Stories by Jim Duffy

The top three priorities for CIOs in 2012 are security, wireless LAN and Ethernet switching, according to a survey conducted by investment firm UBS.

BNew Avaya data networking chief Marc Randall has five focus areas in his sights to help the company sell its Ethernet switches, gain market share ... and perhaps stave off irrelevancy.

So if converging the I/O infrastructure in data centers is all the rage, what's taking IT shops so long to do it?

One of the hotter convergence topics of late is fixed/mobile convergence - the ability to merge wired and wireless telecom resources so that users can have what amounts to their desktop phone in a handheld device in their pocket.

SBC claims its Project Lightspeed fiber build out is not delayed, even though it's now scheduled to pass 18 million homes six months later than initially intended.
SBC is now saying Lightspeed will pass those homes in mid-2008 instead of year-end 2007 as first planned when it announced the project last year. Lightspeed is the carrier's US$4 billion to $6 billion effort to provide fiber- and DSL-based voice, data and video services to consumers and businesses.

The Bells will find the sledding so tough in IPTV that they may bow out, according to three analysts speaking at this week's Next Generation Networks 2005 conference in Washington, DC.

It still registers barely a blip on the broadband radar screen. But momentum is starting to build behind broadband over powerline as a viable high-speed Internet access alternative.
In the past three months a handful of significant events have occurred:

Industry watchers say this year will mark a major milestone in IP networking: U.S. carriers will buy more routers for use in their private, premium-service IP backbones than for the Internet backbone.
By doing so, carriers will become less dependent on the hacker-prone Internet for their IP service infrastructure. As a result, customers can expect IP services that boast service level, security and availability parity with data services such as frame relay and ATM, but that support a wider range of applications.

The holidays might be a little less bright this year if Cisco Systems's financial outlook is any indication.
The company's "record-breaking" fourth quarter was tempered by a caution going forward as customers rein in spending on network equipment because of a weak economy and election year uncertainty.