So much for a bad economy. Airport parking in White Plains was packed.
So was Hertz and this airport. TMC Editorial Director Greg Galitzine was nice enough
to comment for me below.
Back in the Chicago airport and headed home. Great weather in the
Midwest which will get to Connecticut soon I hope.
Aruba Networks just announced 17% year-over-year growth for its fiscal second quarter showing mobility is a bright spot for the future regardless of the economy. Revenues for the fiscal second quarter of 2009 were $47.7 million, compared to the $40.6 million reported in the fiscal second quarter of 2008. GAAP net loss for the fiscal second quarter of 2009 was $6.8 million, or $0.08 per share, compared to a net loss of $3.5 million, or $0.04 per share, in the fiscal second quarter of 2008.
The company reduced expenses by $2.1 million in the quarter but other charges for the quarter affected GAAP earnings, causing them to decrease. Non GAAP net income doubled from $.01 to $.02 year-over-year.
The reason for the growth is a bit surprising. Dominic Orr, President and CEO of the company says customers are switching to wireless connections over wired as they are more flexible, take up less space and cost less.
Although it is early to know the future, it seems the trend could continue when the economy improves. This could be the year where wired LANs become the legacy plumbing of office networks. Of course video and other high-bandwidth apps may present a challenge for wireless networks not designed correctly but for the majority of offices, WLANs could become the primary networking option.
Here is a shot of the Tellabs showcase demonstrating a range of
technologies from ROADM, Ethernet switching, 2G, 3G & 4G as well as
cell site techology.
Here are more shots. What a great building.
Where's Rich? Here at Tellabs of course. Chicago is warmer than New
York today. Good news and a great trip so far.
First one I have ever seen but no time to try it.
Is it just me or do others worry about airplane wings icing up causing
a crash? So far this wing looks OK. I am no airplane expert but why
not run engine heat through these things to ensure we are safe? Yet
another great "shovel-ready" project IMHO.
I long for the days when I could say paradigm shift with a straight face. I remember in 1998 I used to say it all the time in conversations. Portals, Ecommerce, web auctions, VoIP, etc there was so much innovation coming down the pike, it was amazing. But in a post web bubble, telecom bubble, tech bubble, housing bubble, financial bubble, ponzi-scheme bubble world I feel a bit jaded. But still, I had some of that good old paradigm shift feeling when I read about what Marvell is doing with their new SheevaPlug announcement.
![Marvell%202[1].png](http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/uploads/Marvell%25202%5B1%5D.png)
The company has launched a completely open platform running on a dirt-cheap $99 high-power, energy-efficient computing platform. Inside the device is a Linux OS running on an ARM-based 1.2GHz Sheeva embedded processor, 512MB of DDR2 memory, 512MB of flash storage, gigabit Ethernet and USB 2.0. The goal is to have this device run in your home continuously while it performs tasks you might otherwise want a PC to do. It is the size of a typical power brick for a laptop.
The difference between this box and a PC is this one stays on all the time, consumes less power and centralizes tasks such as virus scanning. Rather than updating software on the laptops, desktops and netbooks in your house, the single appliance handles the task for you.
In addition, the device could serve as the interface between your local storage and the web, allowing inexpensive access to locally stored files on the go. Or an OEM can make it into a netbook or NAS device.
In an interview with TMCnet, Marvell's product manager, Raja Mukhopadhyay, said the company is seeking to speed up the development and availability of innovative software and services in the home.
"Essentially what Marvell has done is take the computer in the home and present it in a standalone, separate manner in one device," Mukhopadhyay told TMCnet. "It's going to help high-level application players come and take something directly to market. People will not be beholden to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) anymore."
"The idea is for developers to take the kit and software support we have, and they can build and create applications for it," Mukhopadhyay told TMCnet.
Like I said, I am jaded but I understand the potential here. Marvell makes it easier for the world to sell software and hardware solutions and developers will likely flock to this device to try their hand at developing new products on the cheap. With access to capital at an all-time low, and companies looking for inexpensive ways to get products to market, Marvell may have picked a good time to make their plug-computing platform available to the masses.
Laura Borgstede's Calysto PR Agency just put out their popular PR Vibes newsletter detailing what happened at ITEXPO this month in Miami. The good thing about the newsletters Laura puts out is she calls them as she sees them. Take a look for yourself.
Laura, thanks for all the detail, it brings back good memories.
INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO East 2009
Miami Beach Convention Center
Despite rumors of VoIP's demise and how the ongoing economy doom and gloom is bringing trade shows down, this year's Internet Telephony Conference & Expo exceeded expectations. Organizers had projected 6,000-7,000 visitors and 150 exhibitors, but the show drew more than 8,000 attendees and 165 exhibitors.
Attendees came from companies of all sizes representing all sectors of the IP Communications industry, including service providers, carriers, enterprises, government agencies, resellers, manufacturers and developers. The attendees were predominantly high-level executives, with 72% at the last event being a vice president or higher, according to TMC, the show's organizer.
The exhibit hall was vibrant, featuring solutions for enterprises, SMBs, government and service providers. Several people mentioned that there seemed to be constant traffic on the floor. The exhibitors we talked to were happy with the traffic and the quality of leads they were seeing, and according to show organizers, exhibitors such as ABP and Ingate shattered past ITEXPO lead count records.
Some of the buzz at the show included talk about IP PBX and communications systems for the SMB market, channel partner sessions, the latest and greatest contact center wares, telepresence, CaaS (communications-as-a-service) and lots about Asterisk and 4G wireless, especially since there were co-located shows on those topics.
We heard from both speakers and attendees that the 4GWE sessions were well received. The content was relevant, and attendees felt that the conference gave them insight into new technologies and technical issues revolving around 4G Wireless Networks.
Microsoft had a significant presence at IT EXPO, mostly surrounding the Response Point IP-PBX. Jajah's booth was another popular spot, where the company showed off its application that turns the iPod Touch into a fully functioning mobile phone for consumers. Also, IP phone system vendor Grandstream previewed its next-generation IP video phone.
ITEXPO's educational program focused on teaching enterprises, SMBs, and government agencies how to select and deploy IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications. Sessions dealt with how service providers can profitably roll out services their subscribers are asking for. There were 202 speakers at the show. We spoke with many who said their sessions were well attended, and the audiences were engaged. "The Q&A was good, especially in my SIP Trunking sessions," said Jon Arnold, principal, J Arnold & Associates.
John Frederiksen, the general manager of Microsoft's Response Point initiative, and Danny Windham, CEO of Asterisk, gave keynotes addresses Tuesday morning to a standing-room-only audience. Frederiksen said he sees tremendous potential in the SMB phone system space and that the opportunity is similar to the netbook market.
Another popular session was "The Unified Communications Shootout," which drew a couple hundred people. Attendees were impressed with the session's format, which gave several vendors five to seven minutes to pitch their solutions. Attendees then could decide which booths to visit to find out more. A Q&A period wrapped up the session.
Unfortunately, TMC chose to allow 2 PR executives to participate on panels this year. While obviously Calysto is a PR agency itself, and consider ourselves experts in the IP and telecom industries, we do not consider PR people to be the ones that attendees want to hear from as spokespeople. Do you agree?
During the IT EXPO, TMC editors also picked the Best of Show winners in several categories that represented the breadth of exhibitors who showed their wares in the exhibit hall. For the winners, visit http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/greg-galitzine/voip/itexpo/itexpo-best-of-show-winners-preannounced.html.
The media presence was solid; around 70 registered as press. Those in attendance were mostly the usual suspects--a lot of TMC folks, obviously, as well as other trade press and analysts from both large firms and independents. The coverage was thorough, both in terms of articles and blogs.
"In spite of a tough economy and a gloomy outlook for telecom, support for the show was strong," Arnold said." I think many people were pleasantly surprised to discover this when they got there, which only added to the buzz."
One complaint we heard from a couple of people is that they wish the show floor was open longer. With the number of meetings people have scheduled, as well as sessions they wanted to attend, sometimes they had less time to walk the floor than they would have liked.
However, the consensus was that the show was a valuable tool. People were able to conduct a lot of business last week at IT EXPO, definitely enough to make attendance worthwhile. "I had many meetings and developed relationships with several people I met for the first time at the show," said one attendee. This was a strong all-around show for those in the IP industry. The exhibit hall was overflowing with energy and boasted strong traffic, the educational sessions were well attended and interactive (so there will probably be even more speaking opportunities next year) and there was strong media coverage.
IT EXPO West will be October 27-29 now Sept 1-3 in Los Angeles. Future 4GWE events include the June 4GWE Whitespace Summit at Supercomm and the 4GWE event and in October co-located with IT EXPO West.
The IP Communications Industry Unites: VoIP Is Alive
By Matthew Nickasch
February 5, 2009
Internet Telephony Expo East -- The Spies Come Out
IT EXPO East 2009: Microsoft Goes Official with Response Point SP2
By Doug Mohney
February 4, 2009
Dialogic Expands Hybrid Gateway Configurations
By Michelle Robart
February 4, 2009
IT EXPO East 2009: Cbeyond Adds Mobile Workforce Management with SaaS Offering
By Doug Mohney
February 4, 2009
Microsoft at ITEXPO: Innovation, Software to Drive Next Phase of Communications
By Michael Dinan
February 3, 2009
IP Telephony Veteran: VoIP Has Grown Up
By Michael Dinan
February 3, 2009
SLIDESHOW: ITEXPO East 2009
By Doug Mohney
February 3, 2009
NetSapiens and Dash Carrier Services Announce Expanded Relationship at ITEXPO East
IT Expo - So Far
Jon Arnold's Analyst 2.0 Blog
By Jon Arnold
February 3, 2009
VoIP Watch
By Andy Abramson
February 3, 2009
SIP Print Expands Distribution with ABP Technology
Devfoundry Announces New VoIP Diagnostic Tool at ITEXPO
By Tim Gray
February 2, 2009
SLIDESHOW:The Opening of ITEXPO East 2009
By Doug Mohney
February 2, 2009
RAD Data Communications Features SIP-Based VoIP Solution at ITEXPO East 2009
By Tim Gray
February 2, 2009
Founded in 1999, Calysto Communications (www.calysto.com) is a global public relations and social media marketing firm focused solely on the specialized needs of the technology industry in the broadcasting, telecommunications, and wireless sectors. We provide a full suite of services to emerging and established business-to-business and business-to-consumer organizations. Unlike general technology PR firms, Calysto leverages its deep industry knowledge and intimate relationships with market influencers to deliver unmatched industry mindshare, analyst coverage and media publicity to our clients. Our all-senior management team uses a strategy-driven approach proven to help Calysto clients drive sales, create value for shareholders, move toward liquidity or raise overall awareness. Calysto also publishes a free e-newsletter, PR VibesTM (www.prvibes.com), which provides industry players with insight into media and analyst moves around the industry; industry events and tradeshows; and trends in marketing and public relations.
TMC has been aggressively adding new bloggers to its arsenal of content which attracts 2-3 million communications and tech decision makers worldwide each month. We are now at blogger number 40 and counting. We are still aggressively recruiting many more and if you can write and have something of value to contribute and want the most exposure you can get, drop Greg Galitzine (ggalitzine at tmcnet.com) a line ASAP to learn more.
TMC is one of the few media companies - in fact companies of any kind, growing in this market. We are thankful that we have loyal readers, sponsors and customers who see the value of working with TMC in good times and bad.
In fact we are expanding rapidly into many new product areas and many of the products you have seen successfully deployed on TMCnet such as channels and GOCs (Global Online Communities) - what we believe to be the largest collections of sponsored communities on the internet (about 110-120, sponsors each month), will soon be rolled out beyond the communications space.
If you are a salesperson or publisher's representative firm looking to sell products which have high demand regardless of the economy, drop Dave Rodriguez (drodriguez at tmcnet.com) a line ASAP. Please forward this to any good salespeople you know.
Here is an excerpt from a rough draft of the press release we will post soon:
TMCnet Adds 40th Blogger to Its Blog Community
Norwalk, CT, (February 23, 2009) -- Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC®), today announced the addition of four new blogs to their popular Web site, TMCnet, now boasting a community of 40blogs covering the gamut of topics in telecom, VoIP, contact centers, wireless, unified communications, open source and others. Readers of TMCnet's communications and technology blogs account for 35 percent of the nearly two million monthly visitors.
TMCnet's recently added blogs include Open Communications, IP Communication Design, Contact Center Strategies and Oh Say Do UC.
Open Communications by Paul McMillan, director UC strategy, Siemens Enterprise Communications, will be discussing the topic of Open Communications,particularly for enterprise, while delving into other areas of interest including what lies ahead in the industry.
IP Communications Design by Kim Devlin-Allen, director of product management for Texas Instruments' (TI) CPE VOP business, will analyze voice in the consumer and enterprise market. From HD voice to VoIP and IP communications, Devlin-Allen talks about everything from "the next coolest gadget" to solving the design challenges of tomorrow's ever changing voice ecosystem.
Contact Center Strategies by Chris McGugan, vice president of marketing for the Contact Center Solutions group at Avaya,.will be focusing on how technology is evolving in the core of the communication systems and how that transformation is delivering on a new call center architecture.
Oh Say Do UC by Clinton Fitch, Unified Communications product manager for Spanlink Communications, examines unified communications technology, trends and observations with real-world examples. Plus insights on how to make UC decisions both now and in the future.
"Expanding the roster of quality bloggers serves TMCnet's commitment to deliver the most comprehensive portal filled with quality content for the communications and technology sector. Thanks again to our panel of experts that comprise our blogosphere and to the 2 to 3 million visitors who support TMC blogs and TMCnet every month," said Rich Tehrani, TMC president, group publisher and editor-in-chief. "Feel free to visit our blogs and post your comments."
TMCnet's distinguished bloggers also includes TMC President Rich Tehrani, TMC Labs founder Tom Keating, TMCnet Editorial Director Greg Galitzine, plus David Byrd's SIP and Serve by a Foodie, Peter Radizeski's On Rad's Radar and Tony Rybczynski's The Hyperconnected Enterprise.
TMCnet's Blog Community is continually evolving to offer a higher-quality user experience. Visitors to the TMCnet blogosphere can now sign-in using their social networking account, via Facebook, VOX or Movable Type, allowing them to post comments which will include their profile photo. Additionally, new technology deployed enables blogs to auto-populate with images pulled from related articles.
This has been a very busy news week and I have tagged dozens of stories to cover but haven't had time to write about them all in separate entries so here is a summary of what you need to know from today.
Stacy Higginbotham over at GigaOm has a short but sweet summary of the recent 2.5 hour Gmail outage with lots of interesting links. Google did post a nice apology by the way but I am sure it comes as little consolation to people affected.
In a sign we could be at the bottom (let's hope) of the financial mess, consumer confidence hit an all-time low and perhaps more surprising is the fact that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke testified today and made markets go up by sating we could see an economic light at the end of the tunnel in 2010.
From the guts of the economy I take you to the guts of computing where TMC's own Zippy Grigonis explains like no one else can the importance of the new Emerson Network Power Dual Core AdvancedMC module.
From there we go to the new Apple Safari 4 which is Apple's latest browser which is not only much faster but now sports a home page with graphical icons similar to Google's Chrome. It claims to be 30 times faster than Microsoft IE and my informal tests I have trouble disagreeing.
Skype too has a 4.0 version out and the word at TMC is this is a much better iteration - slicker and it now displays a number on the taskbar corresponding to how many conversations you have going on.
The final bit of news is about Neutral Tandem, the company is completing its IP voice network transformation with Sonus. What these two companies have in common is their low profiles. Since the demise of VON you barely see Sonus and they have a new management team which I haven't had time to connect with. During the telecom bubble the company had a market cap of $20 billion but has come down to $326 million this month.
Neutral Tandem, the company providing an alternative carrier network to the ILECs is as under the radar as you get yet they have stock performance which is staggering. Over the past five years they have gone down in value under 10% and the stock is about as Stable as McDonalds, one of the brightest companies in this economy. Perhaps these bullets from the company's earnings announcement earlier this month are the reason. Wow.
Full Year 2008 Highlights
The company's market cap is holding steady at $602 million. I look forward to covering Neutral Tandem in greater detail going forward.
I recently had a chance to sit down with David Isenberg and discuss his Freedom to Connect (F2C) conference which takes place March 30 & 31, 2009 in Washington DC. He reminded me the price for the conference goes up $100 on February 28 so you need to act quickly.
Update: David kindly offered readers of this blog $100 off if they register at this URL. So until 2/28 it'll only cost you $395, then after that, when the list price goes up to $595, your discount will still be $100.
There are a number of new speakers announced who join already-announced speakers such as the CIO of San Francisco, the CTO of Seattle, the Chief Technologist of the FCC, and the visionaries of Lafayette LA and Burlington VT municipal networks.
Here are some of them:
1) Kevin Werbach was co-leader of President Obama's FCC Transition Team. He also produces the high-powered, well-respected SuperNova tech conference, and he authored the 1999 FCC report entitled, "Digital Tornado."
Kevin will discuss his experiences on the Obama FCC Transition and the prospects for the new FCC.
2) Dan Gillmor, director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He's also Kauffman Professor of digital media entrepreneurship. The Knight Center is working to help create a culture of innovation and risk-taking in journalism education, and in the wider media world. Dan will interview Kevin Werbach.
3) Billy Ray, CEO, Glasgow (KY) Electric Power Board, In the mid-80s, Billy was spurred by energy crisis #2 and an unresponsive cableco to create a broadband network for the citizens of Glasgow KY. By 2001 it was serving 75% of Glasgow's households at less than 60% of the U.S. average price. Today Ray is building FTTH and thinking about how fiber can asuage the need for new electric power plants. More.
4) Andrew C. Revkin is the New York Times science reporter on the "beat" of global climate disruption. He travels the world, witnessing first-hand changes that may indicate bigger changes to come. He's surfing the edge of Internet reporting on his blog dotEarth.
5) L. Aaron Kaplan will discuss how Vienna Austria's community-built, community-owned, 500-device, 30-km diameter, Wi-Fi mesh network, free-of-charge to its users has achieved financial sustainability. More.
It seems like a great event. Here are more details:
All eyes are on the economy. The Obama Administration has declared the Internet a keystone.
WHO: F2C is a meeting of people engaged with Internet connectivity and all that it enables, including
F2C is shaped by universal connectivity and the plunging capital requirements of information production, which, in turn, are changing many of our fundamental economic and social assumptions.
WHAT: A two-day meeting inside the beltway where the creators of the future of the Internet meet to engage in mutual learning and exploration.
WHEN: 8:00 AM on March 30 through 5:00 PM on March 31, 2009. List of confirmed speakers and bare-bones program here.
WHERE: AFI Silver Theatre, Silver Spring MD. More travel, lodging and venue details here.
WHY: It is written that Freedom of the Press is only for those with presses. The Internet now makes Freedom of the Press available to about 3,000,000,000 people, almost half of Earth's humans. At F2C: Freedom to Connect, we explore how this changes the fundamental operating assumptions of society, and ask, "What next?"
Unless you are Cisco, Oracle or a handful of other companies such as a telco, you will have a tough time making tech/communications acquisitions work. That is my advice after watching the past decades. Perhaps the most sobering evidence is Nortel's Alteon deal which the company paid $7.8 billion for in 2000. The products are being spun off to Radware for -- get this, $17.65 million.
Nortel lost a staggering 99.88% on this acquisition which reinforces the fact that unless you know what you are doing - and in tech most of time you don't, you are better off not acquiring.
As I researched an old article on the acquisition I couldn't help but be horrified by how things have changed over the decade.
Take a look at an excerpt:
In a mid-morning conference call, executives at the companies contended that Friday morning's selloff was not related to the deal, pointing instead to overall "market volatility" and adding that other technology stocks were down as well.
Under the agreement, Nortel will offer Alteon shareholders 1.83148 Nortel shares for each Alteon share. The estimated $7.8 billion purchase price is based on Thursday's closing price of $144 a share for Alteon, and $78.625 for Nortel shares so represents no premium.
Dominic Orr, president and chief executive of Alteon, said the two companies "share a common vision of high performance content delivery services that exploit the high-performance Internet and create new profit opportunities for service providers."
He added that the merger would greatly expand both companies' reach and give them a leading edge in capturing market share in switching technology.
Can you imagine if Nortel had used these funds on marketing its core products instead of this purchase? Even if they spent a tenth of this amount on additional marketing they would have been in a great position today.
I don't want to beat the Canadian telecom company up too much as everyone it seemed was making billion-dollar acquisitions in the heyday of the dotcom boom and similar to the banking industry, it seemed you had to do this to be in the game.
If there is one thing we are learning now is if you overextended yourself in the past, you will likely not make it through this downturn. I am aware of a number of highly-leveraged communications and contact center companies which are struggling with massive debt payments which were incurred when making acquisitions.
Sadly, we will see many good people in large companies bolstered by acquisitions lose jobs as a result of this downturn and I would imagine the market will learn to make less frivolous acquisitions in the future. This is probably a good thing.
But I just can't help but wonder why Cisco and Oracle are so good at integrating new companies and others are terrible at it. From what I have heard, Cisco has a playbook for acquisitions and integration which most other companies do not have. They replace company signs with the Cisco logo as soon as the acquisition is announced for example. Other companies take months to do this.
Acquisitions for Cisco are another important core competency and they see this as an important part of their growth. It seems most other companies consider acquisitions as an afterthought. I think we now have even more evidence that the afterthought model doesn't work too well.
