Greg Galitzine : Greg Galitzine's VoIP Authority Blog
Greg Galitzine

Enterprise

Google Docs Service Takes a Brief Nap

July 9, 2008

Rich has a blog post touching on the Google Docs outage and he asks if the advantages of such cloud computing apps outweigh the potential disadvantages:   ...the cost savings of using such services is compelling but when you have a noon deadline today for a million dollar order and you can't access your spreadsheet for 2 hours, are you really saving money?   The Google Docs outage reportedly lasted approximately 45 minutes, but it is indicative of the possibility for longer outages in the future.  

  The outage also reminds people that when they trust the cloud for all their data, other things can go awry as well. There are security issues, accessibility issues, reliability challenges, etc...   Still the promise of cloud computing is huge, and I believe outages like this one -- while they might scare off some potential new users from signing up this week-- will serve the greater good as the developers go back to the table, figure out what went wrong, and redesign their solutions to prevent future outages (or at least enable faster resumption of services) to the extent possible.

Aspect Strikes Bluenote

July 9, 2008

Aspect continues its steady march to be a major player in unified communications, particularly in the contact center space. (TMC's Rich Tehrani covered the Aspect and UC angle in an earlier post.)   Today the company announced the acquisition of Tewksbury, Mass-based BlueNote Networks.   Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.   Leveraging BlueNote's technology, Aspect customers will now be able to extend SIP-based voice, video and other real-time interactive communication services to enterprise users as an integral part of a service oriented architecture (SOA).   According to the release announcing the acquisition:   By combining the features of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) with Web services, organizations will be able to drive innovation in the contact center and across the enterprise while radically lowering the cost and complexity of their voice, video and data services. Specifically, Aspect customers and prospects will now be able to:   ·        Quickly and easily incorporate SIP-based interactive multichannel communications into their contact centers and internal and customer-facing business processes using industry-standard interfaces and technology.   ·        Leverage existing IT and telephony application investments and development resources to build and deploy communications-enabled business applications and lay the foundation for enabling globally-reachable communication services and integrated workflow applications.   Today's acquisition reminds me of another similar situation. Nearly one year ago, NEC acquired Sphere Communications, essentially for their SOA technology.

iPhone App Store Goes Live; Get Salesforce To Go

July 10, 2008

Apple's iPhone App Store is now live. And Salesforce.com has announced that its Salesforce CRM applications and Force.com platform are available as Salesforce Mobile applications for iPhone from the App Store.

  In order to get access to the App Store, you have to first download iTunes 7.7. Once iTunes has been upgraded, you can access the App Store. According to the Pinch Media blog, at launch, the App Store contained 552 applications - 417 of them paid, 135 of them free. Paid applications ranged in price from $0.99 to $69.99, with the most common price points being $0.99 (85 applications), $9.99 (82 applications), and $4.99 (62 applications).

NEC Visit -- Dallas, TX

August 1, 2008

While I was down in the Dallas metropolitan area this week, I had the opportunity to meet with a number of companies including Irving-based NEC.   My colleagues and I were treated to a wonderful tour of the NEC Executive Briefing Center, which features many of NEC's offerings that are available to enterprises today.

  There were several new and unexpected items on the tour; these products will be announced in the coming weeks. But of course the tour showcased much of NEC's product line including their latest endpoints, a small form factor, thin-client PC, their new storage solution, and the various productivity enhancing applications that the company is well known for.

  The tour also brought us 'round to two demonstration areas focusing on NEC solutions as applied to a pair of specific vertical markets: Hospitality and Healthcare. As expected these demo rooms were outfitted with the latest devices and applications designed to improve the experience for patients and medical staff in the case of the healthcare demo, and hotel guests and the staff that services them in the hospitality demo.   Regarding what's coming down the pike, all I can say right now is that NEC is partnering with a well known networking company to provide a product that will help enable remote workers to be more productive.   Their channel will have the product in hand by mid-August and will start reselling the solution, so we have to wait a bit longer for official word of the new solution.   NEC also showed us a prototype of the next version of an enterprise communications server that's still in customer trials and should be announced by the mid-to-end of August. The solution is designed as a pure IP play, supporting all existing applications such as voice, mobility, and unified communications.   The product will offer a smooth migration path for existing customers who wish to move to an all-IP infrastructure.   Lastly, NEC officials told us to watch out for several new solutions spanning the following areas: speech, video voice mail, and some new things from the Sphere acquisition of one year ago.   The NEC folks told me that, in terms of trends, they're seeing healthy activity in the hospitality and healthcare markets.



Enterprise SIP Security - Free Webinar!

September 8, 2008

One of the most serious subjects in all of telecom is security. It's something that is on the mind of everyone who is considering deploying next-generation SIP-based telecommunications solutions in their enterprise. And often times, there's just not enough firsthand information available.   Well an upcoming Webinar featuring speakers from two of the leading companies serving the enterprise market -- AudioCodes and Interactive Intelligence -- aims to educate attendees by teaching them the various things they need to know before deploying any SIP-based solutions.   Namely, attendees will learn about:
  • SIP Security challenges
  • Security misconceptions
  • Tools to counter security threats
  • Proactive monitoring; and
  • Effective solutions that are simple to deploy, tough to break
  In this webinar, the speakers will address the challenges and the misconceptions surrounding SIP Security, and examine the tools available to counter them. This session will also explore robust solutions that not only tackle security threats, but also empower businesses to proactively protect their networks from current and future attacks.

Quintum, Brekeke Offer Joint IP-PBX Solution

September 9, 2008

Quintum Technologies, a subsidiary of Network Equipment Technologies (NET), and SIP-based IP PBX maker Brekeke Software announced that they have completed interoperability testing of Quintum's Tenor VoIP MultiPath switches and gateways with Brekeke Software, Inc.'s IP PBX.     An award-winning product, Brekeke PBX is an SIP-based IP-PBX system that provides reliable and scalable IP communications for enterprises and service providers. The Brekeke PBX provides all essential IP-PBX features that enterprise users require, including voicemail to e-mail, "confirm call," and number portability. The newly introduced edition of Brekeke PBX, Multi-Tenant Edition, provides a simple and flexible yet easy to deploy solution for service providers that want to offer hosted IP-PBX services. Brekeke PBX supports both Windows and Linux platforms.   The combination is being hailed as a "perfect fit" by Ernesto Casas, General Manager for Binnacle Technologies, a value added distributor dedicated to VoIP in Latin America.   Early reports from customer camps are positive as well.   Having recently deployed the Quintum/Brekeke combination, Francisco Martin, CTO of Beyond En Linea, a Binnacle client commented, "With the combination of Quintum and Brekeke, we were able to deploy advanced communications for all our employees regardless of where they are located, integrate our remote branch offices in Venezuela, and integrate users in key partner locations."

Communications Developer Keynote: Avaya's Lawrence Byrd

September 16, 2008

Lawrence Byrd, Director of Unified Communications Architecture at Avaya kicked off the keynote schedule of the Communications Developer conference on Tuesday with a presentation entitled Unified Communications in a Web 2.0 World.   The gist of the speech was that developers will play a critical role in the future of communications, and in fact the developer community is the engine that runs the IP communications world.   Byrd threw about several definitions of "2.0," including one from Tim O'Reilly that defines the Web 2.0 phenomenon as "...networked apps that explicitly leverage network effects."   Byrd also used this definition from Harvard Business School's Andrew McAfee, "Enterprise 2.0 is the use of emergent social software platforms within companies and between companies and their partners and customers."   In any event the developer community should recognize this as an opportunity; an expanded playground to create ways of connecting these elements to deliver added value for their end customers.   "We've spent the last 20 years trying to connect the phone to the Web," said Byrd. "Connect the Web to the store. That is the definition of unified communications, connecting both the old and the new."   And as we move ahead we need to be sure that legacy applications and modern cutting edge applications work well together. That is how we add value. It has to work together.

Nokia: Out of UC, In with Touch-Screen Phone

October 3, 2008

So, I received a note from Ovum Research with their take on the fact that Nokia is leaving the enterprise solution business, namely their IntelliSync unified communications play.   According to Senior Analyst, Claudio Castelli of Ovum:   Mobile unified communications involves high complexity and vendors should concentrate on their strengths instead of trying to provide end-to-end solutions. Nokia will no longer develop software solutions for enterprises. The company has recognized that it is unable to advance into the enterprise market as a standalone mobility solutions provider. Nokia will now concentrate its efforts on developing powerful user interfaces for its devices, which will be supported by its UC partners on their platforms- they include companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and Alcatel-Lucent.

Truphone for Blackberry Now in Beta

October 28, 2008

Blackberry users rejoice! Truphone today announced the launch of a beta of Truphone Anywhere, for BlackBerry. Earlier this year the application was made available for iPhone users. According to the announcement: Truphone works with the user to save them money. Instead of requiring the user to remember what to do, Truphone Anywhere simply asks whether he/she wants to make a Truphone call whenever an international number is dialed. The user simply accepts, and Truphone connects the call. Users can download the application for free from www.truphone.com/blackberry and Handango users can download Truphone from www.handango.com

Rich Does Wall Street; Nortel Does Hospitality

October 28, 2008

Rich is down at the NY Stock Exchange this morning attending an event sponsored by Nortel and featuring Nortel executives Araldo Menegon, VP Northeast Region, and Joel Hackney, President of Nortel's Enterprise group, as well as a keynote by Don Tapscott, author and enterprise 2.0 strategist. In his blog, Rich mentions some Nortel news that was released this morning: One item was an announcement that Nortel's Unified Communications solution was deployed at Miraval Resort and Spa in Tucson turning it into an "all-IP resort." Nortel apparently hit the hospitality market hard today, announcing hotel/spa deployments in Dubai, Vancouver, and Las Vegas as well.
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