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Steven Titch,
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Sharon J. Watson, Managing Editor
The Personal Information Technology Report
Archived issues
Service providers discover web services
In a short time, service providers worldwide have begun to realize that with Web services they can finally achieve the long-sought goal of voice and data integration without a substantial overhaul of the network or the need to foist cumbersome behavioral change upon customers.
Cogent Communications - Nothing but 'Net
By narrowing its market segment and concentrating on Ethernet over IP technology, Cogent Communications is trying to streamline its business model as a bandwidth pipeline provider.
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Network Security takes center stage
Corporate IT departments, along with the managed service providers and outsourcing companies they turn to, are under more pressure to demonstrate they can safeguard networks against intrusion and attack without degrading performance or making it difficult for e-commerce systems to work properly. At one time, it was enough to erect a firewall and go online. Today, quality security requires immediate adaptability to new threats and a response mechanism that detects and confronts an attack before any damage occurs.
Running in circles
In their race for local exchange customers, are the Baby
Bells, AT&T and WorldCom just running in circles while the market
turns to cable and wireless companies for broadband service? And, like
the Wonderland racers, are they just waiting for the FCC to declare
everyone a winner and start distributing prizes in the form of
protected franchises?
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Wireless marketing: Too much talk about voice
Spending millions of dollars marketing a commodity service -- wireless voice -- is a waste. To differentiate themselves and convince more consumers to go wireless, carriers must think applications -- and real ones, not ring tones.
Why
OS X could mean new growth for Apple
With a reworked operating system,
Apple is repositioning the Mac as a robust, user-friendly machine that
adds new, much-needed simplicity to personal computing, networking and
information technology. Its biggest problem is getting the word out to
users conditioned to believing that Windows is something we're stuck
with.
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Smart City: Puttin' on the Ritz
A company that made its name in providing telecommunications services to arenas and convention centers makes new inroads as a local exchange provider in Florida. It finds that lessons learned in delivering quality service to diverse groups of convention attendees are directly applicable to competing in residential broadband services.
The Russian wireless explosion
Although it isn't the most glamorous of markets, and there's hardly any talk of 3G yet, Russia is a hotbed of wireless growth. The last few years have seen the opening of new spectrum and vibrant growth, especially in the eastern part of the country.
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GGF
= Get in on the Ground Floor
Grid computing presents enormous
opportunities for operators of backbone networks. The top names in
computers and information technology are already on board. But only
three network service providers have taken part in grid initiatives.
What do they know that others don't?
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SBC's dangerous game
SBC claims UNE-P and other
regulatory policies are forcing it to lay off employees and downgrade
service quality. But its protests, like those of other Bell companies,
are increasingly being discounted by state regulators who demand it
take responsibility for failing to develop Internet, Web, DSL and other
broadband technologies.
Carpe Diem
This excerpt from the executive summary of TitchOnline.com's Carpe Diem report discusses the common qualities of companies finding are defining success in the current market environment and how they are coming together to form a new value chain in personal information technology.
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Get ready for a wireless revival
Wireless service providers are resolving
their 3G debt problems, finding new success with mobile data
applications and discovering a new group of software vendors whose
products can be used to build new services, not new networks. Will the
proverbial last mile be wireless? There's reason to be hopeful about
the near future.
Can Lucent be saved?
Lucent Technologies, which not too long ago stood at the vanguard of
network technology companies, finds itself steeped in losses, its stock
price holding at $1 and no vision for its future. Is all lost? Or might
someone find value in this fallen giant?
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Web
Services and Why They Matter
Connectivity is getting easier and faster, but applications functionality across network platforms remains a problem. Web services let machines harness the power of the Internet to deliver sophisticated applications across networks and platforms of all types. With ONE and .NET respectively, Sun and Microsoft have defined the software infrastructure of the next generation network. However, the differences in their approaches show how they hope to leverage their respective strengths in highly scalable network software.
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The New Intelligent Network
As they prepare to support a new IP multicasting application, BT
Openworld and its vendor Telspec offer an illustration of how the
intelligent network can support management and mediation of services
between IP and TDM environments and why VoIP is the last thing service providers should fear.
A
step toward easier password management
A low-cost pocket-sized storage
device helps bridge the need for effective password management,
addressing problems organizations have when asking employees to
maintain multiple passcodes.
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First person shooters and other uses for the grid
Massively multiplayer online gaming is set to be the first major
commercial application for grid networking. It also needs a robust
service provider network to reach its fullest potential. Developers of
gaming platforms see a profitable role for service providers and are
urging them to use their broadband and wireless networks to get a
sizable piece of the action.
Sprint's voice strategy speaks volumes
Sprint and Sprint PCS hope to lead in the integration of voice into
data applications, specifically in enterprise networks. Beyond plans to
explore the potential of VoIP and voice interfaces, Sprint is also
defining a new value chain in which it is the critical link between
systems integrators and applications developers, using its extensive
network to ensure applications functionality across multiple transport
platforms.
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Between WAP and Wi-Fi
3G may be here faster than anyone thought by way of a technology no one expected. Wireless carriers have wisely dropped their initial antagonism toward public 802.11 (Wi-Fi) networks and now appear ready to integrate it into their own, far more functional networks. The result would be a class of service providers who provide the value equation of combined broadband, mobility, voice and data.
Getting
on board with Wi-Fi security
Solving the security problems Wi-Fi
creates for corporate LANs, especially VPNs, provides a golden
opportunity for service providers to become part of an important value
chain. As Wi-Fi popularity grows, software-based security solutions are
already in the pipeline. Channel partnerships with these software
vendors could give service providers more to market than an
undifferentiated Wi-Fi product and a more inclusive wireless VPN
solution.
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A Time for Choice:
Confronting
the industry transition that plagues today's service providers
This special White Paper starts by identifying the root
cause of the telecommunications industry recession and the market stalemate it has
created among the major service providers. It then discusses the two
business models that will be necessary to provide the diverse
services that the modern network is capable of delivering. Today's industry
players can still choose their path, but it will take both internal and
external effort. Either way, the new models mean consolidation and contraction. The
difference is whether it will come as a slow death fighting over a diminishing
voice market or through an opportunity to restructure and be part of a new
value chain that delivers what the market truly needs today.
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Resistance
is Futile: The Threat and Opportunity
of Wi-Fi
The sheer economics of Wi-Fi as a
broadband access technology will finally force incumbents to think
through their future as service providers. Wi-Fi presents a serious
threat to wireline and wireless business, but it is a threat that can
be countered - and converted to an opportunity -- if incumbents cede
the last mile to these new players, while at the same time making them
a part of a larger value chain.
A Gulp of SIP
The Session Initiation Protocol is
a key building block as IP-based networks, services and applications
mature. Here's the role it will play and why it is rapidly becoming an
important driver to the administration of personal information
technology services.
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AirClic:
The Future of Web-based Business
A wireless start-up makes personal
information technology management as easy as a swipe of a scanner,
demonstrating that successful wireless data applications may come down
to giving users a simple portable interface to integrated networks,
personal databases and real-time information processing.
Metro Ethernet is
coming of age
It will only be a matter of time
before the surviving CLECs reassess and adjust their business plans to
move away from pure connectivity to provisioning end-to-end services.
While they regroup, the ILECs have an opportunity to use the latest
integrated metro optical access technology to take a stronger position
in enterprise networking.
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A Template for a Next-Generation Phone Company
A Canadian independent uses a next-generation OSS system to do the previously unthinkable: give users a direct interface into its customer database. This aggressive approach to personal information technology services is possible through an innovative use of new technology that gets service out faster while matching service profiles to individuals, not street addresses - a key component of moving away from network-centric thinking to solution-oriented personal IT services.
The
Phantom Menace
Instead of celebrating a possible
proposal of tax credits for broadband deployment, ILECs should expect
the debate over the proposal to expose their fondest myths about the
cost, speed and demand for broadband access.
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Systems
Integration, Round 2
Offering personal information
technology integration services to small businesses and consumer
households is an excellent opportunity for ILECs to thrive in the 21st
century. But to succeed in this emerging market, they must let go of
network-centric thinking and put together network-independent service
packages-and soon, before new competitors lock up the market.
Gemplex and the new service provider model
Gemplex, a global provider of
end-to-end IP VPNs, shows that owning network facilities may not be the
advantage it once was.
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The accidental broadband players
Cable television companies appear
to be as surprised as anyone at their emergence, almost by default, as
leaders in U.S. broadband deployment. Can they leverage this
superiority and become all-in-one suppliers of personal information
technology to consumers?
Narad Networks: Gig-E meets HFC
Hybrid fiber-coax solution opens
enterprise market to MSOs.
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A New Foot in the Door
ILECs may be watching their pennies, but key business customers still want more bandwidth and increased control over network services. Smaller vendors with quick-response solutions articulate strong and immediate value propositions for ILECs.
Convedia: The common thread
Media
servers, which provide a common point of signaling and processing for
different applications, can help carriers introduce new services more
quickly while lowering the cost of deployment.
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©2002-2004 Expert Editorial Inc.
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