Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Do branch offices need routers anymore?

GPS performance could degrade but won't fail, Air Force says; Embedded intelligent networks are mushrooming
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Spotlight Story
Do branch offices need routers anymore?

Recent wireless-centric remote networking announcements imply that the corporate LAN experience can simply be "extended" into enterprise branch offices without the need for IP routing. Such a setup is possible, particularly for single-person offices. But it's not likely to become the de facto configuration for all enterprise branch offices. Read full story

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iPhones in the enterprise leaving IT pros at wit's end
LAS VEGAS--Executives smitten with iPhones are forcing enterprise IT departments to come up with ways to support the mobile devices even though big security and management questions abound. IT pros peppered panelists at a standing-room only Interop session titled "The iPhone and the Enterprise: Is this the Future of IT?" with such questions and left without many answers. One healthcare IT pro said supporting iPhones would be a nightmare given industry data protection regulations and the ability of end users to relatively easily "jailbreak" their iPhones. Another IT pro pointed out that supporting a bunch of native apps on iPhones would seem to run counter to other IT trends, such as the move toward desktop virtualization and centralized applications control. Panelist J.T. Starzecki, president of application development and consulting company iPhone Zen Masters, acknowledged that IT pros are left with the "dilemma of how to fit iPhones into their current infrastructure" in light of executives adopting iPhones for personal use and then calling on IT to support them in the business. "iPhone 2.0 made some leaps toward enterprise adoption [with support for Exchange ActiveSync, etc, but it's not where it should be," he said. One big challenge in supporting iPhones is that it's hard to find an organization that wouldn't also have a handful of other mobile device types to support, said Adam Blum, CEO of Rhomobile, which makes a framework for building native mobile device apps that can work across platforms. Supporting multiple platforms would only add to an IT department's workload, he said. "We'll always have heterogeneity," he said. While IT shops might not be happy about losing control over end devices stuffed with applications, Blum said there's not much they can do about the shift. He noted that some applications, such as GPS and cameras, must be on the end device. He pointed to the emergence of applications on iPhones and other smartphones in the enterprise as part of the seemingly never-ending back and forth nature of centralized and decentralized computing. While some IT shops might being feeling forced to support iPhones because of top execs' desires, others might be the supporters themselves. In these cases, the panelists recommended selling higher ups on iPhone support by showing first how it could benefit customers. "The wedge is 'We want to support our customers,'" Starzecki said. The panelists pointed to some high profile iPhone business apps, such as AAA enabling customers to report their location via the iPhone and Nationwide allowing insurance clients with iPhones to send in claims data, including accident photos. Among inhibitors to iPhones taking off in the enterprise is the lack of a good iTunes-like distribution channel for enterprise apps, Blum said. He said enterprise app developers can't abide by a system that wouldn't allow them to have more control over when their offerings become available. "This is an area that's ripe for innovation," he said.

GPS performance could degrade but won't fail, Air Force says
GPS is not in danger of going down, although there is some risk of degraded performance as reported recently by a government accounting group, an Air Force colonel said in a Twitter forum.

Embedded intelligent networks are mushrooming
One area I'm paying a lot of attention to these days is what I'm calling "embedded intelligent networks," or networks that integrate seamlessly into physical reality, enabling us to monitor and ultimately manipulate the real world across the net.

May Giveaways
Cisco Subnet
, Microsoft Subnet and Google Subnet are collectively giving away books on Google Apps Deciphered, the CCNA Security exam, an awesome SQL Server 2005/2008 training video and the grand prize, a Microsoft training course from New Horizons worth up to $2,500. Deadline for entries May 31.


Evolution of Ethernet
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Apple iPhoneys: The 4G edition
Apple iPhoneys: The 4G editioniPhone enthusiasts from around the Web offer their visions for the next-gen iPhone.

Masters of Unified Communications
This dynamic microsite is updated daily by Johna Till Johnson of Nemertes Research with all of the latest news on Unified Communications. Bookmark this site and check back daily to read the latest news on UC and download relevant whitepapers, case studies, videos, and more.
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