ERIC KRAPF
In addition, Krapf serves as editor & lead blogger for the website No Jitter, TechWeb’s online community for news and analysis of the enterprise convergence/Unified Communications industry. He is also responsible for electronic content including webcasts and e-newsletters.
From 1996 to 2004, Krapf was managing editor of Business Communications Review magazine, and from 2004 to 2007, he was the magazine’s editor. BCR was a highly respected journal of the business technology and communications industry.
Before coming to BCR, he was managing editor and senior editor of America’s Network magazine, covering the public telecommunications industry.
Prior to working in high-tech journalism, he was a reporter and editor at newspapers in Connecticut and Texas.
Blog Entries by Eric Krapf
Two industry bloggers square off.
But bad news may be lurking for the traditional voice vendors.
The driving force behind HP ProCurve's success won't be staying with the newly Avaya-owned Nortel data group.
The early registration discount expires this Friday; and we have our first Slidecast posted.
The research house says 80% of Fortune 1000 enterprises have gone corporate-liable on their cellular plans.
How much social networking integration does your email client really need?
If IT managers can demonstrate a business case for automating their provisioning and management, that may come to seem like a worthwhile undertaking.
Who did our panel of judges choose to advance to the final round? Click on this post to find out.
OK, maybe that's an exaggeration. But there are better ways than slogging through a voice menu.
A moving target just keeps moving faster.
The FCC should recognize what users have already decided: Universal service means wireless.
It'll be 90% of Internet traffic, Cisco predicts. What does that mean for the enterprise?
Cloud computing faces challenges as a straight datacenter-outsourcing model, but the cloud is clearly the only way to go for delivering mobility applications.
Potential virtualization pitfalls top the list.
He told me a bit more about his new position and how he's doing.
Good news about the former Avaya CEO, who left for health reasons in 2008.
Things are changing at both ends of the line.
SUT starts off small, but some big enterprises are planning to ramp up.
The cloud and mobility highlight a wide-ranging kickoff session.
The cloud will be an element in everyone's decision-making, so none of us can afford to give it short shrift.
Wainhouse Research says UC will grow 50% by 2013, on the strength of services, not products.
Can current systems handle the way people really work?
It may be the first shot in a new war over carrier regulation.
Score a win for Siemens Enterprise Communications in its bid to grab North American market share and increase its indirect sales.
The obstacles and challenges AT&T may face.
2010 could be the year a phase-out starts; what are the issues for the enterprise?
"This is not going to take long to integrate," Abbott told me. "The planning has been fundamentally done."
Avaya reportedly will announce on January 19 a roadmap for blending the Nortel products into the Avaya offerings.
Deutsche Telekom COO Hamid Akhavan, described as "visionary" at DT, will replace interim CEO Mark Stone, who will continue as chairman.
IBM, like Cisco, is trying to shift the ground on which the communications/collaboration battles are fought.
Our virtual event will offer a recap of case studies and a perspective on where SIP Trunking stands at the end of 2009.
Since it's December 1 instead of April 1, I assume this is a real thing
Michael Finneran wrote a strategic focus piece on the future of RIM. Check it out here, and add your comments to this post....
A strong desire on the part of enterprises to save money and extend the life of their legacy systems plays well with the "layering" technology.
Interop has been chock-full of Cloud programming this week, and my panelists agreed that the cloud would affect your communications.
Mark Stone told me today that Siemens will continue to pursue strategic acquisitions, and that Avaya outbid Siemens by something less than $100 million in the auction to acquire Nortel Enterprise.
Cisco raises its bid by 11%, to $3.4 billion.
Chambers takes the expected hard line--he says Cisco won't pay too much for Tandberg, but he doesn't say he won't pay more.
HP emphasizes 3Com routing technology and market position in China.
Approval under the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust act.
Cisco can afford to pay more. The decision will be whether they can afford not to do the deal.
"We chose to wait. Nobody's going to make a decision. How could they make a decision?"
Our flickr stream of photos for VoiceCon, including some impressive versions of the obligatory opening-of-the-show-floor onslaught, is here.
The Australia- based monitoring and diagnostics vendor boasts record profits, and looks to the challenges of the new technology trends.
Clearly, a significant number of enterprises want to move videoconferencing from the silo where it resides in many enterprises, and bring it fully under the control of the communications system.
Pricing elements and rates vary by type of provider--legacy providers vs. newer competitors.
Avaya plans for a future dominated by "Voice 2.0." So what exactly does that mean? In a preview of next week's opening keynote, we spoke with one of the top Avaya execs driving that vision.
Combining the desk set and the mobile docking station.
Old problems, new approaches, new products.
Rules keep changing; your work is never done.
What if Cisco changed course and pursued Polycom?
Ascribing growth to Asterisk's maturity, lower cost, and enterprises' more favorable views of open source generally.
I don't see how virtualization doesn't become a major component of any enterprise's UC strategy.
How's this for a UC app?
Genuine issue, media battle, or both?
We've posted two previews of VoiceCon sessions. They're SlideShare "slidecasts," where the slides advance automatically along with speaker narration.
A health care campus looks to a hosted service.
VoiceCon is presenting a webinar, "Taking Advantage of SIP Trunking," on Wednesday, October 14, 2 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Pacific. Featured speaker is Zeus Kerravala of Yankee Group; sponsor is Acme Packet. Register here.
"This acquisition validates Cisco's vision. It also is acknowlegement that their strategy of the past two years was a failure."
By investing in technology, despite the recession, one company got a major payoff.
What's the most important element in a telepresence system? Would you believe the audio?
Why Siemens threw in the towel.
ShoreTel was first to announce interoperability, now SIPfoundry and Nortel are on board.
Bidding against the Siemens group, Avaya won it in the sixth round, very early Monday morning.
Reuters has the detail.
Avaya may have gotten a bargain--but still takes a risk based on debt/credit issues.
Locking in the Nortel base just before the economy bounces back?
CA has agreed to acquire NetQOS for $200 million.
We'll update this post with links to good analyses we've spotted at other sites.
Avaya's the big winner--but at a huge risk.
What the ground rules have to say.
The Nortel Enterprise auction has closed for Saturday night, and will pick up Sunday morning, according to Bo Gowan of Nortel.
Word from Nortel is the auction is continuing today.
"Avaya is engaged in discussions with Verizon to attempt to negotiate suitable arrangements for the assumption of the contracts."
Today, the fate of Nortel Enterprise Solutions will be decided--possibly.
"...on what amount to grounds of public safety, security and necessity."
I encourage you to take a couple minutes and complete their survey. It's here.
Bids for this auction are due in by noon tomorrow (Friday).
Does the Skype deal signify a return of private equity to an aggressive role in the communications business?
The market would be entering the realm of "moderate concentration," but would be safely below anti-trust thresholds.
Here's something for you to check out: A preview of Brent Kelly's "Choices in UC" tutorial for VoiceCon San Francisco 2009.
The big guys really aren't the best ones to build the applications.
An observer writes: "Avaya doesn't have the resources, expertise, experience, or stamina to pull off the Nortel merger."
In Nortel's 2Q report, Enterprise Solutions brought in $465 million, versus $163 million for circuit and packet VOIP solutions for the Carrier Networks division.
The quarter-over-quarter improvements suggest that there's still life left in Nortel, and they set the stage for what should be a very interesting auction of the Enterprise Solutions business.
Nortel's business units will report to Pavi Binning, the Chief Restructuring Officer, while George Riedel, Chief Strategy Officer, will lead merger & acquisition work.
What happens if Communications-Enabled Business Processes succeed? Network chaos, is one possibility.
Nortel received proposals from three stalking horse bidders for Enterprise Solutions.
They also filed an objection to the bidding procedures, which they claim give Avaya an unfair advantage in the auction for Nortel Enterprise.
I have no clue who's going to end up with Nortel Enterprise, but I will say that I'll be surprised if there aren't more bids.
What are the implications for Enterprise Solutions?
Check out this Powerpoint presentation.
It's a deal, but it's not quite a done deal.
And what does it mean for a Nortel bid?
Let's face it, the PC does NOT work like the phone...in fact, it--or some part(s) of its "supporting cast"--often doesn't work AT ALL.
55% of open source PBX implementers are repeat customers.
When it came to transforming the phone with IP, vendors were damned if they did and damned if they didn't.
Our newest content area on No Jitter.
The more time that passes without Nortel Enterprise's situation being resolved, the less attractive the entity becomes.
Will your users be more productive if application development is more tightly controlled, or will a more open development environment bring a flourishing of enterprise applications?
THE HOT ZONE
A focus on burning issues in Enterprise Communications
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