This week on Network World Fusion, 03/14/05

————————————– 1) Users still bullish on Web services ————————————– We catch up with the companies profiled in last year’s Web Services Early Adopters series (http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2002/0415webservices.html) to see if they’re reaping the benefits promised. Two out of three give an enthusiastic thumb’s up. DocFinder: 5944 http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/0519revisited.html

1) IETF leaders urge detente with rivals

2) This net is child’s play for elite high schoolers

3) Nutter’s Help Desk: How to deploy VOIP gateways

4) Network World Radio: Getting up the career ladder

5) Risks rise as factory nets go wireless

6) PCI Express pumps up performance

7) Compliance burdens

8) Offshoring closer to home

9) Correlating customer service with IT intelligence

10) Vendors launch innovative VoIP gear

11) Netifice picks up Aventail managed SSL VPN unit

12) Oracle, SAP duke it out over retail app maker Retek

13) VON Spring 2005 goes beyond VoIP

14) Active market marks wireless show

15) Airespace beta-tests WLAN gear

16) Cisco rolls out intelligent storage module, new OS

17) Network start-ups see hope ahead

18) Microsoft rolls out real-time lineup

19) Microsoft snaps up Groove, Ozzie

20) Johnson & Johnson tackles security pain

21) Symantec touts back-up mgmt. software

22) Wyse CEO touts software initiative

23) Microsoft set to launch 64-bit blitz

24) Start-up set to tackle B2B services

25) Apply today for the Renovator Award

1) IETF leaders urge detente with rivals

The IETF is scrambling to retain its position as the Internet’s premier standards setting body in the face of declining participation, increased competition from other standards bodies and overall network industry consolidation.

DocFinder: 6263

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405-ietf.html

2) This net is child’s play for elite high schoolers

The adults don’t know how this stuff works: Meet the upperclassmen at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, the nation’s premier technical high school.

DocFinder: 6264

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405widernet.html

3) Nutter’s Help Desk: How to deploy VOIP gateways

Nutter helps a reader weigh his options on where to locate VoIP-to-analog gateways.

DocFinder: 6265

https://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2005/031405nutter.html

4) Network World Radio: Getting up the career ladder

Career building advice is always useful, particularly in an age when people change jobs every couple of years. This week’s guest is Matt Moran, author of “The I.T. Career Builder’s Toolkit” from Cisco Press, who joins to talk about what makes a well-rounded IT employee, one that potential employers will look favorably on. Listen in today

DocFinder: 6266

https://www.nwfusion.com/research/2005/0314radio.html

5) Risks rise as factory nets go wireless

Wireless technologies for harvesting real-time data off factory networks – and strategies for putting such information to use – were hot topics at last week’s National Manufacturing Week conference.

DocFinder: 6267

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405-factory-networks.html

6) PCI Express pumps up performance

PCI Express is a point-to-point switching architecture that creates high-speed, bidirectional links between a CPU and system I/O (the switch is connected to the CPU by a host bridge). Each of these links can encompass one or more “lanes” comprising four wires – two for transmitting data and two for receiving data.

DocFinder: 6268

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/tech/2005/031405techupdate.html

7) Compliance burdens

Regulatory requirements have IT jumping through hoops to meet them, although these mandates are also driving bigger security budgets.

DocFinder: 6269

https://www.nwfusion.com/careers/2005/031405man.html

8) Offshoring closer to home

Mobil Travel Guide was looking for cost savings when it decided to outsource its call center operations, but offshoring wasn’t an option. The company needed workers with good knowledge of U.S. geography, and that wasn’t readily available in India. Mobil Travel Guide found that expertise in Canada.

DocFinder: 6270

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405-nearshoring.html

9) Correlating customer service with IT intelligence

Contact center applications such as ACD, IVR and customer self-service Web portals offer IT managers the automation needed to increase operational efficiencies and speed the response to customer calls and e-mail requests in support, service and information centers. By routing calls to the most qualified agents, ACD and IVR systems can improve customer service. And self-service options let customers answer their query themselves.

DocFinder: 6271

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405specialfocus.html

10) Vendors launch innovative VoIP gear

While large IP PBX vendors continue to build on server-based platforms, some international vendors are taking more unique approaches to small-business VoIP systems.

DocFinder: 6272

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405-ip-pbx.html

11) Netifice picks up Aventail managed SSL VPN unit

Netifice Communications announced last week that it is acquiring Aventail’s Managed Secure Sockets Layer VPN Services business unit, including all 120 customers, 33 employees and network assets.

DocFinder: 6273

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405netifice.html

12) Oracle, SAP duke it out over retail app maker Retek

A battle for retail software maker Retek ignited last week when Oracle bested rival SAP’s $496 million offer for the firm. Up for grabs is the Minneapolis company’s retail industry expertise and credibility with retail companies – something Oracle needs more than SAP, analysts say.

DocFinder: 6274

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405retek.html

13) VON Spring 2005 goes beyond VoIP

The message that VoIP isn’t just about voice anymore came across loud and clear at the VON Spring 2005 show in San Jose last week, where industry heavyweights AT&T, Microsoft, Nortel and AOL discussed how the worlds of voice, text and video are converging.

DocFinder: 6275

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405von.html

14) Active market marks wireless show

Enterprise network professionals will find several nuggets at this week’s consumer-oriented CTIA Wireless 2005 conference, which convenes in New Orleans during a period of dramatic industry change.

DocFinder: 6276

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405ctia.html

15) Airespace beta-tests WLAN gear

Cisco’s pending acquisition target, Airespace, has begun beta-testing two products, an outdoor wireless mesh node, and a high-end wireless LAN switch, according to several customers

DocFinder: 6277

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405airespace.html

16) Cisco rolls out intelligent storage module, new OS

Cisco last week expanded the capabilities of its multi-protocol director-level and fabric switches with the introduction of a line card and software that will let IT managers host storage applications in the storage-area network fabric.

DocFinder: 6278

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405ciscostor.html

17) Network start-ups see hope ahead

Attendees at last week’s Network Ventures conference in Redwood City didn’t like everything Bank of America’s Craig Hinkley had to say when he took the stage, but he wasn’t entirely discouraging either. Hinkley, senior vice president of network architecture and strategic direction, discussed his organization’s planned rollout of 180,000 IP phones across a Cisco network in a project orchestrated by Electronic Data Systems.

DocFinder: 6279

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405netventures.html

18) Microsoft rolls out real-time lineup

Microsoft last week began to pull together its real-time communication platform and to deliver the pieces that corporations will need to build instant messaging and presence awareness into their applications and networks.

DocFinder: 6280

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405-microsoft-real.html

19) Microsoft snaps up Groove, Ozzie

Microsoft made a high-profile move last week acquiring Groove Networks for an undisclosed sum and adding Groove’s virtual peer-to-peer software to its ever-growing portfolio of collaboration software.

DocFinder: 6281

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405-microsoft-groove.html

20) Johnson & Johnson tackles security pain

For Johnson & Johnson, the healthcare giant with more than 200 separate companies operating in 54 countries, one of the biggest problems encountered in e-commerce was finding a way to quickly get business partners access to the network but enforce security.

DocFinder: 6282

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405-johnson-johnson.html

21) Symantec touts back-up mgmt. software

Symantec last week rolled out data-protection software that lets IT administrators monitor, control and manage all back-up instances in their enterprise-size networks.

DocFinder: 6283

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405-symantec-back-up.html

22) Wyse CEO touts software initiative

 So how does Kish plan to double Wyse revenue to about $350 million in two years and make it a $1 billion company in five? Network World Senior Editor John Cox spoke with him as he was packing for a three-week business trip to the Far East.

DocFinder: 6284

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405-wyse.html

23) Microsoft set to launch 64-bit blitz

Microsoft next month finally will ship the long-awaited 64-bit editions of its latest server and client operating systems, and the move is just the tip of a 64-bit iceberg.

DocFinder: 6285

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405-microsoft-64-bit.html

24) Start-up set to tackle B2B services

After working in stealth mode for five years, Patrick Grady recently took the wraps off his company’s efforts to build an e-commerce platform that supports a range of services users can tap into on an as-needed basis. The first of the hosted applications, available from the newly minted Rearden Commerce, provides one console for coordinating business services procurement such as booking flights or shipping packages.

DocFinder: 6286

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2005/031405-rearden-commerce.html

25) Renovator Award

Have you overhauled your network and realized a substantial return on the investment, a significant new business opportunity or found a creative way to leverage technology? If so, get in the running for Network World’s new Renovator Award, the top winners of which will be honored at a celebration in Las Vegas during the Networld+Interop conference, May 3-5. Entries will be judged by a panel of Network World editors, columnists and industry experts. Winners will be presented an award at the celebration and profiled in a subsequent Network World article. Stand up and be counted. The deadline is March 28.

DocFinder: 5951

https://www.nwfusion.com/renovator2005.html