The Lippis Report Podcast

Leveraging Contact Centers To Increase Corporate Value During Down Markets

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Itâs a fact that the global economy has slowed prompting contact center managers and IT leaders to explore strategies for maintaining efficiency and meeting revenue targets with fewer resources and constrained budgets. But within a contact center environment, there are many opportunities, sometime hidden, to actually maximize efficiency and still control and possibly reduce costs. With an expert, holistic examination of operations and identification of areas of improvement, management can be proactive in identifying and implementing strategies that not only help their businesses navigate through a potential economic downturn, but accomplish business results that remain beneficial after the economy recovers. Eddie Jenkins, Vice President, Customer Service Practice for the Professional Services business at Avaya joins me to discuss leveraging contact centers for strategic corporate value, which means increasing revenues, corporate productivity and gaining market share during down markets. This is a very timely podcast chocked full of great ideas to be successful in a down market.

Corporate Communication Strategies During Down Markets

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 06:00:00 GMT

With the slow down in the global economy we ask the question; how is this business cycle impacting IT and communications? During down markets cost reduction initiatives are obviously important, but so too is service creation as corporations respond and react to new market realities. One major difference in this down cycle from others is the fact that many firms are in the middle of a communications infrastructure upgrade cycle. Traditional TDM PBXs are reaching the end of their economic and reliability lifecycles. Most enterprises are either in the middle of or have migration plans to move to IP telephony platforms, implementation of Unified Communication applications, and the upgrading of Call Centers to Contact Centers. Given the state of this communications technology migration, IT organizations will find it even more difficult to manage the inevitable downturn in spending and tightening of resources to accomplish their missions. Ajay Kapoor, Director of Consulting and Systems Integration for Enterprise Communications for Avaya is my guest as we offer several actions that IT leaders can take immediately that help IT increase efficiency while reducing costs within 12 months. This is a great IT management podcast that business and IT leaders will find valuable and timely.

Mid Market Commercial Firms Are You PCI Compliant?

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 06:00:00 GMT

According to industry sources âThe average corporation under budgets PCI (Payment Card Industry Compliance) by 40%. Any company, mom and pop shops to fortune 50 corporation that processes credit card information need to be PCI compliant. Penalties for non-compliance are severe and are enforced by the banks such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express and others through fees plus increases in transaction cost. For the mid market, a doubling of the transaction fee charge will have a much larger impact on its cost to productivity. Terry Quinn-Andry, Compliance Solutions Manager for Cisco Systems joins me to discuss PCI requirements for mid market corporation. Weâll explain PCI benefits, exposure of non-compliance and how to avoid penalties. If youâre responsible for PCI compliance, then you need to listen to this podcast

New Data Center Network Design Options

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 9 Jun 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Data centers are the largest single IT investment CIOs and business leaders appropriate. Data center networking is leading edge by default and where high-speed links and new approaches are first deployed. While data centers are consolidating and becoming increasingly virtualized, networking requirements are fundamentally changing. High performance end-of-row and top-of-rack network switches are uniquely positioned to increase network throughput and reduce operational spend. I talk with Doug Murray VP/GM of Extreme Networks about new data center design options thanks to its Summit X650 high end Ethernet switch. If youâre designing a data center network, then you need to listen to this podcast

Network Security 2.0: Layered Security or Systems Approach?

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:00:00 GMT

The conventional wisdom in IT threat mitigation is to build a layered defense with security technology such as firewalls, IPS, network access control, anti-x client software, alarm aggregation and event correlation, etc. Conventional wisdom is starting to shift toward a systems approach to protecting IT assets. The layered approach was built upon deploying best of breed products, which were best of breed only until other products emerged and relegated them to either standalone appliances and/or loosely coupled silos such as the linking between IPS and firewalls. The systems approach builds upon IT security investment by wrapping it with System Management for policy, reputation and identity that transcending endpoints, networks, content and application security. Fred Kost, Ciscoâs Director Security Marketing is my guest as we explain the new IT security model and provide IT leaders with guidance on building a more secure IT infrastructure. To understand the systems approach to IT security then listens to this podcast:

Extreme Networks Launches a Bliz of New Products Plus A Widget Ecosystem

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 26 May 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Scott Lucas, Senior Director of Solutions Marketing for Extreme Networks is my guest as we discuss Extreme Networks major product portfolio expansion and the launch of its widget central. Extreme launched its new Summit X350 fixed configuration switch for network edge applications plus 802.11n access points and controllers. A new version of ExtremeXOS with enhanced automation capabilities to help IT leaders reduce operational spend is now available too. Extending the usefulness of its flagship BlackDiamond 8800, it launched the C Series of core switch interface and management blades for increased scalability and density of 1GbE and 10GbE ports plus PoE support. Extreme has created an ecosystem around the development of application Widgets by exposing features and providing software developers access to its ExtremeXOS. This ecosystem is called Widget Central. I talk with Scott about the new design options and widgets available to network architects afforded by this launch.

Network Total Cost Of Ownership Balance Best Practices

Mon, 19 May 2008 06:00:00 GMT

TCO or total cost of ownership is always a difficult metric to measure. So many business and IT leaders focus on purchase price or product acquisition without giving full attention to operational and facilities cost, which dominate network TCO. Conventional wisdom is that for LAN and WLAN switching acquisition cost represents between 20 to 25% of TCO with operational and facilities spend represents between 75 to 80% over a 3-year period. So the question is what can IT leaders do to optimize TCO and bring balance to network acquisition and operations. Scott Lucas, Senior Director of Solutions Marketing for Extreme Networks is my guest as we discuss best practices to balance TCO.

Adena Health System Gains Strategic Value Though IP Video

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Marcus Bost, Chief Information Officer, Adena Health System is my guest as we discuss how Adena is using IP Video to provide neonatal care to its patients in southern Ohio linked to the largest US Neonatology center at Nationwide Childrenâs Hospital 70 miles away. Adena pediatricians are now able to collaborate with Nationwide Childrenâs neonatology experts in full high definition real time IP video to assess and diagnose infants, review CT scans, X-rays and consult with Adena pediatricians on treatment plans. Mr. Bost discusses the above project from both a human condition improvement and economic perspective. We end the talk with a discussion on network readiness and future IP video plans at Adena Health System. If youâre developing an IP Video plan then you need to listen to this podcast.

Application and Content Delivery Networks Converge Into New Industry Offering

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Many IT leaders have build private application delivery networks while outsourcing content delivery network needs to improve the performance of video, music downloads, and rich media. These two separate networks are now converging into one physical but logically separate networks with unique attributes for the traffic, which flows through them. Two experts in the field from Internap; Phil Kaplan Chief Strategy Officer and Tim Sullivan Chief Technology Officer join me to discuss how these two network clouds are beginning to drift together and what this will mean to IT operations and business. Internapâs approach to service delivery is software based and relies upon backbone router vendors such as Foundry Networkâs NetIron XMR and its ServerIron to deliver the services it offers. If you have built an application delivery network and outsource content delivery to a service provider then you need to listen to this podcast.

Is Your Network Ready for Video?

nick@lippis.com — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:00:00 GMT

IP video is being massively consumed in the consumer and corporate markets. In 2007 IP video exceeded the total sum of 2000 internet traffic which was nearly 25 Petabytes/month while IDC estimates that corporate video traffic will more then double in the next two years with greater then half of all corporations currently using some form of IP video. IP video is either deployed from the bottom up or top down. Click-to-conference plus enterprise based Web 2.0 social networking and collaboration initiatives are deployed from the bottom up while video surveillance, digital signage, TelePresence, and one-to-many for training and executive-to-employee briefings broadcast are top down. In short, business and IT leaders will not have total control over IP video deployments and are advised to prepare your networks for IP video. Kumar Srikantan Senior Director of Ciscoâs Campus Switching Systems Technology Group joins me to discuss best practices to guide IT leaders to prepare their networks in support of IP video services. If your corporation is using IP video, then you need to listen to this podcast.

A New Era of WAN Design Emerges Thanks To Ciscos New Aggregation Services Router

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:00:00 GMT

With every IT paradigm transition comes not only increased bandwidth requirements, but an increased reliance on network services such as security, remote VPN access, QoS, and application classification to support a wide variety of corporate applications. Also new WAN services such as Metro Ethernet and 3G wireless are redefining WAN design. Between these demanding new applications and WAN options, lies the aggregation router, which has been primarily a narrowband device connecting sites via Frame Relay and MPLS, and thus has presented a bottleneck to new real-time collaboration technologies. This is all about to change, because a new era of WAN design has emerged. New router platforms are rare as their life-cycle is usually greater then a decade. So when one is announced itâs the beginning of a long industry cycle and when itâs Cisco whoâs making the announcement you know that itâs an industry-changing event. Cisco has announced its Aggregation Services Router, or ASR, 1000 Series, which is focused on the high-end enterprise WAN and service provider edges. The ASR value proposition is rooted in a reduction of appliance hardware, lower WAN cost through aggregation and lower operational spend thanks to management break-throughs. Marie Hattar, Senior Director of Network Systems and Security solutions marketing at Cisco Systems is my guest as we dive into the ASR and new WAN design options it enables. To get the cost out and performance into your WAN, listen to this podcast

Kent School District Deploys New Wiring Closet Switches And Gets New IT Services While Keeping Operational Cost Constant

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:00:00 GMT

The Kent School District is the fourth largest school district in the state of Washington comprised of four high schools, six middle schools, 28 elementary schools and two academies with nearly 27,000 students and 3200 employees. Kentâs IT staff were challenged to support a doubling of networked computers, new IT service requirements including virtualized desktops, smart boards, video surveillance and unified communications all while keeping their operational budget constant. Kent under went a district-wide network refresh, where the IT team sought to replace the current edge network that included products from ProCurve Networking by HP and 3Com for Cisco. I talk with Thuan Nguyen, Director of IT at Kent School District about his options, decisions and results. Itâs a fascinating case of what can be done in IT today.

Is There Enough Power in PoE Ports To Run 802.11n Access Points?

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 7 Apr 2008 06:00:00 GMT

802.11n offers impressive improvements in rate, range, and price/ performance thanks to significantly higher processing and power consumption than older WLAN Access Points (APs). A key question in the decision to deploy 802.11n APs is whether there is enough power delivered over 802.3af Power over Ethernet (PoE) switch ports or compliant power injectors to run these APs as 802.11nâs increased bandwidth and processing may require more then the 12.95 Watts provided in 802.3af switch ports. I interview Craig Mathias, a Principal at Farpoint Group and author of the recent report â802.11n Access Points and Power over Ethernet: Key Considerationsâ? and Luc Roy VP of Enterprise Mobility at Siemens Enterprise Communications which is shipping an 802.11n AP that operates with 802.3af PoE. Craig tested the Siemens AP3620 802.11n APs and shares its results. If youâre planning on deploying 802.11n then you need to listen to this podcast.

Cisco Redefines Intelligence in Wiring Closet Switches - A Must For UC, Integrated Security and Mobility

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Wiring closet switches are undergoing a renaissance of sorts. Once thought of as simple network connectivity devices, they are now central to network security, mobility, PoE distribution, IP phone and UC connection devices etc. Wiring closet switches are pervasive as they connect all end points into an enterprise network distributing network services throughout a corporation. TCO of these switches breakdown as 20/80% capital/operational spend resulting in switch design, network management plus reliability and serviceability features possessing a demonstrable effect toward lowering TCO. I talk with Ish Limkakeng Senior Director of Marketing for the Desktop Switching unit at Cisco Systems about wiring closet switches and the new basis of competition and buying criteria that has emerged.

Retail Store 2.0: Communications and IT Address Retailers Business Concerns

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Retail business executives are measured on customer experience, revenue and productivity. Retail IT executives are expected to lower TCO while being integral to addressing the most pressing retail issues; that being customer brand loyalty and creating an environment which delivers an excellent experience. The communications industry is driving new value in retail stores with what I call Retail Store 2.0 (RS 2.0). RS 2.0 addresses retail executive concerns including creating brand loyalty, delivering good to excellent service, lowing TCO, simplifying communications, and delivering improved visibility, security and control of communications. Bruce Mazza, Director of Branch Solutions and Leslie Levy, Senior Manager of Retail Solutions both from Avaya discuss value creation in retail and multi-site environments through Intelligent Store Architecture. If youâre seeking to deliver a better retail store experience and drive revenue up then you have to listen to this podcast.

Intelligent Branch Office Communication Strategies

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Customers demand personalized and relevant brand interaction at every touch point be it on the web, call centers, online and particularly in-branch. The brand experience must flow consistently across these channels. Smart multi-channel retailers â especially those with traditional branch marketers like department stores, home improvement, retail banking services - even branch-delivered healthcare are realizing the value creation possible by investing in communications innovation of their core brick and mortar investments. This alignment of the customer experience across channels ensures consistently good customer interaction, increased productivity and ultimately - brand loyalty and increased revenues. Avayaâs Craig Wilson, Principle Business Communications consultant and Bruce Mazza, Intelligent Branch Solutions Manager join me to discuss discuss value creation within Branch Offices though intelligent communication solutions.

The Year of the Branch Office: Interview with Inbar Lasser-Raab Senior Dir Marketing Cisco Enterprise Routing/switching

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:00:00 GMT

This is the year of the Branch Office. Business and IT leaders are re-distributing corporate assets and allocating significant investments in data center and branch office assets. There is strong business, economic, demographic and technical driversâ shaping this trend. The IT industry has responded by offering many new network design options to business and IT leaders who seek to add value to their branch offices. In this podcast I discuss this global trend with Inbar Lasser-Raab Senior Director of Marketing for Enterprise Routing and Switching at Cisco as we dive into the details of Ciscoâs latest branch office innovations. If adding value to your branch offices is a corporate initiative, then you need to listen to this podcast

Siemens Challenges Microsoft OCS with new UC Server

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 4 Mar 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Siemens Communications made the largest Unified Communications (UC) announcement of the year by launching OpenScape UC Server and a suite of UC applications. This is a huge software investment from Siemens taking one of, if not the, largest steps of any in the industry toward a software and services concern. Siemens is offering innovative UC software based upon open communications architecture while rooted in enterprise class voice communications capabilities. I discuss this announcement, industry dynamics, Siemensâ relationships with Microsoft, IBM et al with Siemensâ Mark Straton, SVP Global Marketing and Interpreet Singh, Director of Emerging Technologies. If youâre planning a UC project, then you have to listen to this podcast

Intelligent Branch, A New Value Creation Model Emerges

nick@lippis.com — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Many business thought leaders in financial services and retail are exploring how best to leverage their branch assets to up and cross sell customers while improving the branch office experience. These thought leaders are collectively thinking in terms of Intelligent Branch solutons, which from a real estate and staffing point of view is a smaller footprint but rich in IT. Bruce Mazza, Director of Branch Solutions and Tony Kleckner Practice Leader for Financial Services both of Avaya join me to discuss what I call Branch 2.0 and how it addresses and solves the main concerns of retail and banking executives.

Increasing Application Performance with Flow Management

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Kim Niederman, CEO at Anagran, a developer of intelligent flow-based products for next generation networks joins the Lippis Report podcast. Network traffic such as P2P, IP video and VoIP traffic is increasing exponentially creating congestion and poor application performance. Flow management is a congestion management/avoidance scheme that groupsâ different traffic classes by flows to assure application performance. In this podcast we discuss Anagran and its value proposition.

Juniper Disappoints while Cisco Surprises and Delights

nick@lippis.com — Sun, 3 Feb 2008 07:00:00 GMT

On Jan 28th Cisco announced its Nexus data center high performance switch while the day after Juniper announced its long awaited arrival into the LAN switching market with its EX-Series of Ethernet switches internally called Hurricane. Zeus Kerravala, of The Yankee Group and I analyze Juniperâs LAN switches and Ciscoâs new Nexus 7000 data center switch. Itâs a 20 minute podcast, but its worth the time. Enjoy Nick

Green Data Center Networking Strategies

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Energy used by the nationâs servers and data centers is about 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2006, costing about $4.5 billion. This consumption is up by a factor of 2 since the year 2000 and is projected to double again by 2011 unless efficiencies are implemented. Bill Ryan, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Foundry Networks joins me to discuss best practices in Green Data Center Networking that can result in network power consumption efficiencies in the 80-to-90% range. If youâre looking to build a Green data center, then you need to listen to this podcast

The most significant 2008 Unified Communication Events

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 07:00:00 GMT

2007 was the year that enterprise communication vendors restructured with Avaya going private, Shortel going public, Microsoft and Nortel joining forces, Siemens Communications being spun off from Siemens AG, while InterTel and Mitel merged. 2008 is the year of Unified Communications (UC). I asked Grace Tiscareno-Sato, Senior Global Marketing Manager for UC at Siemens Communications to join the program to provide a view of whatâs ahead from the enterprise communication supplier perspective. Grace lays out her top 8 UC events to watch for in 2008.

Download the "Measuring the Pain: What is Fragmented Communication Costing Your Enterprise?" white paper discussed in this podcast here

Ruckus Wireless Enters New Mid Tier Enterprise WLAN Market

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Selina Lo the CEO of Ruckus Wireless joins me to discuss the emerging mid-tier enterprise WLAN market that Ruckus Wireless finds itself in the envious position of being alone within. Ruckus Wireless is the expert on RF and antennas for high performance and stable WLANs. Radio communications are subject to unpredictable behavior due to environmental dependencies and various flavors of interference. Yet itâs possible to effectively mitigate many of these impairments through continuous intelligent selection of system operating parameters and a sufficiently agile antenna system. WLAN reliability has plagued enterprise WLAN deployments since their inception. Ruckus has invested into engineering solutions to these problems developed over the past three years supplying service providers with over 1 million WLAN solutions for IPTV services around the world. Their intellectual property and mid-tier market requirements could not be more aligned. If you are in the hospitality, retail, education or just a mid-tier enterprise company that needs a stable and easy to deploy WLAN solution, then you need to listen to this podcast.

Cisco Revamps Managed Services by Defining MS 3.0

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 7 Jan 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Jeff Kaplan, Managing Director of THINKstrategies, and founder of the Managed Service ShowplaceÂ www.thinkmsp.com and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) ShowplaceÂ www.thinksaas.com joins the Lippis Report podcast to discuss Managed Services. The general trend is that Managed Service providers are adding IP communication into their service portfolio to differentiate and grow. We discuss MS 3.0 and in particular Ciscoâs managed services 3.0 initiative.

Can Software as a Service Tie Together Ciscos Communication Applications?

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 07:00:00 GMT

Jeff Kaplan, Managing Director of THINKstrategies, and founder of the Managed Service ShowplaceÂ www.thinkmsp.com and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) ShowplaceÂ www.thinksaas.com, joins me to discuss how communications is being added to Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings and in particular how Cisco may use SaaS as part of its unified communications strategy. Cisco offers unified communications, WebEx and arguably the best video conferencing systems on the market, that being its Telepresence system. Will Cisco integrate these services or let customers pick and choose which communication services they want? Jeff and I explore what impact SaaS may have on Ciscoâs unified software strategy.

Lippis and Kerravala Make Industry Predictions for 2008 and 2012

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 07:00:00 GMT

Zeus Kerravala, SVP, of The Yankee Group joins me to discuss important 2007 industry developments, what 2008 will bring and what the industry may look like 2012. Zeus and I compare notes and debate the future of our industry. It longer then our typical podcast, 27 minutes, so enjoy and relax while you listen to it in the car, on a bike, walking the dog or during a coffee break. Itâs a great way to start off your year. Happy Holidays Everyone!!

The Five Requirements Of Application Delivery Switches?

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 3 Dec 2007 07:00:00 GMT

The new trend in application delivery switches is an expansion beyond load balancing toward specific application support of firms like Oracle, BEA, SAP, Microsoft et al. With enterprise spending on application acceleration equipment expected to reach $3.7 billion by the end of 2008, we identify the five issues IT leaders need to consider before they procure and deploy these switches in their data centers and server farms. I discuss this with Gary Hemminger, Director of Product Marketing for Application Delivery Products at Foundry Networks. No matter where you are on the buying cycle, you need to listen to this podcast before you act.

Next Generation 802.11n Enterprise WLANs Perspectives

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Bill Kish, Chief Technical Officer of Ruckus Wireless, talks with Nick Lippis about enterprise Wireless LANs and the new 802.11n standard. With the increase in bandwidth, spectrum and power of 802.11n many IT leaders are now starting to think through how to incorporate 802.11n into their network architecture. Backbone link speeds, access point and WLAN controller placement, security, power over Ethernet, wireless bandwidth and spectrum power are all factors which plug into the calculus of next generation WLAN deployments. Bill Kish is uniquely qualified to talk on 802.11n as he is an active participant on IEEE project 802.11, the organization creating the standard. He is also a co-founder of Ruckus Wireless, and their CTO. Bill offers a vision for how the industry will progress that I buy into. Hereâs a hint, think of 802.11n as a platform not just a product.

Has Protecting Networks Reached The Point of Diminished Returns?

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 07:00:00 GMT

Charles Kolodgy Research Director, Security Products for IDC and Jim Doherty Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President for CipherOptics join the Lippis Report Podcast to discuss network defenses and threat mitigation strategies that are effective in protecting IT assets. Charles Kolodgy believes that âprotecting the networkâ? has reached a point of diminished returns. He believes that the biggest vulnerability that exists in most of todayâs networks is âprotecting dataâ?. Charles acknowledges that there are two aspects of data protection: âdata at restâ? and âdata in motionâ?. While many companies are currently engaged in projects that provide protection for âdata at restâ?, most are neglecting the âdata in motionâ? aspect of protection altogether. I talk with Charles and Jim about this and all agree that its time pervasively encrypt data in motion. Find out why by listening to this podcast

Cisco Redefines Modular Switching; Launches Virtual Switching

nick@lippis.com — Fri, 2 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT

Ben Goldman, Director, Network Systems and Tere Bracco, Senior Manager, Network Systems both from Cisco Systems join the Lippis Report Podcast to discuss its Campus Communications Fabric 2 announcement. This is one of the most significant network infrastructure announcements from Cisco in recent years which launches two significant new products. The first is the Catalyst 6500 Virtual Switching System 1440, bringing simplified operations and improved network availability and utilization to the Catalyst 6500 through network system virtualization. The second is a technology extension of the Catalyst 4500, an extended line of modular switches called the Catalyst 4500-E Series, delivering greater performance and service flexibility. No company knows network infrastructure like Cisco Systems or listens to customers like Cisco does. While Cisco competitors try to leap frog technology to gain an edge, Cisco delivers solutions that are based upon customer demand and feedback and extend the investment they already made. The result is innovation on top of next generation technology. If you have a dual backbone network or are in the market for modular switching, you have to listen to this podcast.

The First American Corporation and Network Virtualization

nick@lippis.com — Fri, 2 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT

Evan Jafa, Chief Technical Officer of The First American Corporation is a thought leader and visionary. He joins the Lippis Report podcast to talk about virtualization and the value it brings to First Americanâs operations. Network virtualization represents a new IT paradigm, which challenges existing assumptions and IT deployment models. Evan shares his thoughts, experiences and network virtualization strategies for First American. With a long-term goal of a dynamic and flexible First American IT infrastructure, which ramps applications up and down based upon demand, Evan discusses pragmatic steps, which are bringing First American toward this goal. If you have a network virtualization project in progress or are just planning one, then you have to listen to this podcast.

Siemens Delivers SMB Unified Communications Solution

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Richard Wood, Global Vice President of Portfolio Marketing, and Shayna Kaneshiro, Global Product Marketing Manager, both from Siemens Communications, join the Lippis Report Podcast to discuss Siemensâ unified communication solution for Small-to-Medium sized Businesses or SMB called HiPath OpenOffice ME. The OpenOffice ME appliance integrates messaging, mobility, presence plus voice communications and conferencing into one box, simplifying the deployment of these rich services to a market with little IT support allowing SMBs to be more productive and responsive to their customers. I was impressed with OpenOffice MEâs integration with outlook and its visual voicemail and Iâm sure you will too.

Cisco Equips Branch Offices With Common Level of Networking as Headquarters

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Inbar Lasser-Raab Director of Marketing for Network Systems at Cisco joins me to discuss the recently announced Empowered Branch 3. The Wall Street Journal noted correctly that Cisco is providing branch offices with the same level of networking services as headquarter offices with its large Empowered Branch 3 announcement. Cisco introduced new Catalyst 2960 switches with LAN Lite IOS plus the new Cisco 1861 Integrated Services Router or ISR for small branch offices and a flurry of additions to its flagship 2800, and 3800 ISRs. With the integration of IPS/NAC security, application intelligence, unified communications, and mobility into its branch office routers; netops is simplified while design choices are expanded. Inbar and I discuss the new network design options available to network architects afforded by the latest empowered branch announcement.

Microsoft Delivers OCS, But Where is ICA?

nick@lippis.com — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:01:00 GMT

Zeus Kerravala, of The Yankee Group and I discuss the Oct 16 Microsoft unified communications event in San Francisco where Office Communication Server and client as well as a host of other editions to existing products were announced. We debate the impact upon the communications and IT industry due to the event and ponder the question of what happen to the Mircosoft-Nortel ICA relationship. For sure the event was an ecosystem announcement and one that put the industry on notice that there is a new way to do communications. In short we are at the early stages of a systemic and worldwide shift in communications that promises simplicity in the use of multiple modalities of communications through software and in particular presence and identify. We define the new battle lines. You have to listen to this.

Microsoftâs Office Communications Server and Siemens

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 06:00:00 GMT

On October 16, 2007 Bill Gates will make his last product announcement with Microsoftâs Office Communications Server (OCS). This event will change the communications industry accelerating its shift toward software economics and professional services. Siemens has been a long term Microsoft partner specifically around its OpenScape software. Siemens is the largest enterprise Microsoft customer in the world too granting it a unique position with the software giant. Siemens Communications has focused its investments on open communications software and professional services to address new market needs. It has strong unified communication relationships with IBM Lotus Sametime and Microsoftâs OCS. Mark Straton, Senior Vice President of Product Marketing at Siemens Communications talks with me about OCS and the Siemens-Microsoft relationship. Youâll be just as surprised as I was to hear what Mark has to say.

Risk Management Techniques to Increase Network Availability

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 8 Oct 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Risk Management techniques to increase network availability has become an important topic as Risk Management Executives have become engaged in network design. This thoughtful analysis is available in both white paper and podcast media. The white paper, can be found here http://lippisreport.com/2007/09/24/risk-management-techniques-to-increase-network-availability. The white paper abstract follows. The white paper provides risk management techniques to increase network availability and reduce network outages. The paper explores the tools and techniques available to business and IT leaders who seek to increase network availability through management, device feature exploitation and network design. The mixed network vendor approach to diversity and redundancy is explored and brought into question. The paper takes the position that a common network based upon mixed network supplier platforms paradoxically reduces network availability by increasing complexity, which increases Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) and operational cost. The paper further identifies that a mixed network vendor environment restricts design options, increases security vulnerabilities and limits the ability to optimize application performance. A single network platform supplier is recommended for mission critical operations as this approach reduces complexity, increases design options, and simplifies trouble isolation, hastening resolution while optimizing operational resources.

Microsoft Readies for OSC Oct 16th Launch: Itâs A Water Shed Event

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 2 Oct 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Zeus Kerravala, SVP of The Yankee Group Enterprise Research joins Nick Lippis to discuss Microsofts pending Oct 16th announcement of Office Communications Server or OCS. This will be an event that will change the communications industry accelerating its shift to an industry driven by software economics and professional services. Zeus and I pontificate on the impact OCS will have on the communications industry. Our apologies that the quality of the recording is below our standards, but the content is outstanding. Enjoy

Unified Communications: Planning, Designing, and Making UC Harmonize with your IT Operations Model

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 22:00:00 GMT

Ajay Kapoor, Director Enterprise Communications in the Consulting and Systems Integration group for Avaya joins the Lippis Report podcast to discuss unified communications operations. Along with UC vendor selection are elements of integration and on-going solution management. Selecting a communications partner who has proven expertise and capabilities to take a holistic view of your business needs and work along side you to ensure optimal solution success will result in a competitive advantage. The key is to not just design a perfect symphony but to make sure that all of the pieces in the orchestra are playing seamlessly together and harmonizing to meet the required result.

Forecast: Juniper Creates A Hurricane With New Enterprise LAN Products

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 4 Sep 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Zeus Kerravala, SVP of The Yankee Groupâs Enterprise Research joins the Lippis Report podcast to discuss Juniper Networks and their enterprise initiative project; code named Hurricane. Juniper approaches the enterprise market tactically, entering market niches where they can add value. Not a bad approach, but a collection of niches does not sum up to be a serious enterprise provider. It seems that Juniper recognizes that it needs a complete enterprise product portfolio and seeks to jump in at the high end of the market by providing high density Gigabit and 10 Gigabit LAN products scalable to 100 Gigabit when standardized, based upon a new set of custom designed silicon, code named Hurricane. Zeus and I tell you want we know about Hurricane and provide a forecast as to its strength and the potential damage it will do to competitors. In short is Hurricane a category 5 storm or when it hits the market will it degrade to a tropical depression.

Unifying Wired and Wireless Networks

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 06:00:00 GMT

With wireless networking being more secure then wired, IT leaders have been able to deliver solutions to meet a global mobility need; and there are multiple mobility need drivers. For starters business process knows no time zones, thanks to corporations seeking competitive advantage by creating global virtual teams and personalizing customer experiences. A new generation of workers demand mobility solutions in their work environment and personal lives. Unifying wired and wireless networks also delivers business continuity attributes. And as on-line communications reduces face-to-face meetings, travel and real estate requirements, unified networks contributes to a lower carbon foot print and a Green friendly work environment. For CIOs and CFOs unified networking is smart business too as it enables cost reduction through network and service integration. Chris Kozup Senior Manager Mobility Solutions Marketing for Cisco Systems is my guest as we discuss strategies for unifying wired and wireless networking. Enjoy, Nick

Seamless Mobile Collaboration vs Fixed Mobile Conversion

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 06:00:00 GMT

There is an industry trend to integrate unified networks and unified communications to improve reach and business responsiveness. Industry insiders describe the extending of IP telephony features to mobile end points such as cellphones, PDAs and smart phones with the term fixed mobile convergence. The level of integration associated with fixed mobile convergence is usually limited to providing the user a single v-mail box and ringing either their mobile or desktop phone when an inbound call is placed. The linking of unified networking and unified communications offers a richer set of business experiences such as collaboration, calendar synching, data application access and much more. This experience is called Seamless Mobile Collaboration. Lynn Lucas, Director of Mobility Solutions for Cisco Systems joins me to discuss how mobility plus unified networks and communications are evolving to deliver business value. Enjoy, Nick

Custom Cisco Based Unified Communications Applications

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 6 Aug 2007 06:00:00 GMT

I invited Jim Cairns, VP of Marketing and Business Development for Spanlink Communications to talk about unified communications in a Cisco IP telephony environment. Spanlink was just designated by Cisco with their Master Unified Communications Specialization which recognizes an elite group of Cisco channel partners who have the most in-depth technology skills built on a track record of customer success in selling, deploying and supporting sophisticated Cisco Unified Communication solutions. Clearly Spanlink sees a lot of Cisco UC deployments and since we don't hear much about custom or complete business solutions built on Cisco UC, I wanted to find out what Spanlink customers are building. You will be surprised by what you hear, like I was. Enjoy Nick

How To Stop Cyber Crime From Ruining Your Company Reputation

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 06:00:00 GMT

According to the International Crime Complaint Center or IC3 the number of cyber crime complaints has skyrocketed from a little over 6,000 in 2000 to over 1 million as of June of 2007 with a total dollar loss from these crimes, which are usually fraud, estimated at $647 million. Many of the complaints involve reports of identity theft, such as loss of personal identifying data, unauthorized use of credit cards or bank accounts, etc. The threat for corporations is that cyber crime not only steels its intellectual property and customer data, but its reputation and trust relationship with customers which have a much large material impact then the initial crime. I talk with Jim Doherty Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President for CipherOptics about strategies to defend against cyber crime. This issue is too important not to listen to. Enjoy, Nick

A New Business Model for IP Telephony Drives Consolidation and Attrition

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 01:45:00 GMT

Zeus Kerravala, Yankee Group SVP and I review the enterprise IP telephony market and discuss the latest industry changes including the ShoreTel IPO, Inter-Tel & Mitel merger, Avaya going private, Nortels implosion, Siemens reasserting, Microsofts overhang and Ciscos strong position. It is becoming very clear that the enterprise IP telephony business model is in play as it shifts to a software and services industry forcing consolidation and attrition. We get to the heart of the matter and provide the insight you expect from a Lippis Report podcast. We squeezed a little time in for Ciscoâs major Data Center 3.0 announcement too. The audio quality is not as good as we normally deliver, but the content is great!! Enjoy.

Securing Unified Communications

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Unified Communications or (UC) deployment is well underway. With the IP telephony, telecommunications and application industries focused on taking their share of the emerging $35B to $40B annual UC market it is inevitable that UC will soon be a fact of corporate life. So the question is: are you ready? Is your infrastructure secure enough to support UC? What specific vulnerabilities need to be mitigated within a UC infrastructure? Is NAC and NAP enough or do you need more? To answer these questions I am joined by Scott Lucas Senior director of solutions marketing of Extreme Networks, Shrikant Latkar Director of Enterprise Architecture at Juniper Networks and Kamal Anand VP Marketing and Corporate Strategy of Meru Networks. It is a jam packed podcast that will help you keep UC flowing. Enjoy, Nick

Lippis and Kerravala on Avaya Being A Private Company

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 5 Jun 2007 20:36:00 GMT

Zeus Kerravala of the Yankee Group joins me to discuss Avayas announcement to enter into a definitive merger agreement with Silver Lake and TPG Capital for approximately $8.2 billion. Avayas acquisition by a private equity company is the largest in the enterprise networking and communications space. What will it mean to customers, partners, employees and shareholders? Also how is the industry changing now that Avaya will no longer be a public company? Get two of the top industry analyst view on the topic by listening to this Lippis Report Podcast.

Nick Lippis Delivers BU College of Engineering Commencement Speech

nick@lippis.com — Sun, 20 May 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Nick Lippis, President of Lippis Enterprises, delivers the alumni commencement speech to the Boston University College of Engineering 2007 graduating class on May 20th. Mr. Lippis predicts that engineering resources and talents are shifting from enhancing the human experience to improving the human condition. As engineers invest their careers in biotechnology, nanotechnology, green energy sources and terrorist defense this generation of engineers are presented with an unprecedented opportunity to improve the human condition by extending healthy life spans in a clean environment while in the process changing the world.

Will The Microsoft/Nortel ICA Survive the Summer?

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 14 May 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Zeus Kerravala, Yankee Group SVP and I look around the industry and compare notes. We express concerns over the lack of progress that Microsoft/Nortel ICA has made. We touch on Cisco, Avaya, Siemens, ProCurve, Foundry and Force 10. WhoÃïïs doing well and whoÃïïs falling apart. Listen in to find out.

Communications Enabled Business Processes: The Next Change Agent

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 7 May 2007 06:00:00 GMT

David Butler, Director of Business Solutions and Partners in Emerging Technologies for Avaya and Julien Courbe, Managing Director of Financial Services Technology for BearingPoint join the Lippis Report podcast to discuss the emerging communications enabled business processes or CEBP market. CEBP promises to deliver a new kind of agile and competitive organization that can respond to business events quickly, satisfy customers more deeply and in the process create competitive barriers of entry. But how will CEBP be brought to market? Is CEBP customized for every corporation or will there be packaged or partially pre-defined and integrated solutions?

A Unified Approach to Enterprise Mobility

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Lynn Lucas, Director of Mobility Solutions for Cisco Systems joins the Lippis Report podcast to discuss a strategy to unify enterprise mobility. Wireless LAN architecture choices have shifted from thick to thin, to integrated vs overlay and now from a unified approach to wireless LANs to a unified approach to enterprise mobility. A discussion of mobility usually stirs up a range of topics including cell phones, PDAs, G3, VoWLAN, WLANs, RFIDs, cellphone-unified Communications links etc. Mobility is primarily about the experience of gaining access to corporate applications and services anywhere, which transcends all of these technologies. But we need a way to think about how all these technologies come together. We need a Mobility architecture for Enterprise Networks. Listen to this podcast and gain a unified approach to enterprise mobility.

NAC Launch From ProCurve Networking by HP

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Wenceslao Lada, VP & Americas GM and Andre Kindness, both from ProCurve Networking by HP join the Lippis Report podcast to announce major product and organizational additions to their ProActive Defense strategy. ProActive defense claims to deliver a trusted network infrastructure that is immune to threats, controllable for appropriate use and able to protect data and integrity for users. ProCurve with their number two position in enterprise networking will change the NAC market with this launch. I give my take during the interview. Listen in as the internal network security market just changed.

NAC Launch From ProCurve Networking by HP: Part Two

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Wenceslao Lada, VP & Americas GM and Andre Kindness, both from ProCurve Networking by HP join the Lippis Report podcast to announce major product and organizational additions to their ProActive Defense strategy. ProActive defense claims to deliver a trusted network infrastructure that is immune to threats, controllable for appropriate use and able to protect data and integrity for users. This podcast dives into the technical aspects of the ProCurve announcement. We address NAC, NAP, supplicants and more. Listen in as the internal network security market just changed.

Winning Brach Office Network Strategies

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Inbar Lasser-Raab Cisco's Director of Marketing for Enterprise Routing joins the Lippis Report podcast to discuss strategies to extend your networked business platform to branch offices. The economy has forced businesses to be closer to customers, prompting leaders to shift resources into branch offices. Branch office employees demand the same level of IT services as headquarter offices. Branch offices are spread out over large geographic distances driving up wide area network and operational cost; challenging IT solutions with low bandwidth and spotty support. But there are winning strategies that eliminate these traditional trade-offs. Hear about them by downloading this podcast.

The New Role of IPS & NBAD for Internal NAC-based Security

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 06:00:00 GMT

IPS, SIMs and NBAD devices will evolve into a post-NAC monitoring function. Their days as single function devices are over. NAC is an architecture and approach to internal thread defense and not a fancy way to authenticate a user and their end point. NAC will subsume IPS, SIM and NBAD functionality into an overall IT security architecture. I explain my thinking in this Lippis Report podcast.

Lippis and Kerravala Cisco's Webex Purchase & VoiceCon

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Zeus Kerravala, SVP of Yankee Group's Enterprise Research and Consulting and I provide another layer of analysis to the Networked Business Platform. We discuss the changed role of networking within IT and provide solid examples of why itÃïïs the network thatÃïïs the business platform and not an OS or piece of software. We discuss CiscoÃïïs acquisition of WebEx, Five Across and Utah Street Networks and their significance. We voice our disappointment with VoiceCon too. The folks defining the conference are too rooted in legacy telecommunications and donÃïït get the new era the industry has entered. One indicator was that the buzz on the exhibit floor and conference content were disconnected. Either CMP should shake up the VoiceCon staff or the industry needs a new venue. Enjoy itÃïïs a good one.

The Chief Communications Officerâs Time Has Come

nick@lippis.com — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:23:00 GMT

Weâve received a lot of e-mail request that the Lippis Report newsletter analysis, the part that I write be available as a podcast. So weâll try it with Lippis Report Issue 78: The Chief Communications Officer and please give us your feedback on the lippis.com site. I wrote this piece because Iâm convinced that the there will be a need for a new position within IT executive management to deal with all the changes that are occurring in networks and communications. Iâve been writing about the network as a business platform which means that networking is evolving from a connectivity service to a service of services which is callable from a WebServices based programming language. Also Communications is undergoing a revolutionary change with unified communications and comm.-enablement. All of this change means that IT executive management needs to focus on it to extract the most value for their corporation. Without any future ado, here is Lippis Report Issue 78: The Chief Communications Officer

Contact Centers Get Virtualized

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 6 Mar 2007 07:00:00 GMT

Zack Taylor, Avaya Vice President of Global Strategic Solutions, joins the Lippis Report Podcast to discuss how corporations can lower the cost of raising the customer experience through virtualized contact centers. Contact centers are being virtualized to expand an agents pool of knowledge workers that can service customers and quickly resolve issues thus improving the overall customer experience with the firm. How does an organization implement a virtualized contact center? What are the impacts of standards such as SIP, Web Services & SOA on customer service? How can a virtualized contact center enable enterprises to reach beyond the traditional contact center environment to bring more business assets and value into supporting customers? In short how does a corporation create a customer facing organization to deliver competitive advantage through improved customer experience? Zack and I discuss these issues and opportunities, site several customer examples who have deployed this model and explore how Avayas IP contact center enable enterprises to differentiate themselves from competitors and enable them to provide an improved customer experience. Enjoy, Nick

Managing Communication Applications

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 07:00:00 GMT

Denzil Samuels, VP & GM of Global Managed Services for Avaya joins the Lippis Report podcast to discuss managed communication applications. As contact centers move toward IP and unified communications plus communications-enabled business applications start to be implemented, many firms are seeking approaches to mitigate risk and manage total cost of ownership. Denzil and I discuss the expertise, tools, and knowledge to consult, design, build and manage a converged environment in a way that will deliver a competitive advantage for enterprises. We end the discussion by introducing AvayaÃïïs services value chain approach. If you are experiencing gaps in the required skills to manage a converged network, then listen up. Enjoy Nick

New Design Principals For Campus Networking

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 07:00:00 GMT

IÃïïm joined by Kumar Srikantan Senior Director of CiscoÃïïs Internet Switching Business Unit to discuss systemic IT changes, which are driving new design principals for campus networking. IT departments are required to support real-time multimedia services, multi-directional traffic, seamless wired and wireless connectivity, virtualized resources, automated management etc. In this podcast Kumar and I discuss how these IT trends have forced campus networking to evolve beyond a connectivity service to a strategic business platform by delivering network services. One key attribute of new campus network design is the ability of the network to detect specific applications and alter its configuration to deliver the best performance and experience to users. Now thatÃïïs strategic. You need to listen to this podcast. Enjoy Nick.

Cisco Propels Networking to Business Platform Level

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 07:00:00 GMT

Marie Hattar, Ciscos Senior Director, Network Systems Marketing joins the Lippis Report Podcast to explore issues of network architecture as the blue print and framework for the new networked business platform. The increased stature and value of networking within corporate IT is discussed as well as its attributes and business value. Lippis and Hattar propose that networking is the new business platform and provide guidance to IT executives on how best to leverage their networking investment for corporate advantage. Enjoy, Nick

Microsoft/Nortel ICA CEO Event: A lot of sizzle but no steak

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 6 Feb 2007 07:00:00 GMT

Zeus Kerravala, SVP of The Yankee Groupâs Enterprise Research joins Nick Lippis to discuss the Microsoft/Nortel ICA CEO event, RSA, VoiceCon and Interop. Zeus and I talk about the major industry events coming up and what they may and may not bring. Enjoy Nick

McHugh On ProCurves Adaptive Network Vision

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 07:00:00 GMT

John McHugh, VP and GM of ProCurve Networking by HP joins the Lippis Report podcast to discuss the network business platform and ProCurves Adaptive Network Vision. Adaptive Networking is the ProCurve industry commitment to add value to users, applications and organizations through its networking products. In this podcast John and I discuss the value delivered though Adaptive Networking and ProCurves investments are targeted toward making networking address the rapid change of business. Enjoy, Nick

The Networked Business Platform

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 07:00:00 GMT

Zeus Kerravala, SVP of The Yankee Groupâs Enterprise Research joins Nick Lippis to discuss and define the network as the new business platform. Networking is evolving well beyond its initial role as a connectivity service as location, unified communications, network access control, network virtualization, mobility, application fluency etc are embedded into the network fabric and are âcallableâ? entities to application developers. This increased value in networking that can be molded and shaped by IT developers to achieve corporate goals is the genesis of the new business platform. Zeus and I define and discuss the importance of this new role for networking within IT and the boardroom.

Southern Company Test SIP Phones From Siemens

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 9 Jan 2007 07:00:00 GMT

Arnold Solomon, Information Technologies Architect for the Southern Company joins the Lippis Report podcast to discuss its SIP phones based IP telephony deployment. The Southern Company is the largest utility company in the Southeast US and among the top 3 in the US. They have more than 85 locations served by HiPath 4000s. The Southern Co corporate HQ, which opened in downtown Atlanta in Oct 2005, features a 4000 v2 serving 600 optiPoint 420 Advanced phone sets. All users, including corporate officers, are using IP phones. They have a large deployment of SIP terminal adapters serving electric substations in GA, all off two 4000 v3s. Also installed are more than 100 Hicom 300s, which along with the 4000s serve more than 90% of all Southern Co desktops. They just introduced SIP phones in to this environment and you will want to hear what Arnold has to say about the deployment. Enjoy, Nick

Get Ready for Open Source IP Telephony

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 2 Jan 2007 07:00:00 GMT

I am joined by Arnold Solomon, Information Technologies Architect for the Southern Company to explore the interest in open source IP telephony. There is a growing interest in the opening up of IP telephony architecture through the open source approach. Arnold attended and spoke at Astricon this year and he shares his views and opinions on open source IP telephony and how Southern Company is using it. There are lots of new companies such as Star2Star, Trixbox, Fonality, Asterisk and we talk about them all. Enjoy Nick

Data Encryption is Going to be Everywhere

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 07:00:00 GMT

Protecting data in "motion" has become top of mind for most IT executives as they look to close network security vulnerabilities and protect communications. Being able to meet regulatory compliance requirements is also driving encryption sales. Encryption has come a long way as users would pay the encryption penalty of delaying traffic as data passed through encryption devices. But thanks to faster ASCIS this penalty has been all but eliminated. Ron Willis, CEO of CipherOptics joins the program to discuss the encryption market. Enjoy, Nick

SIP Phones From Siemens

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT

Al Baker, US Vice President Product and Service Management and Martin Northend, Director of Portfolio Marketing for Small and Medium enterprise, both from Siemens Communications joined me on the Lippis Report to discuss SIP phones. Siemens just launched its OpenStage SIP phones which interoperate with BroadSoft and Cilantro Softswitches. These SIP phones allow Service Providers to offer hosted IP services based upon their existing softswitch investments to the small to medium sized business market. The phones are sleek with i-pod like control, mobile phone directory services, large screen size and XML development environment. You can download the Siemens presentation here. This is the first SIP phone offering that is not linked to an equipment supplier's SIP proxy allowing a degree of freedom we have not seen in the industry thus far. Enjoy, Nick

Lippis and Kerravala Define Unified Communications Value

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 4 Dec 2006 07:00:00 GMT

Nick Lippis, of the Lippis Report and Zeus Kerravala, Senior Vice President of The Yankee GroupÃÂÃÂÂÃÂÂs Enterprise Research join the Lippis Report podcast to discuss the state of Unified Communications. This term has received a renaissance with many companies using it to describe their approach to IP telephony applications. Kerravala and Lippis define unified communications, discuss the problems it solves and it associated benefits to both end user and corporate productivity.

Jorge Blanco on Avaya's Unified Communications

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 07:00:00 GMT

Jorge Blanco, Avaya'ÃÂÃÂÂÃÂÂs Vice President of Solutions & Software Portfolio Management joined me on the Lippis Report podcast to discuss Avaya's Unified Communications (UC) portfolio. Many companies are using the term Unified Communication to describe different things. Some companies use UC to describe the integration of a desktop launch point for communications. Some use UC to describe communications enabled business process. Some use UC to describe both. In this podcast we talk to the man at Avaya in charge of it all and get the scoop on how Avaya defines the term and what's included in their Unified Communications offering. This is one of our best podcast with a fresh off the cuff discussion on UC. So listen up.

Industry Roundtable with Zeus Kerravala on Networking Futures

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 07:00:00 GMT

Where is networking heading over the next three to five years? Zeus Kerravala, SVP Enterprise Research at the Yankee Group joins me for an industry roundtable discussion on the direction our industry is heading. Is Mooreâs Law about to collide with Metcalfe's Law bringing new combinations of companies and restructuring the industry? Will the industry continue to be dominated by one company or will we see a major roll-up occur. Will computing and networking firms combine to tightly link networks and application delivery? We provide you a framework for how the industry may progress over the next three to five years. Enjoy, Nick

Unified Communications at Pembina Trails

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 7 Nov 2006 07:00:00 GMT

Don Reece the Director of Information Technology at Pembina Trails, a Public School Division in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada joins the Lippis Report podcast to discuss his newly installed unified communications implementation. Pembina Trails has an enrollment of approximately 14,000. They have a network of dark fiber backbone between sites running at a gigabit, Microsoft Active Directory and Exchange, Dell Ethernet Switches and a very old voice system. It was time to upgrade the voice system, so they did it with Objectworldâs Unified Communications Server and saved over $200K while offering a state-of-the-art IP telephony system. Don goes into all the details. Itâs a great listen. Enjoy Nick.

Lippis Keynotes Wall Street Technology Association Conference on Hot Technologies

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 07:00:00 GMT

I was invited to deliver the keynote and moderate the Wall Street Technology Associations (WSTA) Hot Technologies conference in early October. I spoke on network security, IP telephony and hosted IP services offerings and provided an assessment on what's hot and what's not. You can download my presentation and listen to the keynote here. Enjoy, Nick

WAN Optimization Bridges IT and Corporate Initiatives

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 06:00:00 GMT

WAN optimization vendor Ipanema Technologies (yes you can pronounce Ipanema, just think of the song the Girl from Ipanema) joins me to discuss business network optimization. Ipanemas technology is integrated into many managed service providers offerings delivering guarantee performance so service level agreements are met. Vargha Moayed joins the Lippis Report podcast to discuss how WAN optimization impacts application performance and corporate productivity. For todays far flug corporate operations, WAN optimization is a must to assure guaranteed application performance. Enjoy, Nick

The IPO Market Is Back for Networking Companies

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 06:00:00 GMT

Zeus Kerravala of the Yankee Group joins me to discuss RiverbedÃÂÃÂÂÃÂÂs successful IPO, the rumors that Juniper is up for sale, the dismal performance of Interop in NY and the future of conferences in our industry. Riverbed is valued at 3 to 4 times that of Packeteer, Force 10 and Mitel are scheduled to IP in early ÃÂÃÂÂÃÂÂ07 is the IPO market back for networking companies? You bet, listen in to find out which networking companies will have a successful IPO in ÃÂÃÂÂÃÂÂ07, who may buy Juniper and how the IT competitive landscape is changing.

Containing Security Incidents Before they Wreak Havoc

nick@lippis.com — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 06:00:00 GMT

Brendan Hannigan, Chief Operating Officer of Q1 Labs joins the podcast to discuss the state of the network security industry. Access control, compliance, internal data theft and integrating security data from point products are security projects being funded by most enterprises. Brendan and I review these projects and put forward a network security strategy for rapidly containing security incidents thanks to analytics which can process tens of thousands of alarms per second while searching for anomalous behavior, delivering remediation options to security ops. If youÃïïre looking to bring order and greater control to your security ops by integrating management and monitoring of multiple point security products, then listen in and learn.

Lessons Learned From One of the Largest VoIP System Integrators: SPS

Mon, 2 Oct 2006 21:58:00 GMT

In this fourth and final special edition âLessons Learnedâ? podcast, Mr. John Poole, President and CEO, and Mr. Mike Taylor, CTO, both of Strategic Products and Services, discuss their experience, both pro and con, about deploying VoIP networks for 1000s of companies. As one of the largest system integrators in the VoIP space John and Mike have seen it all and they offer up a wealth of lessons learned for any company at any life cycle point of a Mike Taylorconverged network. Issues such as WAN provisioning, PoE budget planning, the top five issues that negatively impact voice service quality and more are discussed. The first three podcasts in this series are available in the Lippis Report Download Library. This is a must listen podcast for corporations serious about implementing VoIP. Special thanks to Viola Networks for sponsoring the âLessons Learnedâ? series. Enjoy, Nick

Lessons Learned From the Largest Business VoIP Service Provider: Covad

nick@lippis.com — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 06:00:00 GMT

In this part three special edition ÃïÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂLessons LearnedÃïÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ podcast, Dr. Ron Marquardt, Director Broadband Access Technologies at Covad discusses their experience, both pros and cons, about deploying a nationwide VoIP network. As the largest VoIP service provider for business, Covad had many challenges to overcome which many of their competitors are now just starting to experience. Dr. Marquardt discusses how Covad took a life cycle approach to their VoIP deployment and are now offer three distinct and unique VoIP services. The first two podcast to this series are available in the Lippis Report Download Library. This is a must listen podcast for corporation series about implementing service provider VoIP. Special thanks to Viola Networks for sponsoring the ÃïÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂLessons LearnedÃïÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ series. Enjoy, Nick

Increasing Networked Application Performance

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 06:00:00 GMT

To deliver high performance applications and increase user productivity, IT and network management groups would like to identify the source of application performance problems in real time. But to be truly effective, the identification of problems needs to be in terms all parties can understand and act upon. A view of all major applications flowing across a network being discovered in real time which multiple groups can use to collaborate and troubleshoot performance degradation issues is discussed with Scott Safe and Dave Trowbridge both of Network Physics. Network PhysicsÃÂÃÂÂÃÂÂ recently released NetSensory 6.0 and its Business Reporter delivers on the above. Listen and learn how.

Part Two: IP Telephony Industry Not Ready Yet says CDMs CIO and Systems/Networks Manager

nick@lippis.com — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 06:00:00 GMT

In this Part Two special edition âLessons Learnedâ? podcast, Peter Palmisano, CIO and Jerry Weiner, Manager of Systems and Networks both of Camp Dresser & McKee continue to discuss their experience, both pros and cons, about deploying a multi-national converged network. This is, by far, one of the best podcasts we have recorded, and is full of useful advice and insights from two leading IT executives. They will tell you what to look out for and what works. The huge questions raised are: Is the IP telephony industry ready to support connected remote offices, a fully converged network, disaster plans and more? You will hear it from executives that are living with it right now. The first part of this interview is available in the Lippis Report Download Library. This is a must listen podcast. Special thanks to Viola Networks for sponsoring the â?Lessons Learnedâ? series. Enjoy, Nick