Packet Evangelist

By Steve Taylor

Is network innovation dead?

10/18/04

Is there any innovation in the network marketplace anymore? There's a thundering silence as compared with a few short years ago, when every time you turned around there was a new protocol, a new product addressing unmet business needs, and a new forum to promote these new products.

Converged messaging falls short

07/26/04

My colleague Larry Hettick and I recently looked at several messaging programs, including AOL Instant Messenger, Skype and the Microsoft-oriented duo of MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger. Our conclusion was that while they are great in concept, all fall short of being ready for wholesale implementation.

The real traffic mgmt. challenge

04/19/04

The benefits of Layer 4 to Layer 7 applications management are tremendous. But to take full advantage of these capabilities, make sure your organization is converging along with the technology.

Divestiture, 20 years later

01/19/04

From my perspective there's one result of divestiture that outweighs all others: the linkage of service offerings and service prices.

VoIP security still a major issue

11/10/03

Overall, virus/worm incidents shouldn't have a major effect on the VoIP market. These are data security issues, and when they are addressed for the data network, the VoIP installation will be addressed by default. But virus/worm incidents do indicate that if you're getting ready to go full-throttle with VoIP, it's common sense to apply any applicable patches to keep your infrastructure up to date.

When tactics, strategy converge

09/15/03

So perhaps the ultimate convergence we'll see with VoIP will go beyond the convergence of voice and data. Instead, maybe we'll see the convergence of strategic and tactical concerns, with both contributing significantly to the business case for moving forward. And it's this tactical/strategic synergy that ultimately will move the VoIP market forward.

Return training to the budget

07/14/03

Ultimately, real-time experiences - including road shows and conferences - must regain at least a part of their former role in the overall training picture. Otherwise, we'll have the technology but no one to run the network.

A VoIP NNI: The next frontier

05/19/03

The greatest challenge for global voice network interoperability is making the transition from the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) to an IP-based network. Today, using the PSTN, you can call anybody, anywhere, anytime. Someday we'll be there with VoIP services as well, but making that transition as effective and efficient as possible just isn't here yet.

Opening our minds to managed services

03/24/03

Managed services let you deploy services faster, accomplish more using existing staff and gain access to skills you don't possess. However, many companies seem reluctant to use them, and this might have more to do with historical beliefs than today's reality.

Coming in 2003: Stealth frame relay

01/20/03

Frame relay is a great example of how we're seeing older, tried-and-true technologies being expanded and repurposed.

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