The multifaceted budget process
With the bulk of the IT budgets in place for 2013, it is a good time to reflect on how the budget process has morphed over the years to accommodate shifts in technology and evolving corporate demands and priorities.
Stories by John Dix
Opinion: The approaching BYOD wave
This holiday shopping season is being powered in part by demand for electronics, including boatloads of new tablets and smartphones, most of which will wash into enterprises in early January in a veritable bring-your-own-device (BYOD) tsunami.
Big Switch arrives
The march toward software-defined networking will be a long slog given current investments in the installed base, but industry forces are coalescing rapidly in anticipation of the huge benefits to be reaped from this fundamental shift in the way we build and run networks.
Opinion: The new Microsoft
Microsoft seems to have gotten its groove back, putting forward a hip, Apple-esque branding effort for the Windows 8 products that reflects new energy in Redmond.
Huawei too dangerous to do business with?
The controversy swirling around use of Huawei telecom gear raises some interesting questions about the global nature of business and the future of cyberwarfare.
iPhone 5 sliding button problem, and a workaround
When you get a new iPhone there are a lot features to turn on and off as you customize the device to your liking, most all of which are controlled using sliding on/off buttons similar to the iPhone's iconic swipe-to-unlock feature. Problem is, the sliders often don't work on the iPhone 5.
Cautious IT optimism, but way behind in BYOD
"Slow and steady" seems to be the watchword, with the bulk of IT shops responding to our latest "State of the Network" study saying their budgets and headcount will remain flat in the coming year.
ShorTel goes big in hosted VoIP: A Q&A with CEO Blackmore
ShoreTel, which made its mark in IP telephony by simplifying unified communications and reducing total cost of ownership, recently broke into the hosted VoIP business with the acquisition of M5. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix caught up with ShoreTel CEO Peter Blackmore to find out how integration of that company is going and where he is taking the company.
Fighting IT fragmentation
According to pundits a good percentage of IT spending is already out of IT's control and the trend calls for it to keep tipping away.
Getting the most out of broadband to back up MPLS
The problem with using broadband to back up branch office MPLS links is 1) you spend all that money on the pipes and most of the time they simply lie fallow, and 2) when MPLS does go down the failover process often takes so long it kills active sessions.
These companies help with everything from BYOD to MPLS backup, security management and enterprise search
I get to meet a lot of interesting companies in my capacity here at Network World, some of them newcomers, some more established. Here's a roundup of a few that are addressing common problems.
The security game changes when the bad guys are backed by foreign governments
Fidelis Security Systems has an interesting perspective on the world of security, working, as it does, with the U.S. government to keep other countries from prying into some of our nation's most critical networks. Now that many of those same countries are after intellectual property housed by enterprise shops, commercial customers are knocking at Fidelis' door looking for help. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix talked to Fidelis CEO Peter George about the shifting threat landscape and what companies are doing to cope.
Failure of Senate to pass Cybersecurity Act leaves us all at risk
The Senate failed to muster enough votes to pass the watered-down Cybersecurity Act of 2012 (S. 2105) earlier this month, which reminds me of the line by Col. Nathan R. Jessep in the movie "A Few Good Men": "All you did was weaken a country today ... That's all you did. You put people's lives in danger."
US Court of Appeals says bank security system wasn’t up to snuff, meaning it might be liable for some loses incurred by a hacked customer
The decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit to overturn a lower court ruling that let a bank off the hook for losses incurred by a hacked customer has implications for both financial institutions (they need to do more) and their business customers (who typically lack legal protection from fraud that consumers enjoy).
Enterasys a growth company
Enterasys has a storied past, springing, as it did, from the loins of Cabletron, the network giant whose revenues once surpassed $1 billion, but then falling into disarray in the early 2000s. Enterasys today is a fast growing private company and part of a joint venture with Siemens Enterprise Communications, giving it added depth and reach. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently caught up with company President and CEO Chris Crowell to learn more about what Enterasys is up to and where it fits in.