The Lippis Report

July 13th, 2010

By Cisco Systems

The Cisco® Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition integrates multivendor private branch exchanges into one network and centralizes applications. The Cisco Unified Border Element works with it to route traffic on secure cost-saving Session Initiation Protocol trunks. Together they help workers around the world achieve higher productivity through high-performance collaboration tools.

Find out how by downloading this white paper

July 1st, 2010

By Nick Lippis, the Lippis Report

A number of independent trends are driving a new age of massively scalable data centers. One of these trends include a new IT delivery model based upon cloud computing, where large hosting facilities provide a range of IT services to corporations and governments. Further, high performance computing (HPC) facilities built via server clusters on the order of thousands to tens of thousands of servers and more has ushered in new favorable economics, thanks to its use of x86 commodity hardware. The growth of public hosting and HPC facilities will only continue as efficient data center economics point to a fewer number of highly dense sites. It is this data center market segment, where the number of servers per facility is greater than 5,000, that we focus this white paper from a perspective of fabric, connecting servers and storage to internet/intranet via high performance Ethernet networking. For IT architects and designers of high-end data centers, this is the most important network design paper you will read this year.

Download this white paper now

June 14th, 2010

By Cisco Systems

This paper provides a brief introduction to common security threats on IPv6 campus access networks and will explain the value of using First Hop Security (FHS) technology in mitigating these threats. An overview of the operational principle of FHS is provided together with some examples on how to enable FHS on Catalyst® 6500, 4500, and 3750 Series Switches. The target audience for this paper are network architects and network operation engineers.

Find out about FHS by downloading this Cisco whitepaper.

May 31st, 2010

By Cisco Systems

Typically, data centers have been built over time, with servers added as they are needed. This process has resulted in server sprawl, increasing power and cooling costs, and created challenges in management and security. To meet their requirements, organizations are employing virtualization on a broad scale on servers centralized in the data center. However, server platform and virtualization address only one part of the problem for the global organization. Not only does application complexity put a burden on the server resources, but applications increase the burden on the WAN. With a widely distributed user base, organizations must address the challenge of WAN performance if they are to deliver applications to remote users with an acceptable user experience. To meet this challenge, Cisco provides a solution to host applications and deliver them over the WAN while helping ensure the highest levels of scale and performance, enabling organizations to achieve their business initiatives.
Find out how by downloading this Cisco whitepaper.

May 17th, 2010

By Butler Group

The Avaya Unified Communications portfolio brings together real-time and near-time communication mechanisms in a secure, intuitive, reliable environment, which enables employees to communicate more effectively using speech, IM, video, e-mail, voicemail, mobile, and portal. Butler Group particularly likes the industry-standard approach, which is crucial in this area, along with the scalability and robustness of the solution, enabling the solution to exploit the existing IT landscape, as well as integrate with existing desktop environments and enterprise applications. Unified Communications can benefit any size of company, with the offering scaling from 20 employees upwards. A key strength is the scalability and resilience of Avaya’s products, which make them particularly suitable for organizations that require enterprise-class solutions.

To learn more, download this paper from Butler Group.

May 17th, 2010

By Siemens Enterprise Communications

This White Paper provides a comprehensive overview of the Virtualization plans for the Siemens Enterprise Communications OpenScape UC Server 2010 and for OpenScape UC Suite. Virtualization takes yet another step in our evolution to a pure software architecture and to match current and emerging strategies in the IT industry.
Siemens Enterprise continues to pursue Open Solutions for our customers and is using Open Virtualization Format  (OVF) and Virtual-Appliance software-solution approach for platform-independent virtualization of all the products, and to deliver on our message of Open Communications. Siemens Enterprise continues to lead the evolution of real-time UC-based communications by delivering innovative and customer-centric solutions with measurable financial benefits.

Find out how by downloading this Siemens whitepaper.

May 3rd, 2010

This past Interop in Las Vegas was one of the best I have attended, since even before the economy took a noise dive in 2008. The tone and level of excitement of the industry’s growth potential was refreshingly up beat from the hundreds of IT and vendor executives I talked with. While the size of Interop is a small fraction of what it was in the late 1990s, (70k attendees with over 600 exhibitors to ~ 15K attendees with ~ 200 exhibitors) it still provides a pulse of the networking industry. In fact, Interop has come full circle, back to being a networking event even though it has added other topics. You have to give Dan Lynch credit for creating such a long lasting venue for our industry. Congratulations to Cisco, Arista Networks, HP/3Com, Mallonx for winning best of show in their respective categories and for Arista for winning Best of Interop. In this Lippis Report Research Note I provide the key industry themes that were evident at Interop this year.

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April 19th, 2010

During a podcast with Zeus Kerravala of the Yankee Group, we came to the conclusion that the unified communications market is in a funk and the only way out is for suppliers to adhere to industry standards that allow interoperability. To demonstrate this achievement, UC providers would be well advised to participate in industry wide interoperability testing. In this Lippis Report, we discuss the issues that are holding back UC and video conferencing adoption.

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March 9th, 2010

By Avaya

To succeed in a tough marketplace, small businesses must be accessible, without significant interruption, even in the most adverse situations. This kind of ongoing accessibility is an important aspect of business continuity — a critical success strategy that doesn’t just happen, but requires proactive planning. Although there are several aspects to a business continuity plan, a major component of any plan should be the SME’s communications capabilities, not just its equipment or data. This paper will explore how different kinds of interruptions can adversely affect an SME’s business continuity and illustrate how, through advanced features such as resiliency and mobility, Avaya’s IP Office can help SMEs overcome interruptions and maintain business continuity.

Find out how by downloading this paper here.

February 10th, 2010

By IDC

This IDC Flash examines Avaya’s January 19, 2010, announcement of the road map for integration of Nortel into the Avaya portfolio of products and services. Avaya’s customers, and more especially those from Nortel Enterprise Solutions, have been anxiously — and in some cases fearfully — awaiting Avaya’s integration plans of the Nortel assets it purchased. To customers’ delight, Avaya has quickly laid out a comprehensive investment protection plan for legacy Nortel customers that ensures six years of support following any end-of-sale product. Its road map is consistent and clearly defined for each of its four business units (Unified Communications [UC], Contact Center, SME, and Data) as well as its services organization. The swiftness of completing these tasks, while necessary, is commendable and demonstrates to the market that Avaya’s “Protect, Extend, Grow” strategy is not a bait and switch tactic. The three-pronged approach is open standards driven and strives to allow customers on any legacy equipment — Nortel or otherwise — to evolve at their own pace.

Download IDC’s take on the Avaya roadmaps here.