Stories by Phil Hochmuth

LAN/WLAN integration growing, but snags persist

Ethernet switch vendors who offer combined or unified LAN and WLAN gear say the ultimate goal is to get wired and wireless network technologies to appear as a single network access layer. However, switch vendors and industry experts say this is still a ways off -- both in terms of the technology, and the demand for unified gear from users.

Linux, Open Source Software Pay Off for PayPal

When Scott Thompson left Visa to take the CTO role at PayPal in 2005, the Web company's data centre surprised him. "Wait a minute," he recalls saying, "they run a payment system on Linux?"

Variations on a virtualization theme

To virtualize or not to virtualize -- that is no longer the question when it comes to deploying Linux in the data centre. Today, the question is which virtualization approach to take.

Foundry launches high-density WLAN gear

Foundry Networks his week launched new wireless LAN access points and controllers which can help users concentrate more connections per access point, and stretch WLAN applications beyond simple data access.

Cisco buying WebEx for $3.2 billion

Cisco announced plans to acquire online collaboration service WebEx for US$3.2 billion, giving the network equipment giant a foothold in the software-as-a-service market.

Avaya CEO on changes, competition

Louis D'Ambrosio became top guy at Avaya last July, making him only the company's second CEO since its inception in 2000, when Avaya was spun off from Lucent's legacy business telephony arm -- a group which created the first cell phone and packet PBX. At the VoiceCon show this week, D'Ambrosio spoke with Phil Hochmuth about changes at the company, its competitors, and the enterprise VoIP market.

VOICECON - Microsoft reaches out to the VOIP industry

Microsoft introduced the public beta version of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 at VoiceCon. Following the announcement, Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president, of Microsoft's Unified Communications Group, discussed with Network World Senior Editor Phil Hochmuth how Microsoft's SIP-based VOIP, messaging and collaboration server fits in, and competes, in the enterprise convergence market.

For Avaya, Nortel CEOs, VOIP software is hot

The future of Avaya's and Nortel's respective VOIP businesses is in software, as well as strong partnerships with enterprise-class application vendors, the CEOs for both companies said this week.

Not using all of that GigE pipe? Save some energy

The IEEE wants to make idle or underutilized Ethernet connections more energy efficient, which could mean huge electrical cost savings for large enterprises. The trick: finding a way to seamlessly throttle between 10Mbps and 10Gbps.

Cisco buys Reactivity to bolster SOA offerings

Cisco this week announced plans for a US$135 million acquisition of Reactivity, a maker of XML gateway and security hardware designed to speed and secure up Web services traffic on enterprise networks.

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