Recently in Security Category

Today I am headed to Huntsville, AL where I will be giving a presentation on the state of the industry to Adtran customers and I am really excited to be meeting with a number of carrier representatives and resellers at the event. Typically to get from New York to Huntsville I drive from Nashville, TN which a direct flight from New York but a 131+ miles away. Today I am connecting via Detroit directly to Huntsville - I am a bit surprised that there is such a direct flight when there isn't one from NY to Huntsville but then again I know there are auto plants in Tennessee which could explain why there are flights from Detroit.

Anyway, I was reminded of the importance of face to face communications as I saw this video interview of Scott Kargman by Suzanne Bowen. Suzanne works for DIDX, a company supplying DIDs to carriers worldwide. Scott runs Crossfire Media, a TMC partner in our M2M, 4G and Smart Products initiatives or SPEC. Check out the interview which took place at Supercomm 2009 in Chicago.

I really excited to speak at the Illinois Institute of Technology Rice Campus for the VoIP Conference and Expo 2009. This will be my first time to this event and interestingly the third time in recent weeks in which I am in Chicago instead of Vegas for a show. Maybe the city didn't get the Olympics but they certainly seem to have gotten all the shows - WiMAX World, Supercomm and now this event.

Getting back to my talk - I am moderating a Keynote Panel titled: Are the "Bells" ringing for Carrier VoIP? And my panelists include Carl Ford, Crossfire Media; Anne Lee, ALU; Gaston Ormazabal, Verizon and Henning Schulzrinne, Columbia University at 4:00 pm this Thursday 10/29/2009. I hope to see you there. Here is the schedule with my panel in yellow at the bottom.

Here is the website for details.

I wanted to alert my readers to some exciting news happening at TMC. As you likely know TMC is among a handful of media companies growing at a time when the media landscape is in dramatic decline. As you might imagine this growth is primarily online. Over the last decade and especially in the last few years we have focused on building online communities (Channels and GOCs) for customers who sponsor these areas as they rapidly attract focused decision-makers from around the world.

The visitors who come to these communities benefit from a massive amount of free content which helps them make informed purchasing decisions. For example people looking for products in Call Recording, Smart Data Centers, IP communications, HD Voice, Fixed Mobile Convergence or Next Generation Communications can come to the respective communities focused on these topics and have access to hundreds and in most cases thousands of TMC written articles detailing the news in their specific area of interest. Our business model is straightforward; aggregate massive amounts of focused and quality content using custom-built content targeting technology - make it relevant and pertinent so as to attract the right readers who need this information as they research the products and services they are looking to buy.

For our sponsors, these communities allow them to rank high organically on search engines to get their message out to a focused audience while simultaneously being able to measure the traffic to ensure they can justify their spend to the sales and executive management teams.

Basically, this suite of communities replicates the trade show model online and just like a trade show that attracts more attendees as the exhibitor base grows; the 120 monthly sponsored communities on TMCnet attract a massive audience which in turn attracts more sponsors.

In short, I am very confident we can continue to provide free quality content in all the areas we enter. Meaning while other media companies are beginning to charge for their once free content and many others are reducing their editorial teams, TMC is adding to its editorial, sales and marketing teams as we have a model which works exceptionally well for our readers and sponsors.

We are growing our team as we enter a slew of new markets with our business model of providing laser-focused content - backed by over a decade of proprietary content targeting technology; essentially building targeted online communities which rank high on search engines as they attract large amounts of focused traffic.

Here is my quote from a press release we put out today mentioning the hire of a brand new position - VP of Business Development. Matt Weiner is filling this position and his background of working for Penton and Yahoo! make him a good fit for the position."Over the last decade, TMC has invested in the technology and people necessary to build a next-generation media company which creates communities online, in-print and in-person," Tehrani continued. "By providing our audience with top quality news, training and information, we have attracted global purchasing decision-makers to our communities. As TMC's global communities have increased in size and quality, they have attracted hundreds of advertisers and sponsors who receive regular measurable results for their marketing and SEO budgets. Our future strategy involves continuing to build communities which draw large amounts of targeted traffic as we continue to connect buyers and sellers -- and adding Matt to the team is an integral element of that strategy."

Aside from Matt, we have added a number of other positions and just as importantly we continue to ink partnership after new partnership as we enter new spaces where we leverage our community building engine in combination with the thought leadership of individuals and/or corporations in new markets.

Thank you for continuing to support our rapid growth - thanks to our readers and existing and news sponsors - we look forward to helping all of your companies grow with ours.

I am here in Chicago for Supercomm 2009 where I have numerous video interviews and meetings set up. I will be attending a few receptions and the first one is this evening in celebration of Genband's 10-year anniversary. We have a booth at the show where we will be filming live interviews with industry executives and thought leaders and we are excited that TMC's Paula Bernier will be participating in the conference portion of the event. Genband is participating on the panel she will be moderating and will be sending out a press release which I feel objectively describes the session. Hopefully you will get a chance to stop by and see Paula in action.

Here is a photo of Supercomm 2009 Chicago exhibit hall and the release:

GENBAND to Participate in Transcoding Panel with Verizon, Nokia Siemens Networks at SUPERCOMM 2009

Conference session explores transcoding requirements, challenges, insight for voice and multimedia interplay

Plano, TX, October 19, 2009 - GENBAND Inc., a market-leading developer of next-generation IP infrastructure solutions, today announced it will join with Verizon Communications Inc., and Nokia Siemens Networks for SUPERCOMM 2009's programming session: The Transcoding Path to IP Network Interoperability. Taking place on Wednesday, Oct. 21 from 3:10 p.m. - 3:55 p.m. in room W183b, the panel will discuss interworking complexities at network borders and how the industry is addressing these challenges through transcoding.

"As challenges arise from managing and routing VoIP and multimedia sessions, service providers are increasingly using transcoding to address interconnections at network borders," said Paula Bernier, Executive Editor at TMC and moderator of the session. "I look forward to discussing this timely topic, including both the service provider and equipment manufacturer perspectives as they supply and deploy transcoding solutions across IP networks. We will discuss successes and challenges of implementation as well as the roadmap for transcoding and its relationship to trends such as IMS and FMC."

Ms. Bernier will moderate a panel comprised of Tim Dwight, Principal Member of Technical Staff in Verizon's Core Network Technology organization; Al Young, Account Director at Nokia Siemens Networks; and Andrew Bender, Vice President of Technology at GENBAND.

SUPERCOMM 2009's conference program focuses on broadband solutions, in the form of real-world examples and case studies that feature the users of technologies and services as presenters, along with the service providers implementing the technologies in their networks and deploying the applications those technologies enable.

The Transcoding Path to IP Network Interoperability session will explore the requirements for transcoding and the strategies to resolve challenges that arise from combining networks with varying voice and multimedia traffic types.

Carrier consolidation, the convergence of fixed and mobile networks, and the prevalence of all-IP network architectures are all driving a growing need for transcoding in today's communications networks.

The traditional approach to connecting IP networks uses gateways to convert traffic to a common TDM format, which resolves media compatibility but increases cost and can impair voice quality. GENBAND offers a unique solution that avoids these issues by enabling direct IP-IP transcoding with support for fixed, mobile, and satellite codecs.

In the last two weeks I drove (well I was in the car anyway) for more than 1,500 miles meeting with tech companies in Montreal, Ontario, Massachusetts, Rochester, NY, Los Angeles and San Diego. The last stop on my latest trip was at CTIA where I saw dozens of companies from around the globe.

Most of my travels involve learning about companies in the communications and technology space and often advising them on how they can be more successful. Sometimes I get to see some very innovative solutions which I can't share at the time for a multitude of reasons (embargos, etc) and other times I get a firsthand look at things which I share as soon as I can. In many cases, companies ask me about TMC's experience in helping companies with their thought leadership, branding and lead generation activities.

As CEO of a media company which builds online, in-person and print communities for millions of global purchasing decision-makers each month, I have an unusual role of also writing about many of the companies, products and services I see. What is fun for me is finding new ways to bring buyers and sellers together. Buyers want to quickly learn about which products they should consider before purchasing and sellers are looking to sell as much as they can while spending the least amount in doing so.

It is an amazing place to sit because extremely often I see industry-changing technology which languishes because an engineer sets the marketing budget and has the corporate communications skills of sheetrock. Remember, I have an engineering degree so I feel I am uniquely qualified to beat up my brethren. Then there are the companies I visit where their products shouldn't be accepted for free, yet they sell in volume and make massive margins because they are able to communicate the benefits properly.

Then there are a slew of "Hail Mary" companies which have really cool products but no business model to speak of. Sometimes I can convince the founder of such a company to modify their offerings to actually make money but other times the companies die on the vine because they think they know best - after all, I just meet a thousand companies plus like them a year - what do I know?. Sometimes though the amazing happens and they  get purchased by a Google, Cisco or Oracle and thus the "Hail Mary" designation.

I am thrilled to act as a trusted advisor on PR and marketing issues and I figured it is unfair for me to only share information with people I choose to visit and subsequently I spoke on a webinar a month or so ago about hosted SEO which was well-attended and generated lot buzz in the industry. So many companies wonder about search engine optimization and what the trick is to ranking high. While there are lots of factors to consider, the basic premise is to write lots of content which people want to read and share with others.

SEO consultants get paid to help companies rank higher and in some cases they can boost a company's search rank for a while. But in the end, steady and relatively large amounts of content are what companies need to generate to rank high on various terms.

I could go on about building communities and improving SEO for hours - I am truly passionate about figuring out how to instantly bring a group of people with similar interests together on a single web portal. Coming from the world of magazines, it used to take TMC six months to build a mailing list and in many cases you really needed 18 months to do it right. Oh and did I mention you had to mail at least half a million subscription offers and it would cost you about $400,000 at a minimum to rent lists, print and mail your subscription forms? To show you how much things have changed, TMC has been involved in projects in the past few months where we built communities on new topics which are up and running and attracting hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of a few weeks. It is truly amazing to see how media has evolved through the use of news-generated, laser focused community building.

Again, these topics are a major passion of mine and something my team at TMC has gotten great at focusing on. The next webinar I will speak on takes place Thursday of this week, October 15^th at 12:00 PST and on it I will discuss how you can partner to boost your search engine marketing. I look forward to seeing you there. Be sure to register now so you don't miss it. As a reminder, you can view the archive if you aren't around at this exact time. Just be sure to register. Also, be sure to bring any questions you have. I look forward to answering them this week.

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article today talking about Dallas-based venture funds which flopped by investing in telecom and networking companies. It explains that funds in Silicon Valley and Boston are doing better than those in Texas, Washington state or New York.

Coincidentally, today there is also news that online video company Ooyala has now raised $20 million and online video conferencing company ViVu raised $3 million. Both as you guessed it are based in Silicon Valley. Most importantly of course is the fact that wireless equipment maker Mass-based Starent Networks just got sold to Cisco for $2.9 billion.

If history is any guide and this trend continues, we can expect Mass and Silicon Valley to be parts of the country which recover more quickly from the economic downturn than the rest.

The fact that FBI Director Robert Muller almost fell victim to an online banking phishing scam which he said was started with an authentic looking email should be very scary news for all of us. After all, this isn't a temp at the FBI, this is the person who is in charge of the organization we all trust to protect us from such scams. If we can't bank, shop and exchange goods and services online as efficiently as possible we all lose. While we should all be thrilled about the 33 arrested in an FBI phishing ring sting earlier this month dubbed operation "phish fry", there is a lot more work to do. We need a massive consumer education campaign, far better consumer protections and most importantly we need more stings and very strict laws aimed at online thieves and thugs as well as better international cooperation in bringing these people to justice.

I have been meaning to thank my tech vendors for a while - the companies which allow me to be as productive as possible on the road. I am going to be brutally honest and not sugar coat so brace yourselves.

Verizon EVDO - without this gem of a service I am not sure where I would be. I am able to upload 30Mb files in rapid-fire fashion as I perform video interviews worldwide. Moreover I am almost always connected to this service when there is no WiFi alternative. Amazingly, it is often faster than hotel broadband!

iPhone - Thank you Steve Jobs for reinventing the way a wireless phone works and in the process producing an environment where developers flourish providing applications which make the world a better place. In the interest of being honest, the lack of Flash support and multitasking for non-Apple apps is upsetting.

Verizon MiFi 2200 - All that you love about Verizon with the benefit of WiFi access.

Boingo* - A lifesaver when you have a few minutes to log onto a foreign WiFi network and don't want to establish an account. I have tested it worldwide and am happy with the service.

Dell Latitude E6500 - What an amazing laptop when it comes to battery life - but when it comes to Dell's ControlPoint Connection Manager which manages the wireless connections, this is the buggiest piece of crap I have ever used.

iGo AC power Adapter - they make a small and light adapter allowing me to power-up in the car and plane but it has lots of problems when it stops working from time to time. This is my third one in about five years and I am pretty fed up with its finickyness (Yes, I know that's not a word).

Plantronics** - I use this company's headsets in my office, on the go and even a stereo Bluetooth headset when I am in the need for great sound without wires. The company has solid products that are a pleasure to use. This was not always the case. They have evolved nicely over the last eight years.

CellPoint Flamingo Headphones* - Flamingos are the best wired headphones I have used from the perspective of staying in the ears. They are virtually impossible to shake out regardless of what you do.

Brookstone NXT flat-panel speaker - just plug it into a laptop or phone and play music from this device the size of stack of 25 postcards. It chews through batteries fast but packs the most sound for its weight and space.

Macbook Air - Great for presentations - people love this thing. The downside is it is finicky and I still haven't figured out how its keychain works.

Glance Networks* - One of the best services for screen sharing around... It doesn't have all the bells and whistles but is dead easy to use.

Targus Rolling Laptop Case - It works well, and takes a beating - carrying everything in this blog entry and more.

D-Link DWL-G730AP - This little gadget turns any wired connection into a wireless hotspot/access point. It works flawlessly and has been a pleasure to use.

Bose QuietComfort 3 headphones - they work great but are too pricey and should at least let you listen to music when the battery dies.

TomTom Go 740 Live - this GPS unit is not especially small or easy to read in the sun but it does let you connect to Google search and gives you real-time traffic alerts for $10/month. During a massive rainstorm it rerouted me twice in an hour and saved me precious time. It is a good, not great product which has proven to be more and less accurate than an equivalent Garmin unit. Its graphics are far inferior to Garmin. Also the connection with the base unit is flaky and not reliable.

Skype - Lets me talk to and see my family on the go - likewise with coworkers and colleagues. I hate when someone I don't know too well sees I am online and wants to have a lengthy chat discussion. Just because I am online doesn't mean I am not in a meeting, etc. Presence is not always accurate especially for me as I am always online. What I am saying is - hey, how about asking if I have a moment? Pretty please.

Google - Do I need to explain? I must search 100 times a day at least.

Remote Desktop - Microsoft Software which has saved my life allowing me to be as productive as possible on the road by "pretending" to be in the office. It hangs one out of a hundred times or so but otherwise it is great.

There is probably more but this is enough for now. Time to get back and put some of this tech to work.

The FTC has a new rule on disclosure of paid blogs/reviews with an $11,000 fine per offense so * denotes a free product/service and ** denotes some free products.

I applaud the FTC on this great idea which should reduce conflict of interest and wonder if they will move forward to ensure financial rating agencies, other government agencies and elected officials will have to play by the same rules as bloggers. I would love to know which laws are influenced by lobbyists and gifts on corporate jets for example. I am looking forward to seeing this happen but am not holding my breath.

I had a meeting with Jiri Kuthan AVP Engineering of Tekelec regarding some of the challenges his company sees in the communications and technology markets. The first is security which he says is an underappreciated topic. One point he made was that operators are beginning to think more systematically about SBCs. They aren't just throwing boxes at their problems anymore as he says but instead they are beginning to focus on systematically improving their security policies and procedures.

He is not discounting the importance of the SBC, just explaining there is more to it than adding equipment to handle the problem.

Another point he made was that identity or lack of it is a problem online. Jiri said, "How many calls did I receive which were anonymous which were of use to me." He continued, "Anonymity is a perfect vehicle for annoyance, spam, fraud, security attacks."

He went on to explain that there are numerous political and technical issues which come up - specifically, privacy protection vs. identity exposure.

We didn't go into much detail beyond these concerns but I hope to have my team work even more closely with Tekelec going forward so we can share solutions to some of the problems outlined above.

Leveraging Ecosystems Eclipses Developing Products

Widgets for TVs, application stores for wireless phones, applets for the connected home and automobiles... The trend is clear as smart ecosystems have emerged on the scene as a new way to generate revenue while locking in customers to specific hardware/software solutions. For many manufacturers such as Avaya, Cisco, RIM, Nokia, Apple and makers of televisions, it is no longer adequate to focus exclusively on the products your company develops. Now you have to figure out how to build a smart ecosystem around your offerings in order to leverage an able and willing (hardware and software) developer community who will evangelize your platform and develop long-tail applications, services and add-ons which boost the value of your ecosystem.

In order to help educate the emerging smart ecosystem community, TMC has partnered with Crossfire Media and distinguished college professor Mary Cronin PhD to launch a smart ecosystem portal containing news, thought leadership and analysis called SPEC which stands for Smart Product Ecosystems Connection and located at www.specosys.com.

As you may recall, Crossfire Media is home to Carl Ford and together we have already partnered to build online and live communities (4GWE and M2M Summit) in the 4G and M2M spaces.

This partnership also includes Mary Cronin, a professor in the Information Systems Department of Boston College's Carroll School of Management. Mary is a true thought leader in the space and you can expect to hear her prescient thoughts on how ecosystems will take root and evolve. Her first article is titled Five Rules for Smart Product Ecosystems.

The coverage areas will extend into a variety of industries and for now they include Telecom & Mobile; Health & Medical; Automotive & Telematics; Home Automation and Connected Home Entertainment Devices; Energy Monitoring and Personal Energy Management Solutions. We are open to adding new areas so drop us a line with suggestions.

It is evident that as time goes on, companies in all industries will be looking to tie their products and services into more and more ecosystems. They will either develop their own and/or leverage others on the market. In order to stay up to date on the investment, partnering and other opportunities ahead, be sure to bookmark the new SPEC smart ecosystem site and check back often.