Webinar: Better Visibility and Control for Multi-Vendor Voice Systems
Gary Audin and I are doing a Webinar tomorrow with Teresa Dixon of Unimax on how to improve management. Register here.
It’s (Not) Just A Light Bulb!
Unknown to me during our budgeting efforts last year for the buildout of our new offices was the cost of new “high tech” lighting. Lighting continues to be a major line item that sends utility bills soaring. Lighting is also a source of heat, and heat is unwelcome in data centers and in places where you just can’t seem to get enough cool air flowing. The vicious circle is, upsize the cooling to meet the growing demands of IT, which usually means burning more juice.
The IP PBX Will Reign; The Converged PBX Will Slowly Fade Away
I believe that not soon, but eventually, the IP PBX will become the dominant PBX architecture--sometime after 2010. I am sure there is no single compelling factor that will make my opinion come true. There are many factors that all appear to be pushing the industry and their customers in this direction. Part of the value of the converged PBX is its support of legacy phones and trunks. As the legacy support requirements diminish, the less attractive the converged PBX is.
Power Factor Correction: Not Snake Oil
There’s always a besserwisser in the crowd and after receiving a couple of anonymous emails from one claiming to be an IEEE engineer, I brought together again, a collection of forces to help me better understand power factor correction.
NEC Defines Hospitality
An article in the print version of Telecom Reseller (couldn’t find it online) caught my attention, on NEC’s reported 64% growth in hospitality sales. Kevin Ruhman is NEC’s Director of Hospitality Market and he was kind enough to speak to me about NEC’s success in the hospitality market.
Toshiba Aims to Move Upmarket
Toshiba has always had a strong position in the small-business market for PBXs and now IP telephony, but the company today announced a new product release that scales into a higher tier.
Energy Report
For August, I’ll be reporting on energy and what we’ve done at Telecomworx to trim our energy consumption and improve our energy efficiency.
Blocking Skype
Skype is a free Internet based telephone service that many enterprise employees access and use. Some enterprises use Skype for internal use. One French and U.S.-based company used Skype for their development team’s collaboration. So should an enterprise allow Skype on their internal network? Not necessarily according to Blue Coat Systems, a security and WAN optimization vendor.
Is That Web Site Down?
Suppose we depend on web sites like Google, Yahoo and others for supporting the enterprise business instead of or in addition to the private enterprise sites? How far would you go in this direction? There are issues of privacy, security and compliance. What about availability, disaster prevention and recovery?
Sulkin on Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent
Allan Sulkin was kind enough to send me his thoughts on the Siemens Enterprise (SEN) deal this morning. Allan knows SEN as well as any analyst out there; here's what he says:
More Big News: Alcatel-Lucent CEO, Chairman Resign
As if the Siemens news wasn't enough, Alcatel-Lucent announced today that its CEO, Pat Russo, and Chairman, Serge Tchuruk, are resigning. Russo will stay on until a new CEO is named, and Tchuruk's resignation is effective October 1.
Updates throughout the day on this as well.
911 May Cost You Far More Than a Phone Call
This entry was written by Mark J. Fletcher, Product Manager, E911 Emergency Services for Nortel, and was edited by Gary Audin.
What if 9-1-1 does not work? What if the location is incorrect? Suppose you implement 9-1-1 and E911 in one office because the law says so but not in another office because there are no E911 regulations? Does an enterprise create more liabilities with uneven 9-1-1 and E911 deployment?
Panasonic's Drop List
Panasonic issued a memo to its dealer base stating:
Effective September 1, 2008, we are changing the way we provide telephone technical support for the following products:
New Contender in Siemens Sale
Various media outlets are quoting German newspaper reports that the new front-runner to acquire Siemens Enterprise Communications is The Gores Group, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm that also is a part owner of Enterasys, the LAN/WAN switching company. Gores Group, together with Tennenbaum Capital Partners, another private equity firm, acquired Enterasys in 2006.
Dumb Down The Technology or Educate the User?
Technology, according to Gerald Celente, Founder of The Trends Research Institute:
It’s a quickly spreading worldwide epidemic that will get much worse. All colors, classes, creeds and races are addicted and they can’t break the habit. Before 2008 ends, the TechnoSlave trend will be so pervasive and so deeply embedded into the fabric of society that Old World communication styles will be seen as quaint and ridiculed as stupidly boring by the high-tech "hip."
QOS and QOE, Revisited
In the slides for next Tuesday's webinar on Performance Management for IP Telephony (register here), Dr. Mike Hollier of Psytechnics has a great section where he discusses the importance of making sure your ability to measure performance keeps pace with the technology you're deploying. Since network management and monitoring deployments always seem to lag the core technology they manage, it's good to know where you're going--that is, what you'll be needing to measure and control in the next deployment phase.
Communications and Energy
As we've begun discussing the program for November's VoiceCon San Francisco conference, Fred Knight and I have been looking for ways we can program sessions around the issue of communications' role in saving energy. Since energy costs appear to be on a permanent upward trend, it seems clear that enterprises will have to take a fresh look at this problem from all its various aspects, and it's inevitable that communications technology will be the preferred solution in at least some of the situations.
Applying Telecom Management Skills Elsewhere
AOTMP (Association of Telecommunications Management Professionals) is based in Indianapolis, IN. Long ago, the telecom business during the late 1970’s and early divestiture years was pretty nutty and with good reason. Companies sprang up promising to get telecom expenses under control, and in those days shaving pennies off your long distance rate meant something. Teletron was one of those companies serving large enterprises with early TEM (Telecommunications Expense Management) solutions. Before this period, most companies just paid the bills on time without any analysis since telecom was considered “just another utility.” Back then many folks just assumed that the bills were right.
New Podcast Posted: Steve Guthrie of CA
We've just posted our latest podcast, an interview with Steve Guthrie of CA. Steve spent much of the interview talking about the role that configuration errors play in causing problems in IP telephony implementations. This hearkens back to the maxim, "The major cause of failures are fingers," explained to me by Terry Slattery of Netcordia a couple of months back.
Dell Wants Piece of Phone Pie Too
Just when the retailers thought it would be in vogue to hawk telephone systems alongside Ebay where pretty much anything sells, Dell Computer is on the act too, selling what they advertise as “Affordable Enterprise-Class Phone Systems by Fonality.”
Automating the Auto Attendant
Love and hate seems to best describe the attitudes toward the many automated attendants used to front end the modern era business. The feelings aren’t just here in the U.S.A. but extend globally, and I think even to a greater degree of harshness.
Siemens Layoffs: Update
Siemens corporation finally confirmed rumors and reports of nearly 17,000 job cuts/restructuring. This announcement was made by the Siemens parent company, a conglomerate that manufactures myriad products including medical and energy systems. It's unclear at this point whether or how the cuts affect Siemens Enterprise communications; I'm in pursuit of answers on that score. But the (accurately) reported size of the layoff made it a topic of considerable interest within our industry over the last week, so we'll follow up to determine any impact on the Siemens communications company.
Afternoon update:
Too Much Heat and Not Enough “Grid” Power
A study from the Uptime Institute reveals that most data centers would max out electrical capacity and cooling capabilities during the next 12-60 months. According to the Uptime Institute, 1U server space costs $1,600 per year in facilities costs, and $700 of that cost is just for electricity.
Digium Update
Fred Knight and I had the opportunity to travel down to Huntsville, AL, last week to visit with the folks at Digium, the company founded by Mark Spencer, creator of the Asterisk open source PBX. What we found was a company that appears to be making the familiar tech industry passage from a young startup focused on breaking new ground, to VC-funded company on the IPO track, focused on execution and building its market.
VoIP: VPLS vs. MPLS
I always wanted to create a headline without words. This is my chance. You have heard of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), but Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) may be new to you. MPLS has been available for a few years. VPLS was announced by Verizon in March 2007. AT&T and Qwest are also beginning to offer VPLS, which is a new service for both the service provider and enterprise, so the experience level is low. It is now possible to consider either or both of these services for VoIP calls among sites.
Hospitality Via Wired Phones
One area where IP telephony has the potential to make a clear impact is in the hospitality industry; most vendors have a solution or set of solutions for this market. One example is Avaya’s new SIP iPhones from Teledex, which let hotel guests experience visuals, which hoteliers should appreciate. Adding the visual to the phone isn’t just cool, but it provides interlinks to the hotel’s services, moving hotels beyond selling rooms at rack rates, beyond just staying competitive, and to potentially greater profitability by adding all the trimmings offered by the hotel and surrounding area of interest to their guests.
Test Driving Hosted Asterisk
First the disclaimers. Hosted Asterisk, IMHO is something to consider only if you are SOHO or very small businesses that don’t have capital for either a TDM key-system, small Hybrid or low end IP-PBX and even then, you’d better know exactly what you are getting into. First impressions and attitude are everything. Never, regardless of how small or big you are, ever, put your dial tone on the line and get into that “we are committed” way of thinking if too many indicators or red flags sound off. You will likely have a bad experience that will stick in the users’ minds for a long time afterwards even if you are successful, and usually you’re just more accepting because you bought off on the concept.
Escalating VoIP Service Bill
The cost for VoIP/IP Telephony service calls is 150% more than every other category of IT technology--higher than cabling, software, servers, PCs, you name it. This translates into $449 for the average service professional work order as compared to the next highest work order cost of $282 for wiring and cabling followed by software at $255. This is according the report just published by OnForce covering the first quarter of 2008. The report, “State of the IT Industry Report”, covers a wide range of analysis, by locations and IT categories.
Staging Services Eases IP Migrations
I’ve been seeing and hearing about one significant change in the delivery of telephony systems to customers. Distribution is providing the installing company (Interconnect / VAR/Dealer) with staging services to save time and money, and to avoid costly mistakes on deploying IPT systems. Distribution, for a small fee (I’m not exaggerating) will pre-configure the IPT system with the necessary licensing, firmware updates and other initial configuration requirements that are necessary to get the system initially up and running for each customer.
Siemens Enterprise: June Wedding Postponed
It’s common knowledge that Siemens AG, the Munich based conglomerate that spun off its carrier systems division into a joint venture with Nokia, has been seeking suitors for its enterprise division as well. Nortel and private equity firm Cerberus Capital are the companies whose names most often come up these days and June has been the month when the wedding bells were widely expected to ring. Plans have apparently changed at bit.
Update on Greening Efforts & Energy Matters
In several posts I’ve made mention of the Power-Save capacitor that we have been installing on sites including our own office. We’ve logged our site data including a unit installed at one of our technicians’ home for three months.
What’s really interesting is my site is consistently down 18%, and my tech’s home is down 17% on power consumption.
Reuters: Giancarlo Only Wants Avaya CEO Job for Interim
Via Forbes.com, Charlie Giancarlo told Reuters today that he won't consider the Avaya president/CEO job on anything but an interim basis.
More on Avaya Direction
The Lou D’Ambrosio news from Avaya certainly drew a lot of attention. With that attention, new insights emerge, as is often the case.
Note to Readers on D'Ambrosio
Judging by the Comments to my original story on Lou D'Ambrosio's resignation from Avaya, and from some email I've gotten, there seems to be a feeling that I was casting doubt on the stated explanation for the resignation. I certainly wasn't doing that.
Does Seagate's Past Hold Clues About Avaya's Future?
A commenter on my Unified Communications blog at Information Week (where I moonlight) made an interesting argument, drawing a parallel between Avaya now and Seagate Technologies in 2000, when it too was acquired by Silver Lake Partners. The basic argument is that if things go for Avaya the way they went for Seagate, Avaya's got a bright future ahead of it.
What's Next for Avaya?
I agree with Eric Krapf’s earlier post and with the Avaya press release, that in roughly two years as CEO, Lou D’Ambrosio has, “shaped a compelling strategy, built a strong team, and led the company through important technology transitions…”
My first thought is to pause for a moment and support Lou in a rapid return of his health.
Then, what about Avaya?
Avaya Seeks CEO
As Eric pointed out, leadership changes are afoot at Avaya. Lou D’Ambrosio has stepped down for medical reasons, Charlie Giancarlo has stepped in as interim CEO, and the company has stepped up its search for a permanent leader.
D'Ambrosio's Letter to Employees
Here's the letter that Lou D'Ambrosio sent out to Avaya employees today as he stepped down as the company's CEO and president:
D'Ambrosio Steps Down as Avaya CEO; Giancarlo Is Interim Replacement (Updated)
Avaya today announced that Lou D'Ambrosio (left) is stepping down as CEO for unspecified "medical reasons," and that Charlie Giancarlo (right), who left Cisco late last year, will step in as interim CEO and President while a search is conducted for D'Ambrosio's successor. Giancarlo left Cisco last December to move to Silver Lake Partners, the private equity firm that acquired Avaya in mid-2007.
The Counterfeit Network: Penalties and Prevention – Part 2
My previous blog, “Is Your Network Counterfeit – Part 1?” discussed the discovery by the FBI of considerable counterfeit network equipment. The security of the counterfeit equipment does not seem to be an issue, YET. I worked in military intelligence R&D. The best intrusion is one that is very difficult to detect.
Thoughts on IPT Deployment Concerns
Hre are some comments on Eric's IPT deployment piece ‘What’s Your Biggest Concern?’ My law firm, Levine, Blaszak & Boothby, and our consulting affiliate, TechCaliber Consulting, are doing a bunch of these deals now for Fortune 100’s, so I have both interest and experience.
What's Your Biggest Concern?
As IP telephony continues to roll out and begins to scale in many enterprises, what are the real challenges? According to the Yankee Group, some are what you'd expect, some maybe not.
Acts of Desperation?
Last year, I noted in Costco Wants In Too that vendors are doing anything to gain market share in the IPT space. I can’t fault Costco for that, but what I can’t help is even though the gear is good- in these spaces, it almost always is installed poorly. Sure they get a deal, but is it really a deal after it’s been installed- maybe one year later?
Is Your Network Counterfeit? (Part 1)
The N.Y. Times headline on May 9, 2008 read, “F.B.I. Says the Military Had Bogus Computer Gear”. This headline did not make me feel comfortable. The idea that the equipment, mainly Cisco knockoffs, have been employed in government networks should alarm not only the network operations staff, but the security people as well.
Converged vs. Dedicated WAN Links
Converged WAN links carry a combination of data, voice and video traffic intermingled. Because these applications use the bandwidth in very different ways, they can interfere with each other when bandwidth is limited, as is often the case in the WAN access link. In my last post we looked at how these traffic types are different. Now I want to talk about how they interfere with each other and how we can manage that interference, especially in the WAN.
Is VOIP Growth Slowing?
Via the VAR Guy, VOIP blogger Garret Smith talks about the apparent slowing of growth in the VOIP market. Smith discusses residential and business, which are very different animals, but appears to see slowing growth in both markets. This notion of a softening market, at least in North America, also emerges from a just-released study by the market researchers at Infonetics.
ShoreTel 8.0: The Logic of Telephony
I just got a demo of some of the new aspects of ShoreTel's recently-announced ShoreTel 8.0 release (announcement here). What's cool about the cool stuff in this product is the regard it has for the communications environment that customers actually operate in today.
A Possible Rootkit Aimed at Cisco
No one really likes to discuss what-if scenarios unless of course you work for some underground agency or security firm or are one of those earning a buck to see the dark side of IT and peer into the inner workings of everything vulnerable.
Tel-i-kom Dik-shuh-ner-ee
A Review of Webster’s New World Telecom Dictionary by Ray Horak
Many folks who entered the telecom trade during the 1980s and the go-go years of the 1990s came to rely on Newton’s Telecom Dictionary, from long-time BCR columnist Harry Newton, as their guide to the wild and wooly world of telecom.
The Ceiling is Rising
Some direct responses to my reply about the status of TDM generated some important points made by readers and another publisher. After recently attending a boot-camp training session, I collected a few comments from that group comprising 16 members from large-enterprise including two others from SMB/E.
Real-time Traffic is Different
Understanding how to calculate bandwidth requirements for a converged WAN link requires an understanding of the traffic we are trying to converge. If we were just calculating water flow through a pipe we could add the demands of each appliance that needs water and determine the size of the pipe. But the two types of network traffic we are converging have very different characteristics, and this needs to be taken into account if we want to deliver good performance for both types of traffic. IT teams understand data traffic well because they have supported it for a long time. But real-time traffic is different.
Aastra’s Novel Approach to R&D
I’ve been spending a little time coming up to speed with Aastra lately. You may recall that the company just closed on its acquisition of Ericsson’s enterprise business. It was the latest in a string of M&A activity that brought DeTeWe, the PBX businesses of Ascom and EADS, and some of Nortel’s European operations into the fold. Also in the mix is Intecom, the PBX developer that continues to market itself as Aastra Intecom; Intecom had been acquired by EADS and was part of its PBX division.
Vendor Layoffs Continue; Avaya Now
Via the Newark Star-Ledger, Avaya is laying off 400 people, after also eliminating 600 positions via attrition since the start of the year. Earlier this year, Nortel and Siemens had both announced layoffs of more than 2,000 workers each.
Hosted, Managed, or Neither?
We’ve had several No Jitter posts and also VoiceCon webinars that touched on the issue of managed and hosted services for IP telephony and Unified Communications, and the upshot seems to be that enterprises will consider some level of managed service, but probably aren’t yet at the point that they’ll dive into a service provider-hosted solution as a fully-outsourced way to deliver real-time communications.
Power Resources
In my adventures to find more about power generation, storage and transfer, the folks over at DOE gave me some great resources in addition to their Energy Star site:
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VOICECON AMSTERDAM
VoiceCon makes its European debut 14-16 October, 2008, with Johan Krebbers of Shell keynoting. More information HERE
FEATURE STORY
Unified Communications and Social Networking in the Enterprise
IT should encourage user's implementation of Web 2.0 technologies, and look for ways to integrate with Mobile UC. READ MORE »
PBX Evolution: Where It Was, Where It Is, & Where It's Going
The PBX is not dead. But it is on an evolutionary path towards a new incarnation: Federated Communications System or FCS READ MORE »
MORE FEATURES:
SIPconnect and the Rationale for Widespread Adoption of SIP Trunking
SMBs Take IP Telephony Spotlight from Large Enterprises
Mobile UC is "So European"
12 Forces Shaping the Future of Videoconferencing
Cabling the Campus
Interoperability in IP Telephony and Unified Communications
VoiceCon's Annual IP Telephony System RFP Workshop: Part 1
VoiceCon's Annual IP Telephony System RFP Workshop: Part 2
ARCHIVE OF ALL FEATURES
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
VoiceCon San Francisco 2008
November 10-13, San Francisco, CAInterop New York 2008
September 15-19, 2008VoiceCon Webinars
No Jitter Podcasts
BCR Training: Voice over IP and IP Telephony
August 4-5, 2008 - New YorkVOIP II: Deploying and Best Practices in the Enterprise
August 6-7, 2008 - New YorkIntroduction to Telecom: Voice, Data and Video
August 11-12, 2008 - New YorkPlanning and Implementing VOIP Unified Communications
August 11-12, 2008 - San FranciscoData Comm I: Understanding IP Networks for Data and VOIP
August 18-20, 2008 - San FranciscoData Comm II: Switching and Routing Technologies for Converged Networks
August 21-22, 2008 - San Francisco
BLOGS WE LIKE
The VAR Guy
Enterprise 2.0 Blog
Nancy Jamison
Vanguard Communications
Terry Slattery
Webtorials (Steve Taylor)
Unified View (Art Rosenberg)
UCStrategies
Over The Air
Irwin Lazar
Disruptive Telephony (Dan York)
Thwack
Telecom Junkies
Phil Edholm
VOIP Security Alliance
Om Malik
Wall St. Journal
New York Times
Business Week
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