LANs & WANs

47.xxx.xxx.xxx Now Microsoft

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:28:35 +0100

As reported in domain incite, Microsoft paid $7.5 million for control of the 700,000 IP addresses that had been assigned to Nortel. I remember that there was a time when Nortel Networks was responsible for an entire class-A IP address space. As the company's Internet Evangelist from 1995-1997, I used this fact in my regular presentations, talks and writings at the time about how the Internet was going to change the industry and society. Despite the ignomy of being bankrupt and then sold for par...

Debunking Broadband Hysteria

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:07:14 +0100

Proponents of a [[National Broadband Plan]] argue that our national competitiveness depends on the deeper penetration of high speed Internet services, which can only be achieved with massive subsidized investments to the local, rural telephone and cable companies that service remote and rural markets in the heartland of America.

Keystone's Internet Health Report

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:50:24 +0100

The quality of network service is increasingly a big concern for many users and for many applications. That's because more and more people are being exposed to real-time applications running over IP. Sure, some of these are store and forward apps - Xbox-based Netflicks or Zune streaming - and some are real-time - Xbox-based live game playing, VoIP and video conferencing. Either way, the user's experience is negatively impacted when there is a network outage or congestion. My own Xbox-Netflicks e...

IT Expo: GlobalCapacity Sees Pendulum Swinging...

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:30:14 +0100

In a post-IT Expo briefing, I spent a few minutes with Greg Hough, the CTO of GlobalCapacity, who gave me an update of the company's integration with Vanco, a network integrator and newest contributor to the telecom access network pricing/integration/logistics services company. Greg explained that the network integration services business is a terrific complement to the company's Saas and strategic sourcing operations and integration has been very fast. The network integration is an enabler of ot...

IT Expo: Ecessa Introduces Last Mile Survivability

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:45:43 +0100

While at IT Expo, I met with Ron Thomas, CEO and Marc Goodman, Director of Marketing for Ecessa (pronounced E-ses-sa), a Plymouth MN appliance manufacturer with an inexpensive load balancing solution to enable 'last mile survivability.' As I listened to Ron tell me about the company's transformation from a manufacturer of DSU/CSUs years ago to a manufacturer of PowerLink and ShieldLink appliances for managing various applications for access line survivability - including SIP sessions, I was remi...

Martian spam?

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:25:50 +0100

Dr Vinton Cerf is at it again. This time, it's a protocol optimized for interplanetary communications. That's right. Mars needs Internet service, but with a twist. As reported in The Economist the limited bandwidth, long transmission times and uncertainty about whether the sender and receiver are actually facing each other at the appropriate moment in a transmission set the stage for a multi-stage store and forward protocol. NASA calls it a delay- or disruption- tolerant network protocol (DTN)...

Global Capacity - Experts in Access Networks

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:57:38 +0100

The front page of Global Capacity's website tells the story as: "We help customers navigate the entire supply chain of global access networks, improving network efficiency, streamlining network operations and reducing network costs." Although a little wordy, I think the company is really about becoming a trusted expert in access networks. And that is exactly what they have done. Without owning any facilities, they have managed to do business with 350 of the world's largest...

NComputing Gains Momentum

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:00:00 +0100

I first met Steve Dukker at Interop in 2007. Steve Dukker and NComputing the virtualization PC company has shipped their 1,000,000th unit and picked up serious Microsoft-type executive muscle to boot. Most impressive achievement. ChannelWeb reports that Will Poole, formerly of the Windows Client business and the corporate VP in Microsoft's Unlimited Potential Group joins the company as co-chairman. ...

When Speed Counts - Making FTP Faster

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:00:00 +0100

Caltech is the proud academic home of the Jet Propulsion Lab and Palomar Observatory. A private and premier research institution, [[California Institute of Technology]] is also proud of having faculty earn 32 Nobel prizes. Caltech is also the originator of Fastsoft, the CalTech and VC-backed TCP accelerator. I had a telephone briefing with Dan Henderson, the VP Marketing for Fastsoft, who gave me a low-down on the company. ...

Expand Networks: WAN Acceleration Goes Virtual

Fri, 16 May 2008 07:00:00 +0100

After Interop, I met on a conference call with David White, the VP of Business Development (he worked at Fore Systems in the late 1990s and was responsible for the Fore-Nortel relationship. My former employer's carrier team were reselling the LAN switch into AT&T) and Amy Peraza, the VP of Marketing at Expand Networks....

Interop: SMC Networks Sets The Tone

Thu, 15 May 2008 07:00:00 +0100

My first meeting at Interop 2008, Las Vegas was with Keith Alexis, SMC Networks VP of Sales - Americas, Stephanie Sullivan, Director of Marketing and Iain Kenney, Director of Product Marketing. I got an overview of the company's history and traction in the SMB market, where the brand is most well-known. Focused initially on the framework for Token Ring Networks in its initial founding in the 1980s, and being acquired by Acton of Taiwan, the company has settled into its role as a major ...

Interop: D-Link Keeps The Green Coming

Wed, 14 May 2008 07:00:00 +0100

After one exciting day at Inteorp and 2 days in Vegas, I met with Daniel Kelley, Senior Director of Marketing and Joe Melfi, the Technical Marketing Engineer for D-Link, the $1.3 billion equipment manufacturer and global SMB brand. I knew of D-Link when I worked at 3Com. D-Link has operations in 100 countries and operates from 130 offices around the world. With a complete SMB network infrastructure offering including unmanaged, smart, stackable and modular 10/100/1000 and 10G switches, routers, W...

Interop: Riverbed Speeds Things Up

Mon, 12 May 2008 07:00:00 +0100

I met with Alan Saldich, the VP of Product Marketing and Alliances and Kim Kapustka, the Senior Director of Corporate Marketing at Interop to discuss Riverbed's role and capabilities for the WAN. Founded in 2002 and with shipping product since 2004, the company has accumulated 4000 customers, 750 employees, global operations and a revenue run-rate of $300 million. Alan explained that customers typically deploy the disk-based, software-driven architecture in branch and regional offices an...

Why Did Huawei Walk?

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:26:59 +0100

On the Wall Street Journal , Heidi Moore asks about the dead deal. Frankly, the reason I think the 3Com-Huawei-Bain deal died is because Huawei didn’t want to sit in a US congressional hearing and have their ownership, strategy or money questioned. That’s why the deal fell apart. The public or worse ‘foreign’ review process made them very uncomfortable. They thought this was a contract and a trivial regulatory review and weren’t prepared to play the Beltw...

3Com Private Equity Deal Sours

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:18:13 +0100

Amazing as it may sound, the acquisition of 3Com by Bain Capital and Huawei is dead. I've written about the deal here , and here's the (login required) Take Action Memo. Citing the inability to reach a 'mitigation agreement' with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), Edgar Masri, 3Com CEO comments that he was 'disappointed' and promises to continue to build a 'global networking leader.' The Wall Street Journal explained that the De...

Juniper (Finally) Enters the Switching Market and Enterasys Says...

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:15:16 +0100

This is no way to start a market consolidation! 3Com is going private. Juniper introduces new EX-series LAN switches that work with its router operating system JUNOS. Carrier-class. Stackable, 'virtual' and modular offerings. Interesting that the website speaks of the EX 3200, the EX 4200 and the EX 8200 (must be the modular one) but only offers literature and specifications on the EX 3200 and EX 4200 models. This is a yawner announcement. Now Enterasys (which has been...

Great Geek Video

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 08:00:00 +0100

I was busy snooping around [[youtube]] over the weekend and came across this really neat video that is both creative and well performed by Gary Feldman, a participant in the RIPE Community. To get a sense of the power of the song check out this statement on the depletion of IPv4 addressing. RIPE is an international association responsible for managing the Internet infrastructures in Europe, Middle East and Central Asia. Now check this video out, The day the routers died. ...

3Com Goes Private

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 08:23:13 +0100

The Marlborough MA LAN switching (and a little enterprise VoIP) company agreed to be acquired by Bain Capital and Huawei, the Chinese telecom equipment company for $2.2 billion.

Ciprico brings Software-based Data Protection to China

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 02:00:00 +0100

I spent an hour on the phone with Andy Mills, SVP Marketing and Development, Ciprico, the other day to discuss their latest announcement of a software OEM deal with H3C Technologies, the Chinese subsidiary of 3Com.

FileCatalyst for Massive, Rapid File Transfer

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 08:00:00 +0100

In a post-Interop-related briefing, I spent an hour with Chris Bailey, the co-founder and CEO of Unlimi-tech, the Canadian file transfer specialists. This company was founded by a pair of Canadian federal government developers in 2000 as a hobby to accelerate TCP-based file transmissions. What they started with was mechanism to integrate FTP applet into a clients' website as a plugin. But the big idea behind the venture is the FileCatalyst product, which uses UDP to transfer data....