NetFlash: Making sense of access-control plans from Cisco, Microsoft and others

Making sense of access-control plans from Cisco, Microsoft and others

What is network access control? Why are there so many different NAC plans from different vendors? And what are the differences between them? With Cisco, Juniper and Microsoft all laying claim to NAC territory, our testers give their insight into how each may or may not fit into your network. Click here to find out more.

Alcatel, Lucent agree to merge

Alcatel and Lucent have reached a definitive agreement to merge, they said Sunday. The merger stands to create a networking giant with revenue of $25 billion, based on 2005 financial results, and a strong presence in each continent. Click here for more.

Virtualization gaining ground in open source

Open source efforts to make it easier for companies to virtualize data center resources, whether they are Linux- or Windows-based, will be on full display this week at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in Boston. Click here for more.

UC Berkeley upgrades voice

The University of California at Berkeley eked all it could from its legacy voice mail system – and then some. Even after Unisys dropped support in 2001 for the university’s voice mail system, it located a third-party vendor willing to keep the system alive with components found on eBay and salvaged from other retired systems. The university knew the fix was temporary and started looking for a replacement to provide basic voice mail functionality and unified messaging. In 2004 it found the vendors were better equipped to handle a rollout to tens of thousands of users. Click here for more.

Novell scrambles to fend off Microsoft on its old home turf

Sure, NetWare is functional. But where are you going to go with it? That is a question Novell’s remaining base of customers has long pondered. Last year, Novell released Open Enterprise Server, the successor to NetWare. And last week at its annual BrainShare conference, Novell announced support for NetWare 6.5 users until 2015. But is the effort too little, too late? Some say so, pointing out how even in its native Utah, Novell has lost customers to Microsoft. Click here for more.

Today on Layer 8, where we say, “Put me in coach, I’m ready to play”:

Assault and battery with a BlackBerry; check out “The Simpsons” movie trailer; where to find your lost gadget online; and the start of a new Weekly Caption Contest; all this today and more at your home for not-just-networking news.

For news updated throughout the day, go to Network World’s NetFlash news page.