Features

Judging by the amount of publicity it is sending out, Meru Networks is either the 800-pound gorilla in the education-focused wireless mesh industry, or trying to give the impression that it is. The company certainly has made significant inroads into the educational market, with numerous new client announcements in recent weeks.

The company says that more than 70 educational institutions have deployed its wireless LAN system throughout their campuses, including 42 universities and colleges, and 28 K-12 school districts. Meru’s WLAN system combines Meru controllers, access points and the four-radio Meru radio switch.

At universities, wireless is increasingly the primary means of communication for students, administrators and faculty. K-12 school districts are now following suit and adopting next-generation wireless-enabled IT infrastructure strategies.

“Although other WLAN vendors have touted deployments in the education sector, this is the first time we’ve seen such a significant number of K-12 districts, universities and colleges moving to an all-wireless environment,” says Richard Webb, directing analyst, wireless broadband and mobile for Infonetics Research. “With deployments such as the Philadelphia School District’s School of the Future, educational institutions now have a model to follow–one that demonstrates the productivity and ROI benefits that can be achieved with this kind of wireless infrastructure.”

The School District of Philadelphia, servicing more than 210,000 students across 278 schools, is a partnership between the district and Microsoft that seeks to transform education through technology. The primary goal of the School of the Future project is to infuse technology into every aspect of the educational environment.

“A robust wireless infrastructure is at the heart of our School of the Future initiative,” says Bob Westall, executive director for information technology, School District of Philadelphia. “The benefits of wireless for mobility, flexibility and cost savings were a given. The Meru WLAN system afforded additional, unique benefits, including its ability to handle high-density environments, such as auditoriums, libraries, cafeterias and classrooms, where wireless users will congregate and want to simultaneously access the network. We were also impressed with Meru’s QoS capabilities.”

Among the K-12 institutions that have adopted Meru technology over the past 12 months is Mona Shores School District in Muskegon, Mich. Mona Shores has deployed Meru WLANs across its entire district, serving approximately 4,300 students, 225 teachers and 550 employees.

According to Lane White, the district’s director of technology, “Meru’s single-channel approach simplified deployment and management of our wireless network. With this system, we are saving time and money from the administrative perspective, as well as saving teachers and students valuable time in the classroom.”

 

Short Takes VoIP on campus City College of San Francisco (CCSF) has deployed an advanced VoIP networking solution using Alcatel’s OmniPCX Enterprise communications server. “Alcatel’s VoIP technology has enabled us to see measurable monthly cost savings and deliver enhanced communication services to our staff and faculty,” says Tim Ryan, network manager at CCSF. Foot in the door Foot Locker, a leading retailer of athletic footwear and apparel, has signed a global networking contract with AT&T that extends and expands a long-term relationship. AT&T will provide an IP frame relay network integrating Foot Locker’s corporate facilities and more than 4,000 stores in 20 countries in North America, Europe and Australia. “This solution enables us to provide our customers with speed, accuracy and simplicity at the checkout counter,” says William Johnson, director of telecommunications for Foot Locker.

EVENTS Gartner 25th annual Data Center Conference, Nov. 29-Dec. 1, 2006, Las Vegas, focuses on the big four data center concerns, which include business continuity and disaster recovery, virtualization directions and technologies, server and storage consolidation trends, and how to run an effective 24/7 operation. http://gartner.com/us/datacenter FINSEC, Dec. 4-5, New York, provides training on how to prevent data leakage and create a secure environment that deserves the trust and confidence of an organization’s leaders and customers. www.misti.com

Big Blue is rumbling

IBM is making one of the biggest and most important bets in its history, with a new strategy to gain market share in the $626-billion IT services market. In an effort to take people-based processes and turn them into standardized, asset-based technology and consulting products, Big Blue has introduced what it calls “service products”–services that can be purchased, implemented and run in the same way as a client would access computer hardware or software.

The move, according to IBM, is unprecedented in the one-off, customized world of IT services, where almost every service is designed for a specific client, then disposed of. The first two service products are aimed at the booming market for networking services that can facilitate anytime, anywhere business communication.

IBM’s network convergence services product allows clients to analyze readiness for communication networks that support data, voice and video. Moving forward, almost any application–such as unified messaging, IP contact call center, and voice, video and Web conferencing–will be able to take advantage of a converged network. Working with IBM, clients can design, deploy and manage converged communication-ready networks anywhere, anytime.

IBM’s IP telephony services product assists clients in designing, deploying and managing IP telephony infrastructure, to reduce the costs associated with managing and maintaining separate voice and data equipment and networks.

IBM plans to roll out more than 30 new service products through its integrated communications services unit, delivering asset-based, replicable and standardized solutions for clients, ranging from Fortune 500s to small and midsize businesses. These new products represent the first step in IBM’s strategy to deliver traditional labor-based technology services in a manner more similar to the delivery of technology products.

IBM holds strategic relationships with major suppliers and network service providers worldwide, including: Cisco, AT&T, Qwest, Sprint, Avaya and Symbol.

Short Takes Telecom controlled Johnson Controls has entered into a five-year, $100-million agreement with Verizon Business to provide a wide range of managed Internet protocol-based communication services supporting the company’s worldwide business operations. Verizon Business will deliver and manage an integrated global IP networking solution comprising private IP, IP VPN, Internet and voice, according to Sam Valanju, vice president and CIO for Johnson Controls. “This network is the springboard for IP-based telecommunications applications we may introduce in the future,” he says. Healthy storage Regional health insurer Health Insurance Plans of New York (HIP USA) is working with GlassHouse Technologies to transform its decentralized data-backup schematic to a custom-designed infrastructure that provides a secure, reliable foundation for the company’s business and regulatory compliance operations. “Regulatory requirements and our growth over the last few years make our backup needs fairly demanding,” says Tom Ko, HIP USA’s director of data center operations. “We needed to plan a new data backup system that encompassed all of our critical business operations. GlassHouse mapped out a strategy to accommodate our needs and helped us select the right backup technology.”

Laptops are first priority

Communications solutions that free employees from the tethers of their desks and offices top the technology spending priorities for small and midsize businesses, according to a survey commissioned by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA). The survey of more than 350 small and midsize businesses across North America found that upgrades to laptop computers are the top spending priority over the next 12 months.

Investment in wireless local area networks (WLAN) is the number two spending priority for these businesses. Replacing or upgrading existing phone systems ranked third. Among companies with less than 100 employees, phone system upgrades are the number two buying priority, ahead of wireless LANs and behind laptop upgrades.

When asked what factors are driving their investment in new communications solutions, 46% of the organizations surveyed cited savings generated through streamlining business processes. Another 30% pointed to cost cutting within their information technology and communications spending.

“While the majority of businesses surveyed said their current communications systems are easy to use, and can be operated and maintained at a relatively low cost, these systems are not viewed as a competitive advantage,” says John Venator, president and chief executive officer, CompTIA. “Businesses reported that with their existing systems, they find it hard to manage multiple sources of communications; hard to find people when you need them; and they are relying on devices that perform insufficiently to do their jobs well. Their spending priorities center on solutions that will make their employees more productive and mobile.”

CompTIA commissioned IDC, a global provider of market intelligence, to survey individuals involved in purchasing voice and data communications systems for companies with 20 to 500 employees from many different industries.

Short Takes Hole in one When Denver-based network integrator Fiber Channels was faced with a tight deadline to complete a high-bandwidth data network, it chose a Canobeam DT-130 optical wireless data transmission system. The client was a major charity golf tournament in Palm Desert, Calif. “The DT-130 enabled us to do a lot of things that have never been done before,’ says Victor Braud, managing director of Fiber Channels. ‘The reliability and high-bandwidth capabilities of the system meant we were able to provide VoIP to 300 voice lines and data to 300 IP addresses spread around the course during a major annual nationally televised golf tournament.” A winning bet Meskwaki Casino, a full-service casino in the Midwest has selected Foundry Networks’ compact power-over-Ethernet (PoE) edge switches and network-management system for its ongoing network upgrade. The FastIron GS Series features 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet to the desktop and is field-upgradeable to support PoE and 10-Gigabit Ethernet. “We needed a turnkey solution that we could grow into without requiring us to rip and replace our infrastructure in the future,” says Doug Kranig, MIS director for Meskwaki Casino. “Foundry’s FastIron GS provides us with a complete security solution to detect and resolve network anomalies.”

Security competitors unite

In an unusual move seen as addressing competition from Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks and Symantec Corp. have entered into a broad strategic partnership focused on delivering integrated security solutions to enterprise customers. The agreement between the former competitors includes a commitment to develop unified threat-management (UTM) solutions and intrusion-protection systems (IPS); cooperatively build standards-based, integrated access control and endpoint compliance solutions; collaboration to deliver security and threat research; and participation in cooperative sales and marketing.

“The security landscape has changed dramatically over the past 18 months,” says John Thompson, chairman and CEO of Symantec. “As a result, our customers are demanding a more comprehensive approach to security and management, with more attention being placed on expanding the ability to control networks. This partnership will leverage each company’s key technologies to deliver complete solutions to help organizations control which devices can access their networks.”

The two companies will dedicate engineering resources to enhance Juniper’s UTM and intrusion detection and prevention (IDP) products. Juniper’s integrated security platforms will include Symantec’s security content, including its antispam, IDP/IPS signatures, and vulnerability information and research in the near term.

“Customers are continuously challenged by business downtime caused by an elevated threat environment,” says Scott Kriens, chairman and CEO of Juniper Networks. “Security requirements are becoming pervasive across all components of the IT infrastructure, while security complexity and costs are mounting.”

Juniper and Symantec also plan to cooperatively enhance and integrate their existing endpoint compliance and access-control solutions by collaborating to build standards-based network enforcement and endpoint compliance solutions.

Find VoIP services online

Organizations needing to find voice-over-IP services in their area can now find an extensive, and searchable, database of those providers online. Broadband phone service comparison site VoipReview.org has launched a new Web site to help companies find the best business VoIP service in their local areas. Businesses can visit www.VoipReview.org/Business_Telephone_Systems/ to find, compare and purchase VoIP phone service, based on availability, by ZIP code, price, features and user reviews. The site, which previously served mostly consumers, expanded its capabilities to meet the needs of the ever-growing small and midsize enterprise VoIP market.

“Businesses often switch to VoIP for its scalability, cost efficiency, and the ability to implement an integrated phone system across numerous locations,” says Eric Laughlin, CEO of VoipReview.org. “With business VoIP usage projected to double by 2010, growing to a nearly $3.5-billion industry, we provide businesses with a single resource for the VoIP information they need–whether they are still in the research phase or if they are ready to make a purchase.”

Businesses can access the site and enter the number of users and ZIP codes of relevant office locations. Using the search tool, visitors can instantly view the business VoIP providers serving their areas, and get pricing information.

publications CWNA, Certified Wireless Network Administrator Study Guide, by David D. Coleman and David A. Westcott, includes real-world scenarios, hands-on exercises and leading-edge exam prep software, featuring custom testing engine, sample questions and electronic flashcards. www.wiley.com Network Virtualization, by Kumar Reddy and Victor Moreno, provides design guidance for virtualized enterprise networks, arming users with the technology background to make sound technological choices. www.pearsoned.com