Recent articles by Larry Hettick
May 11, 2012
Two items for this edition: First, Plantronics continues to evolve its devices, extending device intelligence beyond unified communications awareness into intelligence that can be integrated with other applications. In other news, Mitel has announced a new cloud-based service as the next evolutionary step for its Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) portfolio.
May 08, 2012
With both Interop in Las Vegas and CTIA Wireless in New Orleans underway this week, the news inbox is getting full but today we'll start with four announcements from ShoreTel. ShoreTel has introduced new collaboration tools, a new remote monitoring service, a new M5 Portal for cloud customers, and a new bundle with a promotional incentive that includes elements from ShoreTel, Polycom and HP solutions.
May 04, 2012
Most top-tier network service providers have reported their Q1 2012 results, and we've seen the same trends continue from previous quarters: legacy voice services from traditional providers continue to decline in favor of wireless substitution and replacement by digital (VoIP) services. Cable companies continue to see a net gain for digital voice, although the growth rate continues to be in the slow single digits; much of this net growth is driven by small businesses converting to VoIP.
May 01, 2012
Two announcements of new cloud services we'd like to highlight this week, followed by some recent advice on hosted services courtesy of Webtorials' contributors.
April 27, 2012
Google has entered the digital storage and collaboration market with Google Drive, the latest in a portfolio of Google services that extend beyond Google's traditional search business. Initially, Google Drive is accessible from PCs, Macs and mobile devices that run on an Android operating system.
April 24, 2012
We recently had the opportunity to talk with a representative from Digicel Jamaica about the implications of voice over IP (VoIP) running over a mobile network. Digicel Jamaica is part of the Digicel Group, which has 11.5 million customers across 31 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and the Pacific. In the phone interview, Garry Malins, the Jamaica Networks security manager, shared some of the issues with VoIP for mobile carriers.
April 20, 2012
Today, we'll highlight two announcements in the news from Orange Business Services on its telepresence services, along with an update from Vonage on its success and plans with mobility.
April 17, 2012
In two separate announcements late last month, Avaya unveiled and strengthened its collaboration offers with a "Collaborative Cloud" strategic framework for cloud-based collaboration solutions, followed with an announcement about a Level 3 Communications partnership to deliver cloud-based services.
April 13, 2012
Following EarthLink's recent announcement about a partnership with Independence IT to improve EarthLink's portfolio with cloud workspace and overall application virtualization capabilities, we had a chance to discuss EarthLink's evolution. The company has quickly evolved from being a dial-up ISP into a managed communications and IT services provider with a robust portfolio targeting the SMB and enterprise market: in 2010, only 25% of EarthLink's revenue came from businesses, but in 2011 about 71% of the company's $1.3 billion in revenues came from business services.
April 10, 2012
Two recent news items make the highlights today: IntelePeer has launched new SIP trunking bundled service offerings, and Genband has made another acquisition -- this time buying gateway technology via Aztek Networks.
The Connected Enterprise
