The most recent articles from IT Week

Siemens offloads corporate comms unit

Dave Bailey — 2008-07-30T11:55:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, IT Week, Wednesday 30 July 2008 at 11:55:00

Siemens Enterprise Communications to merge with private-equity owned Enterasys

German engineering giant Siemens has sold off part of its telecoms business, Siemens Enterprise Communications (SEC), to private equity company, The Gores Group.

Gores will integrate SEC with Enterasys, a network infrastructure company it already owns, and another of its portfolio, contact centre management specialist SER Solutions, to create a new company to be run as a joint venture with Siemens.

Founder and chairman of Gores, Alec Gores said, "We have been looking for an opportunity to expand our presence in the enterprise networking and communications space and this partnership provides the perfect fit."

The new company will create a sizeable competitor to network equipment titan Cisco. Operationally, Gores will drive the business and will be hoping that SEC's HiPath and OpenScape platforms, in combination with Enterasys' network hardware products, which includes switches, routers, VoIP security, and intrusion detection and prevention systems, will be able to dent Cisco's market share.

Both Gores and Siemens will inject $275m into the new firm for product development and further acquisitions.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal expects to close before October subject to approval from both Germany and US authorities.

BT leaps in to Voice 2.0

Dave Bailey — 2008-07-29T14:25:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, IT Week, Tuesday 29 July 2008 at 14:25:00

Telco giant to acquire telephony tools maker Ribbit

BT is to acquire Silicon Valley-based voice application vendor, the Ribbit Corporation, for £53 million, in an effort to fast-track its development of new telephony applications and services.

BT Americas president Michael Boustridge said Ribbit's platform will make it, "simpler, cheaper and faster to build communications functionality into applications, enabling developers to introduce new revenue-generating voice services in hours, rather than weeks."

“The communications industry is entering a new phase. Closed networks are becoming open platforms and developers are now driving innovation," added Ted Griggs, chief executive, Ribbit.

Ribbit's technology is intended to help developers add voice and automation features to web applications. Customers include software-as-a-service pioneer Salesforce.com.

Rob Bamforth, Quocirca's principal analyst for communication, collaboration and convergence said that the market for platforms to integrate communications with enterprise applications was still in its infancy. But it is clear "it's going to be open software winning out over proprietary hardware," he added.

BT's acquisition of Ribbit was part of "a continuing recognition that services not plumbing is where the future differentiation lies," said Bamforth.

Alcatel-Lucent leaders to leave

Dave Bailey — 2008-07-29T11:43:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, IT Week, Tuesday 29 July 2008 at 11:43:00

Chief exec and chairman to leave embattled telecoms giant

Telecoms equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent has confirmed the departure of both its chief executive and chairman in the wake of continued losses at the embattled firm.

The departure of chief executive Patricia Russo and chairman Serge Tchuruk was confirmed as the company reported a loss of £871.3m for the fiscal quarter ending 30 June 2008.

Tchuruk will leave the vendor on 1 October 2008; Russo will step down by the year's end.

Alcatel-Lucent has not reported a profit since the merger and its share price has dropped over 60 per cent since its high in April 2006, just after Alcatel announced it was to acquire US rival Lucent Technologies for an eventual figure of $11 billion.

In a statement, Russo said, "The company will benefit from new leadership aligned with a newly composed Board to bring a fresh and independent perspective that will take Alcatel-Lucent to its next level of growth and development in a rapidly changing global market."

The firm hopes the top-end shake up will shake off the bad financial results, and will be able to better compete with rivals, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia Siemens Networks and Nortel.

The acquisition which closed in September 2006 was touted by executives on both sides, as a 'merger' of equals, and together the combination would be able to address their respective market strongholds, Alcatel in Europe and Lucent in North America.

Broadband stakeholders must be more demanding

John Higgins — 2008-07-03T16:27:00.000Z

John Higgins, IT Week, Thursday 3 July 2008 at 16:27:00

Enterprise IT managers have a crucial role to play in steering the UK into the broadband fast lane

In the past month, broadband has been in the news a lot. Communications watchdog Ofcom announced that broadband providers should make consumers aware of the download speed they can expect from their connection, not just the maximum available speed. At the same time, the BBC embarked on a tour of Britain to compare access and download speeds around the country. Its conclusion: there is a big urban-rural divide in terms of broadband access. This is clearly an issue close to the hearts of many consumers in the UK as a record number of people commented on the issue on the BBC web site, with many complaining of being in the broadband slow lane. But what does this mean for IT managers?

The capability of our communications infrastructure is a real competitive differentiator for the technology sector. For example, video calling could make remote working and disparate teams so much more effective. This would open up a huge new talent pool as location really is rendered irrelevant.

The key communications infrastructure for the next 10 years at least is next-generation broadband. The UK has the fastest-growing market for broadband access and the most extensive availability in Europe, yet we lack widespread deployment of fibre or other next-generation broadband technologies. If this issue is not addressed soon, the UK will fall behind other countries that are already deploying next-generation broadband.

We are already seeing the beginning of this phenomenon. In The Economist e-readiness rankings, the UK fell two places to seventh in the world last year. As fast broadband can provide competitive advantage, enabling faster innovation and economic growth, anyone responsible for broadband in businesses should be concerned about this.

A couple of weeks ago, the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) published a report that found that the UK could reap “significant social and economic value” from the wide-spread deployment of next-generation broadband. However, it did not urge operators to invest now. Instead it said there “may actually be considerable value in waiting for a limited period in order for more information to emerge, before investing”.

While I agree with the BSG about waiting both to learn from other countries’ experiences with next-generation broadband deployments and until robust business models for the technology exist, as an industry we must start preparing the ground now.

Enterprise IT managers have a key role to play in this. Let me explain. One of the reasons commercial broadband providers are not currently building next-generation networks is that they are not convinced that users want super-fast broadband enough to pay for it.

It is estimated that rolling out next-generation broadband access in the UK will cost £16bn, so it is not surprising that operators are cautious about investing. But if all businesses were prepared to pay a little more than they do now for enormously improved broadband services we are talking here about consistent phone-service levels of quality, as well as speed a viable business model for investment by broadband providers could be created.

Surely it is worth paying extra for the opportunities fast broadband can offer? It is up to IT managers to make the business case for faster broadband and help generate more demand. Once this happens, providers will quickly lose their Reluctance to invest.

No one said the path to next-generation broadband was going to be easy, but it could be of such importance that I believe we should all play our part in bringing it about.

Ofcom plans for faster broadband

IT Week Staff — 2008-07-03T11:20:00.000Z

IT Week Staff, IT Week, Thursday 3 July 2008 at 11:20:00

The UK telecoms regulator seeks to assure operators over investments in new technology

Ofcom has set out a framework to encourage network operators to invest in new infrastructure needed for future super-fast broadband services. Chief Executive Ed Richards said that investing in new technologies is inherently more risky than developing the current infrastructure, so operators needed to know that the regulatory framework will permit them to make a return on this investment.

"They need to know that the regulator will not suddenly change the rules of the game just as the rewards for the risk start to flow in," he said.

Orange launches corporate FMC

Dave Bailey — 2008-07-03T10:38:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, IT Week, Thursday 3 July 2008 at 10:38:00

Fixed Mobile Convergence offer from Orange aimed at larger SMEs

French mobile operator Orange has extended its consumer and SME fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) offering, Unik, to corporate customers.

Orange Business Services said its corporate Unik offering was "designed for businesses with more than 200 employees, and can support thousands of users with availability in over 200 countries".

Orange Business Services senior manager for solutions marketing Michael Burrell said, "Orange will set customers up with Alcatel or Cisco IP telephony onsite, and we'll manage the service for them." With Alcatel hardware, phone support is limited to Windows Mobile Smartphones, but with Cisco any dual-mode mobile phone can be used, said Burrell. Currently Unik corporate customers will not be able to use the phone over Orange Wi-Fi hotspots. "That'll be a future offer," added Burrell.

Unik would allow firms to integrate mobile and office phones, giving users one voicemail box and contactability through a single phone number, which would ring their office and mobile phones simultaneously.

The benefits touted by Orange are lower cost international calls routed over IP PBX using Business Talk Global together with a cheaper corporate dial plan, and increased productivity through use of advanced IP PBX call features.

Decision time for data roaming tariffs

Dave Bailey — 2008-07-03T10:33:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, IT Week, Thursday 3 July 2008 at 10:33:00

The European Commission is about to rule on EU wide data roaming and SMS charges

The first anniversary of the introduction of EU Roaming Regulation legislation passed last week, with EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding claiming some successes and promising more to come.

The public consultation deadline on data roaming services launched by the Commission on 7 May has also finished, as has Reding's deadline of 1 July for EU mobile operators to reduce both SMS and data roaming prices.

Reding wrote to all mobile operator chief executives in June, asking them to provide her with their future plans on prices by 1 July.

In a statement the EU said that what actions would be taken next depended on a number of issues. "The European Regulators Group (ERG) figures on the implementation of the EU Roaming Regulation for the last quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008 - these will be the basis of the Commission’s decision-making process," it said.

AT&T launches services to ease delivery of video and rich multimedia web content

Dave Bailey — 2008-06-25T10:59:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, IT Week, Wednesday 25 June 2008 at 10:59:00

New managed services aim to help businesses distribute content to PCs, TVs and mobile devices

AT&T has announced a range of content delivery services designed to help businesses to deliver video and rich multimedia web content to customers, partners and employees.

The carrier’s Content Delivery Network and AT&T Digital Signage services are being launched on the back of a $70m investment in its digital media delivery capabilities across the US, Europe and Asia. AT&T has also teamed up with software firms ExtendMedia, Qumu and Stratacache, which specialize in formatting and packaging content, such as streaming video, live and on-demand webcasting, e-learning and virtual trade shows, as well as the delivery of adverting over emerging media networks.

AT&T’s global business service group president Ron Spears said, “Enterprise customers are using video and multimedia content to communicate with their employees, shareholders, partners and suppliers, but they are grappling with the complexity involved in staging, managing and distributing their content to their end-users.”

The services are available now and will enable the distribution of content to computers, televisions and mobile devices such as the BlackBerry, AT&T said.

Ofcom issues broadband code

Dave Bailey — 2008-06-05T11:24:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, IT Week, Thursday 5 June 2008 at 11:24:00

Promises greater clarity on broadband speeds

UK comms regulator Ofcom has released a Code of Practice designed to clarify what broadband speeds customers can expect.

Ofcom claims that 32 ISPs have already signed up to the code, which has been introduced on the back of widespread concern about the differences between advertised theoretical maximum speeds and the top speeds customers actually experience.

But the Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA) UK, said that while it supported the principles of the Code of Practice, it should be extended to include mobile operators.

Ofcom has confirmed it was considering this option.

Broadband performance monitoring company Epitiro welcomed the new code but insisted "line speed is just one indicator of broadband performance, but there are many more".

IPv6: is it really time for action?

IT Week staff — 2008-05-30T10:24:00.000Z

IT Week staff, IT Week, Friday 30 May 2008 at 10:24:00

EC is pushing for a move to IPv6, but at what cost?

Viviane Reding, the EC’s Commissioner for Information Society and Media, is banging the drum for the European Union to move its network infrastructure to the next-generation internet protocol – IPv6.

As with fibre to the home rollouts, the EC is keen to spur both public and private sector organisations into action by pointing out what nations such as Japan and China are doing with IPv6, and warning that again Europe could be falling behind another technology curve.

So does this mean IT managers working in European organisations should be adopting a Corporal Jones stance of “Don’t Panic!” Well, not really.

What with the credit crunch beginning to put the squeeze on system budgets, IT leaders have more than enough to worry about without also having to concern themselves with yet another clarion call from Reding.

In any case, corporate migration to IPv6 would assume that UK carriers and ISPs had already switched over their networks to the standard, or were running both protocols before migrating to an IPv6-only network. This is far from the case, however.

But by promoting IPv6 use now, the EC is at least showing some long-term thinking and ensuring the issue is marked on the corporate radar well before any migration plans become a business necessity.

Credit crunch heralds more comms acquisitions

Dave Bailey — 2008-05-28T16:11:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, IT Week, Wednesday 28 May 2008 at 16:11:00

C & W is ready to splash out on Thus to consolidate its position

Communications service provider Cable & Wireless has approached business telecoms-focussed vendor Thus, with a view to acquiring the company.

Thus has confirmed the approach, but told its shareholders to take no action at this time. "The Board remains focused on delivering maximum value for shareholders and will evaluate any proposal from any third party against the value that the Company can deliver as an independent group", it said.

Gartner research vice president Neil Rickard said, "We've been expecting consolidation in the service provider market for a long time. There were a lot of players there, and there are even new players entering the business telecoms market targeting it aggressively. So, it's a very overcrowded market and getting worse - this makes it better."

Rickard added, "In terms of a pairing – this looks like a good fit - broadly similar cultures, broadly similar type of customer – fairly flexible approach to customers as well. C &W has things in its portfolio that Thus hasn't got, like fixed mobile convergence (FMC) and a lot of DSL. C&W doesn't get anything skill wise – but it gets a bit more bulk."

The acquisition could spell a harder time for BT Global Services, since Cable & Wireless has undergone a recovery of sorts lately, according to Rickard, "If I'm BT I'll not be exactly trembling in my boots, but my market will get tougher."

Rickard added that consolidation had been on the cards, but added that the global credit crunch could "trigger consolidation – because some of the operators are financially marginal, as to whether they're making money or not. So bulking up to gain access to money will also push you towards profitability, but the 'credit crunch' could also be a catalyst to further consolidation, which I think is going to happen anyway."

IT Week leader: Hands off communications data

IT Week staff — 2008-05-22T12:28:00.000Z

IT Week staff, IT Week, Thursday 22 May 2008 at 12:28:00

What will new communications legislation mean for enterprises?

Government proposals that would require telcos and internet service providers to hand over their logs on all communications data are likely to set alarm bells ringing in IT departments.

The Home Office has been quick to stress that the plans are at a early stage and might not make it into the final draft of the Communications Data Bill. But the potential for corporate communications records to end up in a government database is likely to concern many IT leaders.

Recent data losses by government departments have highlighted a worrying cultural malaise at the heart of the public sector that cannot easily be fixed by technology. A centralised database of communications records would be fairly easy to monetise if hacked by the right people. Even though these details are not set to include the content of emails or web pages visited, a flurry of messages sent from one firm to a rival, for example, could signify potential merger activity, which both parties would rather keep private.

It is also unclear how the proposed bill would impact existing industry regulations around the storage and deletion of corporate records after a specified time. Current proposals indicate that the data would be held for at least 12 months, but it could be longer.

At a time when sensitive data is a key target for criminal groups, the prospect of any information being stored by a third party with a track record of losing and abusing personal data should have IT managers on their guard.

Ofcom deregulates more of the broadband market

David Neal — 2008-05-21T12:23:00.000Z

David Neal, IT Week, Wednesday 21 May 2008 at 12:23:00

Ofcom wants to deregulate more of the broadband market in order to encourage more competition

Ofcom, the UK telecoms and internet watchdog has removed some of the regulations that surround the broadband market.

The decision, the group said, is part of its plans to continually review, and remove regulations in order to promote innovation and investment in the broadband arena. By removing regulations in areas where there is already effective competition Ofcom believes that it can promote more investment and innovation.

In light of this the group will deregulate almost 70 per cent of the UK wholesale broadband, meaning that competing providers will have a level playing ground in which to operate.

However, where competition is not so open, where for example, the incumbent telecoms provider is dominant, Ofcom will continue to moderate and regulate on broadband provision, making it easy for smaller firms to take on, and offer out, wholesale internet connections.

Ed Richards, Ofcom Chief Executive said, "This is a major step forward in the UK broadband market reflecting the success we have had in promoting effective competition. It shows that we are determined to deregulate wherever we can do so in a way that is consistent with the broader public interest." He added, "We now need to build on these foundations and see timely investment and a competitive market emerge for next generation access as well."

Row over iPlayer highlights need for fibre

Dave Bailey — 2008-05-07T14:28:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, IT Week, Wednesday 7 May 2008 at 14:28:00

The UK’s creaky internet infrastructure has brought the BBC and ISPs to blows

Have you used Aunty Beeb’s streaming TV programme service, the iPlayer, yet? I hadn’t until I came to write this column. What’s all the fuss about, I thought, it’s only a streaming media player used to access “time-bombed” BBC programme content. Hold on a minute time-bombed? You mean I can only watch old BBC content for a limited period before it “expires”?

Well, if you think about it, there are some pretty obvious commercial reasons for this. First, the BBC is doing just fine serving up a diet of repeats as part of its programme schedules, and second, unlimited online access to old content would hit a very nice BBC revenue stream in the form of all those DVD box sets that we all buy for our retired relatives come Christmas.

Anyway, there are two modes for running iPlayer. The first is streaming mode, where a connection is set up to the Beeb’s media server and you watch the programme as it is delivered directly to the iPlayer installed on your PC. The other mode is to download the whole content in one big chunk and then play it at your leisure until the preset time-limit kicks in and automatically deletes the content from your system.

It seems the streaming mode now has internet service providers (ISPs) up in arms. When many subscribers all start streaming popular shows like Dr Who simultaneously, it puts a strain on their networks. The problem is that ISPs have built their networks based on typical web-browsing habits, which result in brief, irregular bursts of traffic.

The backhaul network of most ISPs is just not designed to cope with a situation where everyone is continually maxing out their alloted bandwidth. Tiscali has complained that the BBC seems to be shifting its distribution costs onto ISPs. In other words, it and other broadband suppliers are being forced to install extra capacity to support the BBC’s new service. Why, you might ask, hasn’t Google’s YouTube service been tarred with the same brush? Is it that the Beeb’s content is higher quality?

And is Tiscali’s argument that the Beeb should divvy up some cash to pay for network upgrades a valid one? Should you penalise somebody because their content is popular? Would ISPs really “bandwidth throttle” iPlayer content, as they have threatened to? I’m sure they wouldn’t if it led to customers switching to more BBC-friendly ISPs.

The whole argument is a bit ironic considering the discussions that have been going on over the past couple of years regarding residential optical fibre rollouts. Those who appear happy with the status quo argue that there just isn’t the demand for fibre, nor any killer application requiring such high bandwidth. The growing furore over iPlayer would suggest otherwise.

These people also contend that customers just wouldn’t be prepared to pay the extra cost. There’s no doubt that rolling out fibre across the country would be a hugely expensive exercise involving a lot of digging up of roads. If ISPs are left to foot the bill for this, most consumers would find the cost of any subsequent fibre-based services to be prohibitively expensive.

So once again we’re back to whether the UK government should bite the bullet and stump up public funds to finance a country-wide fibre rollout. Given the credit crunch and related economic uncertainty currently sweeping the globe, this would be a bold, forward-looking move not something the current government has been accused of lately.

BT teams with Siemens on IP communications

Dave Bailey — 2008-05-06T17:29:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, IT Week, Tuesday 6 May 2008 at 17:29:00

BT and Siemens are working on a converged communications solution

UK carrier BT and enterprise IP communications vendor Siemens have teamed up to provide large enterprises a ‘one-stop converged communications solution’.

The global sales agreement aims to help enterprises, “Reduce costs, remove complexity and risk, improve collaboration and enhance business processes” the firms said.

Firms wanting to move to a converged data and voice system could roll out the partnered system, which Siemens explained, “Offers a single service level agreement as well as a flexible pricing model with a single point of contact for end-to-end managed services.”

The system uses Siemens OpenScape communications suite and OpenScale services with BT's carrier class multi-protocol label switched (MPLS) network.

BT’s systems integrators and channel partners vice president Chris Ainslie said that many of its customers had, “Accumulated complex, usually multi-vendor voice and data infrastructures, which our agreement with Siemens offers them a way of to leveraging their significant legacy investments."

Separately, Unison Technologies has announced a VMware appliance version of its Linux-based unified communications software, Unison.

The virtual appliance includes a preconfigured Linux server with Unison Server already installed. Unison said, “Integrating telephony, email, IM and groupware into a single Linux unified communications server, Unison Server, increases a company’s productivity, while also reducing IT costs.”

Unison is also offering firms to download and managed demo servers, allowing people to use a free test account.