Paula Musich

New Tools Manage Web Sites

Network and Web site operators continue to struggle to figure out how to best design performance and availability management into Internet or e-commerce infrastructures. At the NetWorld+Interop show in Atlanta last week, a string of vendors, including F5 Networks Inc., Network Associates Inc.s Sniffer Technologies, Mercury Interactive Corp. and Compuware Corp., launched new or enhanced […]

CA Aims to Help Improve IT Governance

CA on Oct. 9 will make its biggest bid yet to help IT customers get more of their budgets under control when it introduces a major new release of its Clarity project and portfolio management software. Clarity 8, in development since before CA acquired the software with its Niku acquisition in 2005, includes four new […]

Nimsoft Snags Indicative to Take On Big Management Rivals

Nimsoft on April 8 will bring new business service management functions into its fold when it announces its plans to acquire Indicative Software. The privately held Nimsoft bills itself as a cheaper and simpler alternative to larger vendors’ offerings for monitoring the availability and performance of networks, servers, databases and applications. The “Big Four” vendors […]

Cisco Fills Out Convergent Data Center Switch Line

Cisco Systems at its Partner Summit on April 8 continued to flesh out its Data Center 3.0 vision by adding a second, fixed-configuration Nexus Series Layer 2 switch also aimed at consolidating multiple networking technologies in the data center. Just over two months after the late January launch of Cisco’s modular Nexus 7000 Series chassis […]

Polycom Raises Bar on IP Conferencing Phones

Polycom on April 8 will seek to spur a migration to new IP-based conferencing systems with new high definition voice phones that fully exploit IP for the first time. Polycom’s new Soundstation IP 6000 and Soundstation IP 7000 both offer breakthrough voice quality thanks to wideband audio quality and other techniques. “Making conference calls is […]

Microsoft Integrates Security, Systems Management Tools

Microsoft on April 8 announced that it expects to bring a new level of consistency and integration to its disparate security tools when it takes the wraps off its “Stirling” project. At the RSA Conference, Microsoft released the first-look public beta of its integrated security system, code-named Stirling, under its fledgling Forefront brand. “The challenges […]

Whaleback ‘Terminates’ VOIP Security Threats

Managed voice over IP service provider Whaleback Systems picked up the security drumbeat on April 7 with the addition of a new VOIP firewall to its service. Whaleback, which sits in between hosted VOIP service providers and IP PBX vendors with its on-premise managed IP Telephony service, added new voice-application-aware firewall technology and session border […]

IBM, Nortel Power Up VOIP Apps

Nortel and IBM on April 2 announced that they plan to extend their integrated suite of voice over IP and multimedia applications to IBM’s new Power System server platform. An updated version of Nortel’s Software Communications System, which integrates IP PBX and unified communications functions with IBM’s Lotus Sametime, Lotus Notes and Domino collaboration capabilities, […]

Exinda WAN Optimization Challenges Incumbents

Exinda Networks on April 2 will bring new pricing pressure to bear on larger competitors in the WAN optimization space with the launch of a redesigned version of its lower-priced appliances. Exinda’s 2800, 4800 and 6800 appliances provide a mix of WAN optimization, application acceleration and application visibility over WAN connections. The Version 5.0 firmware […]

Research Exposes Vendor-Specific VOIP Vulnerabilities

VOIPshield Systems on April 2 will seek to set itself apart among voice-over-IP security providers when it launches what officials claim is the first database of vulnerabilities specific to the IP PBXes of market leaders Cisco Systems, Avaya and Nortel Networks. “This is the first time a research lab will spell out what some of […]