messaging and directory related offerings. To e-mail Michael, click here.

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All Things Gibbs

Network World's All Things Gibbs Newsletter, 05/29/07

All Things Gibbs

By Mark Gibbs

Gearhead: A salmagundi for CD and DVD creation

Every now and then we have days when things digital just get us torqued. Days when applications bomb, files get corrupted, the network clogs up and software does something that is just simply irritating.

To read this week's Gearhead, click here.

Backspin: Astounded by things legal

I am astounded. No, not over Melinda Dolittle getting booted from "American Idol" (although the gods know that was a bizarre and irritating decision on the part of the great unwashed). I am astounded by things legal.

To read this week's Backspin, click here.

Gibbsblog: The past 7 days

Free Online Virus and Malware Scan

I just switched my AV software to Avira's AntiVir Personal Edition Classic. I ran a scan immediately after installing it, and it alerted on c:\winnt\browser.exe, claiming I had a trojan. My old software hadn't been complaining, so naturally I wanted a third opinion. Enter Virustotal.

Digitizing Books One Word at a Time

reCAPTCHA is an effort by the Carnegie Mellon University to use those little security programs called CAPTCHAs to correct OCR errors in the Internet Archive project.

Questions, Questions, Questions

Yet another test of something that I'm going to discuss in the Network World Web Applications newsletter: Subscribe now or wait until the issue hits the archives.

Pew Internet Releases New Spam Report

A new report from the Pew Research Center concludes: "The volume of spam is growing in Americans' personal and workplace e-mail accounts, but e-mail users are less bothered by it."

In Web Applications: Getting around Web filtering

In my Web applications newsletter this week, I look at proxies that might let you get around them. Thoughts?

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, and columnist and now blogger: Check out Gibbsblog.

Gibbs not only pens (well, keyboards) this newsletter he also writes the weekly Backspin and Gearhead columns in Network World. We’ll spare you the rest of the bio but if you want to know more, go here.

Archives of the Network World Web Applications newsletter can be found here.

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Network Optimization

Network World's Network Optimization Newsletter, 05/29/07

Tackling the management morass

By Ann Bednarz

When you’re talking about managing WAN optimization appliances, you’re talking about remote management. There’s just no getting around it, unless you plan to hire IT staff in every location on the WAN where an appliance is deployed.

The latest vendor to come up with a new product for taming the management challenge is Exinda Networks, which last week unveiled a hosted application for centrally managing its WAN optimization gear.

Called Service Delivery Point (SDP), the tool is designed to simplify the task of installing, configuring and monitoring WAN optimization appliances distributed throughout corporate networks. IT managers use a Web browser to access the application -- which runs in an Exinda data center -- to control device policy and better optimize their networks. Reports provide visibility into application performance over the WAN and include information such as network utilization, top applications and top URLs accessed.

“We’ve moved a lot of the smarts of the system, and the management of the system, out of the customer environment and off of a single appliance and put it into a central location,” says Con Nikolouzakis, CEO at Exinda. “That enables our clients to scale up to hundreds or thousands of appliances and still maintain control over their entire network.”

Because the software is delivered as a service over the Web, companies can avoid some of the traditional expenses of a centralized management system deployed in-house. They don’t have to buy hardware, for example, or install, maintain and upgrade the software.

The software-as-a-service delivery model is a natural fit for companies that want to move away from static appliance configurations and be able to more easily adjust WAN policies as business and network conditions change, Nikolouzakis adds. “We’ve seen that the dynamic nature of networks today is requiring that these policies are constantly updated,” he says.

SDP, which is due to be available in late June, is licensed by the number of appliances to be managed. The Web-hosted version has no set up fee and costs $20 per appliance per month; the price drops to $5 per appliance per month for 500 or more managed devices.

For companies that aren’t comfortable with a hosted offering, Exinda also offers an appliance version of SDP for deployment on-site. Pricing for the SDP appliance starts at $5,000.

In future versions, as Exinda adds customers to its hosted service and beings to amass data about customer networks, its plan is to migrate SDP into a source for real-time notifications on application performance and recommendations for setting optimal network policies.

“For example, if you’re a new user of WAN optimization, you can come into the SDP and say, ‘I’ve got 50 offices and I’m running SAP and Lotus Notes and I’ve got VoIP. These are the size of my links,’” Nikolouzakis says. “The system will look inside the existing community and come back and say ‘this is the recommended policy for your network and this policy has been voted for 100 times and it’s got a 4.5 star rating.’ So you can have a level of confidence in how successful your rollout is going to be.”

In terms of automated configuration, IT managers will be able to choose from among three operational modes: a fully automated mode in which SDP will determine optimal device configuration; a semi-assist mode in which SDP will recommend optimal policies but won’t implement them without IT sign-off; and a manual mode in which IT managers configure appliances manually.

“I think people will start in the semi-assist mode, which is very similar to how customers work with us today,” Nikolouzakis says. “They say, ‘Ok, you guys propose a configuration to us, and then we’ll sign off on it.’ Once they get comfortable with the system, I think they will move up to the automated mode.”

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

Ann Bednarz is an associate news editor at Network World responsible for editing daily news content. She previously covered enterprise applications, e-commerce and telework trends for Network World. E-mail Ann.

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Network Access Control

Network World's Network Access Control Newsletter, 05/29/07

Microsoft plays up NAP at Interop

By Tim Greene

Microsoft made a big deal at Interop of its network access protection (NAP) software working with other vendor’s NAC gear.

The company had a beta version of its Longhorn server, now being called Windows Server 2008, operating with switches made by 10 different vendors. It also showed NAP interoperating with half a dozen other vendors’ NAC policy servers.

The demonstration with the switches showed off the capabilities of the NAP client working together with its NAP server, the Network Policy Server (NPS). If the machine trying to gain network access doesn’t have its Vista personal firewall turned on, the NPS will turn it on.

The end user doesn’t have to do anything to make that happen. Some other NAC setups that found a personal firewall turned off might require the user to turn the software back on manually.

Microsoft says other software vendors are working on policy modules that can run on Windows Server 2008 to increase how much data can be fed to the NPS to help it make decisions about whether to grant access.

For example, rather than just tell whether antivirus software is turned on and updated, it could also tell when the software actually ran a virus scan, and the last time it found a virus. A policy could then be written that says the device should be denied access if it hasn’t been scanned within a certain period.

The demos showed off some appealing features but the main drawback of NAP remains that it can’t be deployed yet because Windows Server 2008 isn’t available. It’s hard to tell whether showing off these features will build interest or frustration.

What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

Tim Greene is a senior editor at Network World, covering network access control, virtual private networking gear, remote access, WAN acceleration and aspects of VoIP technology. You can reach him at tgreene@nww.com.

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Wide Area Networking

Network World's Wide Area Networking Newsletter, 05/29/07

Zero chance of interoperability between optimization technologies

By Steve Taylor and Jim Metzler

Jim recently moderated a seminar series on the topic of network and application optimization that was produced by Network World. This is the last of three newsletters that will discuss some of the questions that the audience had for the presenting vendors at the seminars.

A theme that popped up in each of the four seminars concerned the lack of interoperability between branch office optimization technologies. As one user asked, “What are the chances of an interoperability standard amongst the vendors?” The simple answer is that there would be zero chance of an interoperability standard in the foreseeable future. As the vendors explain it, they certainly could build products using standards such as gzip. Their argument, however, is that by using proprietary techniques they get much better performance than is possible with a standards based approach. Whether you accept that argument or not, there is not really any chance that these products will interoperate anytime soon.

During the seminar, a Cisco speaker made the comment that only Cisco and Citrix avoid tunneling. Their point was that tunneling changes the packet headers and hence a solution based on tunneling is not transparent. That comment spurred a number of questions from the audience relative to whose solutions are truly transparent. Those questions were best answered by the speaker from F5 who looked at the other sponsors and stated, “Each of our company’s solutions have caused some networks to break.”

Another theme that popped up in each of the four seminars was the confusion that the attendees had in choosing between the vendors’ solutions. As one user asked, “What is the No. 1 step I should take to get started in evaluating these solutions?” Our advice is to develop a set of decision criteria and use these to evaluate the available solutions. The result of this analysis is a short list of vendors whose solutions you need to take in-house and test. To help with this process, we will begin to write about the criteria that we suggest you use to evaluate these solutions.

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