Opinion

Opinion

Network Infrastructure Solutions and Services

• Back to the mobile dark ages; T-Mobile in new 'fair use' blunder

  Throw out the iPhone. Bin the HTC Hero, smash the Samsung Galaxy. It's time to dig out the old Nokia phone that you tucked away for emergencies.  Continue Reading

• Firefox hunts browser market leaders

  A year has passed since the European Commission cut a deal with Microsoft to offer European users a choice of up to 12 internet browsers when setting up their PCs, and with uptake of Windows 7 healthy, it seems that the impact of the change is ...  Continue Reading

• A LinkedIn IPO will prove the power of the social network

  Is LinkedIn close to becoming the first social network to go public? Maybe... According to our sister site ComputerWeekly.com, the 85 million member network for business professionals is making plans to go public during the first calendar quarter of...  Continue Reading

• Does 3G on 2G spell curtains for daft data caps?

  The opening up of the 2G spectrum to 3G services, announced today by Ofcom, is to be welcomed for a number of reasons.  Continue Reading

• To Innerleithen and beyond! Fibre contest winners named

  BT's Race to Infinity publicity stunt has now drawn to a close, with six towns across the UK coming out on top in the telco's popularity contest to choose the areas that will get priority access to fibre-optic broadband.  Continue Reading

• Alcatel-Lucent makes an epic PR cock-up

  Just occasionally, a PR cock-up comes around that has journalists goggling at their screens in disbelief.  Continue Reading

• Happy Christmas to all and to all a goodnight

  It's time for us to bid you farewell for a little while, as Christmas is now well and truly upon us and the goose is getting fat. We're taking a well-earned break for a week or so, enjoying the company of friends and family, as I hope you will be, ...  Continue Reading

• Top of the blogs, a Network Noise Christmas special

  I've taken a trawl through the archives to bring you some of the more memorable posts of 2010 here on Network Noise.  Continue Reading

• HP Scrooge targets Cisco's Christmas

  News reaches us from the States that just days before Christmas, HP Networking is plotting to snaffle some of Cisco's presents from under the tree.  Continue Reading

• What next for business in 'broadband Britain'?

  In the latest in a series of guest blogs on Network Noise, Andy Lockwood, transformation director at b2b comms provider Opal, responds to the government's broadband strategy announced this month.  Continue Reading

• Apprentice bosses tear Baggs apart

  "What on earth are you talking about? You're a twenty one year old kid. You're not a brand," raved Viglen chairman Claude Littner as The Apprentice reached its always-gripping final interview stage.  Continue Reading

• What does Apple want with Nortel's patents?

  Final bids for the extensive line-up are thought to be due soon, and although the usual networking industry suspects have almost certainly been sidling up to the trestle table with their wallets out, interest has apparently emerged in the IP ...  Continue Reading

• Could Stuart Baggs actually win the Apprentice?

  After the ups and downs of the last few weeks of this year's Apprentice, last night's shock firing of Liz Locke has well and truly put the cat among the pigeons.  Continue Reading

• Could Cisco be sizing up a new distributor?

  Regular readers will recall that the other week, Cisco certified data centre distie Magirus as the first Cisco UCS B-Series Authorised Configurator in Europe.  Continue Reading

• It's a bad hair day, cancel the conference!

  If, like me, you thought that uptake of video-conferencing services was down to issues like lack of reseller training or resistance among luddite CIOs, then think again.  Continue Reading

• Tax regime blocks progress in broadband Britain

  Here's Tony Ballard, the digital law specialist at Harbottle & Lewis, telling it like it is A distorting tax regime will block competing operators and hand BT a monopoly on optical fibre, Tony Ballard, a digital media specialist at law firm ...  Continue Reading

• Seconds out for Lord Sugar vs Ian Livingston!

  A developing story this morning from the world of Twitter, where UK IT cheerleader and avid cyclist Lord Sugar is, like many others, struggling to come to terms with the world of BT customer services. "Big problem at home with BT Internet," tweeted ...  Continue Reading

• Time for more "Adventures in Baggs!"

  As Lord Sugar's annual publicity stunt rolls unstoppably towards its terrifying conclusion, last night saw The Brand, or Herr Baggs as he is now popularly known, team up with Jamie and Chris, the other remaining boys, in the Apprentice's annual no ...  Continue Reading

• Brocade stitches together CERN upgrade

  If you thought the high bandwidth requirements of the modern enterprise -replete with video conferencing suites and a whiz new VoIP system - were not to be sniffed at, then spare a thought for the scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear ...  Continue Reading

• Green networks are back on the agenda

  With the new CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme causing waves in the industry, its time to reconsider how a well-implemented network strategy can help your customers tick the right boxes.  Continue Reading

• Social networker Zuckerberg top draw in IT industry

  A survey by our sister ICT sector recruitment site CW jobs has revealed the true power of social networks, with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) topping a poll of IT personalities who have most inspired people to work in the industry.  Continue Reading

• You're hired! Epstein pitches up in tech industry

  Those of us who were hoping that Apprentice star Stuart Baggs wouldn't find his way back into the technology industry may be wishing for his return after all, after fellow contestant Alex Epstein popped up at Masternaut, a Leeds-based satellite ...  Continue Reading

• Is there anybody there? Cable and Wireless seeks inspiration from the other side

  Here's a man who knows about voices and passing messages on from the other side. This is the Brighton Pier HQ of Paul Hughes-Barlow, Tarot reader and communications guru. His publicity boasts of a prestigious list of blue chip clients.  Continue Reading

• Stuart Baggs is a poor advert for the channel

  I know there are a few unreconstructed dinosaurs and total gits out there, but for the most part I have found, in five years of covering channels, that most of you are a fairly affable bunch of people.  Continue Reading

• BT's Race to Infinity won't help those who need it most

  The communities that will most benefit from improved Internet access are not well-off villages in the south of England. The digitally excluded are in poorer, marginalised parts of the country, the sort of places that are facing up to the reality of ...  Continue Reading

• Kate and Wills have caused a right royal rumpus

  As remote tribes yet to make contact with western society can hardly fail to be aware, next year will see the Royal Wedding of Prince William and long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton. So let's get this out of the way now, shall we?  Continue Reading

• Resellers needn't sleepwalk into the converged world

  In the latest of a series of industry guest blogs on Network Noise, Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of infrastructure security and convergence solutions VAD Wick Hill Group, responds to our recent blog on the problems surrounding the unified comms sale.  Continue Reading

• Will it be a happy new year for Cisco?

  As the excitement of the quarterly results season dies away, one of the last big industry hitters, networking sector bellwether Cisco, will be unveiling its first quarter results later on this evening, and all eyes in the industry are turning to ...  Continue Reading

• Daisy is under pressure to turn a profit

  As you will hopefully by now have read, M&A marvel Daisy Group has bought acquisitive Mitel partner SpiriTel for £27.3m.  Continue Reading

• It's time for Avaya to put the cap back on

  A year on from its conference in Prague, the networking and convergence vendor that turned up for its 2010 Barcelona partner party is visibly more confident, and yet at the same time remains visibly apologetic.  Continue Reading

• Blessed are the Cisco partners

  Will an audience with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome be on the cards for some key Cisco partners next week? A well-placed mole tells us that alongside the delights of the Eternal City, a trip to the Vatican has been scheduled for attendees at the ...  Continue Reading

• Baggs watch! Dispatches from the boardroom

  There was a true moment of despair at the start of last night's Apprentice as comms entrepreneur and imminent Brand Stuart Baggs waxed lyrical on the fashion industry. Apparently, the Brand doesn't understand the point of taking a £2 bit of ...  Continue Reading

• Get in quick to bag your perfect domain name

  On 1 December, an online gold rush will take place as nearly 3,000 previously unavailable .uk Internet domains are released for sale by the UK Internet registry Nominet.  Continue Reading

• Ofcom's sanctions don't go far enough

  Ofcom has rapped ISPs TalkTalk and Tiscali UK on the knuckles after they continued to bill end-users for cancelled services.  Continue Reading

• Perhaps we can learn something from the 1950s

  A few weeks ago, some of you may have noticed a bunch of faux-vintage print advertisements for modern-day social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Skype. The posters were created by a Brazilian agency and hark back to 1950s-era America.  Continue Reading

• No network noise on the Underground

  Look at the people in this photo. Look closely. They're passing the time in contemplation, lost in thought. Maybe winding down or grabbing a few minutes of blessed peace before their working day begins.  Continue Reading

• The ad men score for Everything Everywhere

  On my way to sink a Chinese meal and a few beers with some old friends in London last night, I spotted several adverts for Orange and T-Mobile's new venture, Everything Everywhere.  Continue Reading

• Don't join Viglen! Come back to telecoms, Stuart.

  Who is Stuart Baggs? Apart from brand, that is. Britain's brightest business prospects (or what passes for them) have descended on London for a new series of The Apprentice, each bidding to catch the eye of industry veteran and old MicroScope ...  Continue Reading

• Four hundred new jobs is a drop in the ocean

  Some good news from BT, which is doubling the number of apprenticeships available to 400 after being overwhelmed with applicants earlier in the year.  Continue Reading

• Customers know their stuff, it's time to change the record

  Awareness of network performance among end user buyers is reaching new heights, with a survey carried out by Brocade revealing that the modern British worker wants instant access - or as near as damn it - to information, and won't settle for less.  Continue Reading

• Storage invasion puts networks at the heart of IT

  If there is anybody left out there still doubting that the network has become the beating heart of the business IT infrastructure, they need only take a walk among the stands at this year's IP Expo show at Earls Court, which has been invaded by ...  Continue Reading

• Can iPhones give you piles?

  We start the week with a scatological health scare truly worthy of a certain British newspaper; research conducted by phone comparison site Mobiles Please has concluded that mobile phones can indeed give you hemorrhoids.  Continue Reading

• Gartner's tablet stats make uncomfortable reading

  I think Gartner's latest analysis will make uncomfortable reading for advocates of tablet devices in the workplace.  Continue Reading

• Ah, Mr Bond. How nice of you to ... drop in

  If you're driving into the office and you see a classic Aston Martin on your tail, or a suave looking gent asking questions of the IT department, my advice would be to take cover.  Continue Reading

• Cutting in on the unified comms conversation

  There is no doubt now that end-users are adopting technology of their own accord, bringing tools such as smartphones and social networks into the workplace without recourse to their IT department and certainly without any hand-holding by the channel.  Continue Reading

• Make hay before the snow falls

  So, dear resellers, I beg you, not just as a pesky journalist but as a human being, like you, talk to your customers about their business continuity plans now.  Continue Reading

• Stop press, channel scheme exists!

  Names have been changed to protect the guilty... Somewhere in the Thames Valley, 05 October 2010 - In the first paragraph.  Continue Reading

• Crooks do porridge after $20m Cisco scam

  A cautionary tale on Network Noise for you this morning, proving that when you're up against the might of a leading tech firm, crime doesn't pay.  Continue Reading

• Avaya speaks out on Flare Experience

  Avaya is confident that its industry-first video collaboration experience is being launched at the right time and with the right end-user demand.  Continue Reading

• Come on, Leo, do the right thing

  Dear Leo, So, you're back in the game. Seven months after a vote of no confidence ended your brief reign at SAP? That strikes me as odd, but then the manner of Mark Hurd's departure was less than orthodox as well, I guess, and he's found work ...  Continue Reading

• Harness the power of online conversation

  It seems that more and more of us are taking to the Internet while we watch to discuss, lament and harangue TV shows.  Continue Reading

• Comms gadget-fest continues as RIM tablet touches down

  It's shaping up to be a busy couple of weeks on the comms gadget front, which is of course just how we like it.  Continue Reading

• Vendor reseller relationships still matter in the cloud

  The growth of cloud computing has made many wonder if vendors still need resellers. After all, why pay someone else to 'hand hold' a customer when the customer never actually unwraps, installs or even touches the technology directly?  Continue Reading

• Who's next on the network acquisition bandwagon?

  Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson is anticipating the current flurry of M&A activity will continue, and has stoked speculation that Juniper is looking out for a chance to splash the cash, it was reported today.  Continue Reading

• The battle of the tablets is about to begin

  In the world of enterprise mobility the key mobility and networking players are all drawing up their positions for battle, and what has until now, been a largely phony war will shortly become an all-out struggle for platform and market dominance.  Continue Reading

• Networkers can celebrate a bumper year

  The growth in cloud computing and the indispensability of the Internet in our personal and professional lives has made it a bumper year for networkers, according to the latest edition of the Sunday Times Tech Track 100,the annual rundown of the ...  Continue Reading

• Get online brand management right, or risk trouble

  I was a little surprised this morning to receive a call from a firm that I've been dealing with in a personal capacity, who I'd upset with a Tweet.  Continue Reading

• Avaya demonstrates a little Flare

  Avaya doesn't want you calling this a tablet, in fact, the official release yesterday made no mention of the word and at first it was hard to tell if they were talking about what everyone suspected they were talking about.  Continue Reading

• Focus on project management to beat network neglect

  In the first of an occasional series of guest blogs on Network Noise, Bob Dalton, managing director of Intact Integrated Services, responds to a recent MicroScope report on network management and the problems that neglecting this vital piece of the ...  Continue Reading

• The Virgin Media saga, the phantom firewall

  Good news to report on the broadband front this morning. We are now up and running after an exhaustive trawl of the Virgin Media customer service forums and a couple of tweets back and forth traced the source of the issue.  Continue Reading

• Where in the world is Erbistock?

  My knowledge of the geography of North Wales is sketchy, but it looks like BT's engineers might need a map, too.  Continue Reading

• The Virgin Media saga, the router strikes back!

  I'm pleased to report that Virgin Media's claims on speed are by and large pretty damn accurate, but I am by no means a happy camper.  Continue Reading

• Fears over lack of investment may be unfounded

  We're seeing a lot of research popping up at the minute into the problem of legacy networks and how failure to adapt to changing infrastructure needs is damaging innovation and investment in other parts of the IT sale.  Continue Reading

• The man from Mitel says goodbye

  Don Smith today announced his intention to step down from Mitel and retire, having overseen the firm's transition from a legacy digital PBX vendor to a bright prospect in the world of UC, mobility and networking software.  Continue Reading

• You can't read their poker face...

  Internet services outfit Griffin Internet is gearing up for its annual channel partner day and poker tournament, which this year will be held at Sandown Park in Surrey in early October.  Continue Reading

• It's time to stand up for honesty in broadband sales

  We have a right to demand and expect truthful advertising of broadband services. It's time to stand up for that right.  Continue Reading

• Guess who's fiddling the broadband statistics

  BT has today reported that fifteen million homes and SMEs are accessing broadband over its network, saying that from a base of 200,000 connections in 2002, it has now added an impressive 14.8 million connections in eight years, or 5,000 new ...  Continue Reading

• Cisco and Skype are made for each other

  I want you to imagine, if you will, the technology news cycle as something a little bit like the Large Hadron Collider, with beams not of protons, but of rumours and hearsay being constantly fired around it.  Continue Reading

• Adam and Jane? More like a damn pain

  I felt a sense of smug satisfaction on hearing that a particularly irksome installment of BT's increasingly tedious 'Adam and Jane' broadband commercial series had been banned by the ASA.  Continue Reading

• Turkey, Russia top Internet risk charts

  If you've a business trip to Turkey or Russia on the cards, then you might want to think about leaving your laptop at home, say the antivirus bods at Internet security outfit AVG, who have just released a new report detailing some of the most ...  Continue Reading

• Happy birthday, Brocade

  Brocade is cracking open the bubbly this week to celebrate the day, 15 years ago, when it first drew breath in a small storefront with a cardboard box serving as a conference table.  Continue Reading

• HP romps with Palm and Microsoft

  HP is apparently entertaining the possibility of a three-in-a-bed romp with both Palm's and Microsoft's developers.  Continue Reading

• The Virgin Media saga, part two

  Well, two days in and I'm starting to think this dog food might be out of date.  Continue Reading

• Google wants your unified comms business

  If you're selling unified comms and collaboration, it's time to accept Google is a competitor and up your game accordingly.  Continue Reading

• Time to eat my own dog food

  I once spoke to a particularly enthusiastic marketing guy at a wireless vendor who was very keen to stress that he was using his own technology in the office to demonstrate to resellers exactly why they should sell his product.  Continue Reading

• Bored campers log on to wi-fi

  Look, I can't even leave home to go get the Sunday papers without taking my phone with me, so what hope do any of us have for a week under canvas? You might as well give in  Continue Reading

• Next HP boss must signal networking commitment

  The news of Mark Hurd's resignation from the hotseat at Hewlett-Packard will continue to ripple through the industry this week, and is already causing concern among some network watchers.  Continue Reading

• Can you tell what it is yet? A journalist's lament

  It's a sad yet inevitable fact of life in this sort of game that a lot of the same old stories come around again and again.  Continue Reading

• Google Wave broke ahead of its time

  After a brief flurry of initial interest, Google has suspended development of its Wave networking service, which many will now argue was doomed from the start.  Continue Reading

• Android is coming of age

  Research conducted in the US by research outfit NPD Group has concluded that the Android smartphone operating system now holds a leading share of consumer sales.  Continue Reading

• Parts shortages show just how much Cisco dominates

  The parts shortage shows how despite the rhetoric of its competitors, the networking industry is completely dominated by Cisco.  Continue Reading

• It's a view to remember from the BT Tower

  Architecture education charity Open-City (formerly Open House) has persuaded BT to open up its iconic Tower to the public on the weekend of 18 and 19 September.  Continue Reading

• BlackBerry ban will make an international fool of Dubai

  The news that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is to ban certain functions on RIM's BlackBerry handset should be of grave concern to the industry.  Continue Reading

• 2e2 gets the movie-making bug

  I thought there was little that could top Comstor's attempt at movie-making history (and bear in mind I've seen Inception), but my attention was drawn today to infrastructure integrator 2e2, which has just released its first contribution to the ...  Continue Reading

• It's a truly networked world for Juniper and Cisco

  An interesting point, and a wry smile, has been raised over the purchase of mobile security solutions developer SMobile by Juniper Networks yesterday over at Network World's Cisco Subnet blog.  Continue Reading

• Barracuda serves a slice of web-security pizza

  Here at MicroScope we pride ourselves on being utterly incorruptible and, err, it looks like that longstanding tradition is set to continue.  Continue Reading

• Virgin comes out on top

  There is still a vast discrepancy between the broadband speeds we see advertised on TV and the reality, with Virgin Media really the only provider to come close to offering its advertised speeds.  Continue Reading

• Now is the time for conference calls

  In a conversation earlier this week with an industry source the conversation turned to using technology for call conferencing and the passion in the room went up a notch. "Why aren't more resellers talking about video and audio conferencing? This is...  Continue Reading

• Asian phone makers could repeat success of PC firms

  In recent years, previously unknown Far Eastern PC vendors, such as Acer and Lenovo, have carved out a prominent niche in the western hardware market, and are now beginning to challenge leaders such as Hewlett-Packard for regional market dominance.  Continue Reading

• Hollywood beckons for Comstor film-makers

  Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Gus Van Sant, Spike Lee. It's only a matter of time before we can add Clive Hailstone, sales director at Cisco distie Comstor, to the list of illustrious movie directors.  Continue Reading

• Smack my bus up; Daisy brings home musical souvenir

  Acquisitive Lancashire-based comms firm Daisy has made another addition to its growing portfolio in the form of a 59-year old Route master London bus.  Continue Reading

• UK business missing out on social media opportunities

  Reluctance among British businesses to follow the lead of the US is leading companies to miss out on social media-enabled interaction with customers and employees, according to a comparative global study on Web 2.0 media carried out by Siemens ...  Continue Reading

• I'll call you back, I'm in Mongolia

  I've always thought the term mobile worker to be something of a misnomer. Most of them, it seems to me, are actually sitting at a desk in a spare upstairs bedroom, or on a nice day, in the garden.  Continue Reading

• Farewell, Mr Combs

  ShoreTel CEO John Combs announced this morning that he is to step down from his role after 6 years in the hot seat.  Continue Reading

• A final blast of the vuvuzela

  As the World Cup and its bitter memories begin to fade, a bruised nation starts the healing process, and the opportunities for a swift football-related article diminish.  Continue Reading

• The idea of a networked nation is not original

  The idea of getting everyone of working age online is an admirable one and perhaps also a concept that has been talked about before?  Continue Reading

• Congratulations to the wireless whisky winners!

  At the end of May, the wireless market marked 25 years since the FCC first opened up the radio spectrum to allow unlicensed access for communications.  Continue Reading

• Beam me up, Chambers

  So we're now a scant five years behind the events portrayed in Back to the Future II, and neither the flying car nor the hover board are yet ubiquitous technology.  Continue Reading

• Cheerio for now!

  I'm bowing out for a few weeks of (very well-deserved) holiday so this will likely be the last post on Network Noise until early July.  Continue Reading

• Orange scores own goal with iPhone 4 plans

  Following the news last week that O2 is to can unlimited mobile data plans on the iPhone, Orange has revealed its pricing plans for the iPhone 4, reducing its fair use data limit to 750MB across its business and consumer price plans, with only the ...  Continue Reading