unified communications - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Cisco VoIP phones part of security weakness demo

  Security firm HackLabs is expected to demonstrate at AusCERT 2011 how hackers perform VoIP attacks and identify weaknesses in Cisco and other manufacturers VoIP phones.

• Unified communications - Part 3

  Last year Microsoft and Telstra agreed to work together on developing a UCaaS offering based on Microsoft OCS and supported by the carrier’s vast fixed and mobile broadband networks. Neither company would reveal exactly how many subscribers they have signed up, except to say that they have doubled the number of UCaaS services sold between June and December last year. Microsoft will soon announce an upgraded version of the service which supports Lync 2010.

• Unified communications - Part 2

  One of the biggest barriers to UC in the enterprise he feels is the existence of expensive legacy equipment.

• Vidyo's mobile videoconferencing app showcased on iPad 2

  You're staring at your iPad 2 screen, at what looks like four pictures of four coworkers quartering the display. And then one of them waves at you. And you wave back. And the videoconference starts.

• Unified communications - Part 1

  Research has shown consistently that the major bugbear of IT managers about unified communications (UC) is perceived cost.

• Microsoft buys Skype for $US8.5 billion

  Microsoft has agreed to buy Skype for $8.5 billion, the companies announced Tuesday.

• Q&A: RIM's take on social networking

  Although Research in Motion made its name by delivering secure corporate email, it has had to move quickly to adapt to the ever-shifting world of social networking.

• Internet creaks under tidal wave of bin Laden death news

  President Obama's late-night announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden by Navy SEALs triggered a massive amount of real-time comments, searches, social networking and video streaming. The traffic explosion bogged down news pages and for a while even crashed CNN's mobile news site.

• Melbourne Football Club moves to UC system

  The IT manager of Melbourne Football Club had a big task ahead of him when he assumed the role a year and a half ago, as the phone system relied on double A batteries and the voicemail setup was ineffective to the point that staff members used their mobile phones for work calls instead.

• 10 tips to turn Android into a business phone

  Android has shot past BlackBerry to become the third most popular smartphone operating system in the world behind Symbian and the iPhone , according to StatCounter.

• 5 things you need to know about videoconferencing

  Your office is now optional. A recent study from Infonetics Research projects that enterprises will spend $5 billion on videoconferencing and telepresence by 2015. To accommodate the need for instant connectivity and information sharing at the office, CIOs need to coordinate IT investments with physical space. Vendors like Polycom and Steelcase are teaming up to integrate audio, video and file sharing using multiple ports and display screens at office meeting tables.

• Study: Bias, rivalries can threaten UC deployments

  Contention and biases among technology and business factions can derail the deployment of unified communications systems that are efficient, cost-effective and simple enough to use so they actually get adopted by end users, according to a Forrester Research study.

• First look: Microsoft Office 365

  Microsoft might not be the first name you think of when considering enterprise cloud offerings. But then again, the company does handle 10 billion Hotmail and Windows Live messages a day and has a 15-year history of deploying and managing massive data centers.

• Cisco VoIP network ousted for ShoreTel in Wisconsin school district

  A combination of costs savings and features plus a need to refresh the network infrastructure in general drove a Wisconsin school district to abandon its VoIP and data network for one driven by ShoreTel and HP.

• Who needs a broker? Twitter comment analysis predicts great investments

  Forget about insider trading. Use Twitter.