VoIP needs to get back to basics

Stuff goes here.

Vendors have been touting voice over IP for years but attendees at last month’s Voice on the Net show in Boston cautioned that there are still some basic issues that need to be resolved before making any full-scale deployments. Attendess said they were concerned about securing IP PBXs from viruses, the shortage of enterprise VoIP management tools and the complexities of rolling out converged applications beyond simple dial tone and calling features. Be sure to check out our reporters’ stories from the show floor.

September was also a busy month for our events team, as three separate groups of industry analysts, vendors and Network World editors took to the road to discuss the latest trends in Wireless LANs, WANs, and the New Data Center. Check below for our editors’ observations from the tours and be sure to register for November’s LANs event – details below.

See you in two weeks when we begin counting down to Comdex Las Vegas.

* News from Voice on the Net show, Boston:

Level 3 launches VoIP, 10/03/03

Level 3 Communications launched its first voice-over-IP offering at the recent Voice on the Net show in Boston.

https://www.nwfusion.com/edge/columnists/2003/0929edgecol2.html

Debate highlights VoIP hopes and fears, 09/29/03

As vendors at last week’s Voice on the Net conference pushed new applications for making IP telephony ubiquitous and more multimedia-friendly, attendees cautioned that plenty of basic issues still need to be resolved.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/0929von.html

SIP-enabled products grab spotlight, 09/29/03

Session Initiation Protocol was on the minds of vendors introducing products at last week’s Voice on the Net conference in Boston.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/0929vonside.html

Regulatory, reliability issues swirl around VoIP, 09/22/03

Practitioners of packet telephony will converge this week to hear about the latest advances in voice over IP, at a time when industry ears are ringing over regulatory, interoperability and implementation issues.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/0922von.html

* News from Executive Women’s Forum, Sanibel, Florida:

Female IT professionals cope in a male-dominated industry, 09/29/03

As a co-founder of Trend Micro, a $350 million maker of anti-virus and content-filtering products, Eva Chen could be considered one of the most influential women in IT. But when she goes on business trips to Japan with an entourage of software engineers, Chen puts away the business card that lists her title as “chief technology officer and executive vice president” and instead hands out one that reads: “engineering secretary.”

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/0929women.html

* News from Polycom User Group show, San Francisco:

IP videoconferencing winning converts, 09/29/03

According to an informal survey of 161 out of 500 attendees at the Polycom User Group show earlier this month, nearly half said their organizations use IP technology for videoconferencing.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/0929pug.html

* Late news from DemoMobile, La Jolla, California:

The coolest gadgets from Demomobile, 09/29/03

For two days in San Diego, the press, investors and other dignitaries got to see what’s new in the world of mobility at the Demomobile 2003 show, run by IDG Executive Forums, a division of Network World.

https://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2003/0929cooltools.html

Start-up makes mobile middleware, 09/18/03

Although cool gadgets and awesome games make for some of the flashiest introductions at the annual DemoMobile show here, a small New Jersey start-up plans to introduce what amounts to mobile plumbing for the enterprise.

https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/0918oterra.html

Microsoft server software uses location, 09/18/03

Microsoft says it may have come up with a “killer application” for devices that run its Pocket PC Phone Edition operating system software, and on Wednesday announced a new server product that could allow developers to prove that right.

https://www.nwfusion.com/net.worker/news/2002/0918msmobile.html

* Observations from the Network World Technology Tours:

The power of Power over Ethernet, 09/24/03

When the IEEE approved the 802.3af standard earlier this year, it opened the floodgates to a technology that has the “power” to propel other important technologies forward.

https://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/edu/2003/0922ed1.html

First steps in consolidating your data center, 09/17/03

As we’ve talked about in this newsletter, there is a tremendous amount of buzz surrounding the topic of data centers. And it’s not just from vendors, either. By the response we received to the kickoff of our New Data Center Technology Tour, it’s clear this issue is firmly in the hands of IT organizations.

https://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/edu/2003/0915ed1.html

On the road with NW’s WAN Tech Tour, 09/15/03

We wrapped up the first two cities in the Network World Technology Tour on optimizing WAN services last week, which featured WAN expert Jim Metzler and speakers from seven sponsors: Adtran, Cisco, Equant, Expand Networks, Peribit Networks, Virtela Networks and Visual Networks.

https://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2003/0915edit.html

Tales from the WLAN tour, 09/08/03

There are some interesting user experiences emerging from Network World’s latest Wireless LAN Technology Tour, which continues later this month in Houston and San Jose.

https://www.nwfusion.com/weblogs/wireless/003426.html

* UPCOMING TRADE SHOWS:

Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Fall

Oct. 19-24, Orlando, Florida

https://www3.gartner.com/2_events/symposium/2003/asset_46839.jsp

CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment 2003

Oct. 21-23, Las Vegas

https://www.wirelessit.com/general/

Microsoft Professional Developers Conference

Oct. 26-30, Los Angeles

https://msdn.microsoft.com/events/pdc/

Storage Networking World

Oct. 27-30, Orlando, Florida

https://www.storagenetworkingworld.com/orlando_2003/

NGN 2003 (Next Generation Networks)

Nov. 3-7, Boston

https://www.bcr.com/ngn/

Comdex Las Vegas 2003

Nov. 17-20

https://www.comdex.com/lasvegas2003/

* NETWORK WORLD TECHNOLOGY TOURS – LANs: Orchestrating Your Network Assets (free registration):

Gigabit Ethernet hits user desktops…Offloads transform data center performance…Wireless switching drives explosion of wireless networks… The success stories of 2004 will be written at LANs: Orchestrating Your Network Assets, the new Network World Technology Tour event for November. And you need to be there to gather the facts, find the answers, and explore the options ahead to achieve a new year of success. Join our editors and columnists for this free event at a city near you. You’ll get to meet leading LAN equipment vendors and pose questions to our panel of experts. We hope to see you there!

Nov. 5-13 at a city near you. Check here for details: https://www.nwfusion.com/events/lan/index.html#overview