Irwin Lazar's "Real-Time" Blog

VoiceCon On My Mind

Next week is VoiceCon in Orlando, Florida. For me this is always the annual "big event" in the VoIP space since it is so heavily focused on the enterprise, and because it attracts involvement from folks such as Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, Microsoft, AT&T, and so on. The program also includes a lot of sessions that feature speakers from end-user organizations such as Ford & American Airlines. The audience is a virtual "who's who" of large enterprise VoIP planners & managers.

Alan Sulkin's annual "IP Telephony System RFP" on Monday is another "don't miss" session, featuring speakers from just about every major vendor in the IP telephony space as they respond to Alan's RFP.

I've been swamped with meeting requests this year, and I've got a full schedule for the days I'll be at the show, including speaking on two SIP-related panels on Wednesday, March 8th. I'm also planning on spending a few days with Mickey.

VoiceCon Webcast on VoIP Security

Here is my presentation from yesterday's VoiceCon webinar on VoIP Security.

Download BCR-VoIPSec-Webinar.ppt

A replay of this webinar is available at http://events.interwise.com/?p=500559&t=5&s=medialive

AOL back in the Enterprise IM Game

AOL & Web Ex are teaming to deliver an integrated IM/web conferencing solution to the enterprise market.

I'm not sure why anyone would use this over something like Tello, which bundles voice and PBX integration into the mix, along with web conferencing and chat, or even hosted LCS-based services which add further integration with Microsoft Office products (both of which also support integration of mobile devices). I don't see this as being a viable service until such time as voice & integration with mobile devices are available.

Voiponder Launches

Voiponder, a new VoIP resource site launched this week. This is run by the same folks who run CircleID, a wonderful resource for discussion of Internet naming and addressing related topics.

Voiponder features blog feeds (including this one) and news feeds centered around topics such as regulation, business strategies, security, and legal issues.

Mobile VoIP: The End of Cell Minutes?

Dow Jones Newswires ran an article on Friday noting how mobile operators fear that the rise of mobile VoIP solutions will threaten their current business models. This concern was demonstrated throughout the recent 3GSM conference in Barcelona.

Once one can do VoIP over mobile data services such as EVDO or EDGE, then why use cellular minutes? Especially when VoIP solutions provide features such as presence, integrated IM, and perhaps even tie-backs to enterprise communications platforms such as those based on Microsoft LCS?

For now, VoIP over mobile data services is an iffy proposition at best due to quality of service issues. But as 3G/4G technologies evolve, it is likely that the service providers will be faced with a choice: implement walled gardens that restrict access to third-party services, or become simple bit-haulers selling nothing more than flat rate data services, perhaps with different tiers (e.g. a voice-quality service and a data-quality service).

Either way, the per-minute billing model for cellular voice services is in deep trouble. VoIP will do to the cellular market what it has done to the PSTN, eliminate call pricing based on distance.

"Top Gear" On-line

IMHO the very best show in television is the BBC's "Top Gear", think of it as Monty Python meets MotorWeek.

BBC Two is making the latest episode available for watching on the web at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/programmes/?id=top_gear. This edition was a "Winter Olympics" special, featuring biathalon, speed skating, slalom, ice hockey, and ski jump events, all with cars. If you ever wondered what a Mini looked like coming down a ski jump ramp, now is your chance to see it. Unfortunately, it's only available for those IP addresses which are based in the UK. Here's a plea to the BBC, figure out a way to make this available globally.

Pulverati

Jeff Pulver recently introduced "Pulverati," a site designed to aggregate various feeds from IP Communications-related blogs and introduce social networking concepts, allowing readers to rank stories that they feel are important to the IP communications community as a whole.

Jeff describes the concept and vision for the site further in his blog post: "Introducing...Pulverati".

As of this morning, this was one of the most popular blogs on the site - thanks Jeff!!

Upcoming Speaking Events

I'll be speaking at an event on March 1st in Pentagon City, Arlington, VA entitled "VoIP in the Federal Enterprise." This event is being run by the ITAA and the VON Coalition and is designed to present a discussion of VoIP potential and challenges in both the federal government and enterprise markets.

On March 8th I'll be part of two SIP-related sessions at VoiceCon in Orlando, Florida:

• "SIP and Today's IP Telephony Market" - 1:00-2:15
• "SIP - Beyond Interoperability: What SIP Can Do For You" - 2:45 - 4:00

News: Reports emerge of Mac OS X Trojan horse or worm

UPDATE: The most complete analysis of this trojan/worm/malware is available at http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=102379. There is also some debate as to whether or not you will be prompted for your password if you try to open the file.

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There has been extensive discussion today in numerous media outlets about a new virus which affects Macintosh computers. As a Mac user, this certainly caught my eye.

Unfortunately once again this is an example of something that has gotten blown way out of proportion. It's not surprising that it's the folks who make money by selling anti-virus apps for Mac that are leading the charge.

For this "Mac Virus" to work, a user must download and attempt to open a software package (latestpics.tgz) which poses as screenshots of the new Leopard version of OS X. During the install process, the user will be prompted for their administrator user name and password. If they enter it, the application will run on their machine where it attempts to propagate itself via iChat.

There's the key. This file is harmless unless one tries to open it, and when prompted gives it administrator privileges by specifically logging in as an administrator. No operating system is immune to users manually installing malicious software. Not Linux, not Windows, and certainly not Mac OS X.

Portraying this as a "Mac Virus" is irresponsible. I'm still not going to pay for anti-virus protection for my Mac because I don't download and install unknown software, and I certainly don't grant any application installation routine administrator privileges unless I know darn well what it does.

Meanwhile, I did spend a few minutes this morning updating my old Win2K laptop with the latest AV program and signature file. Now that's a machine I still worry about.

Burton Group "Inflection Point" Podcasts launch

We've recently launched our complementary "Inflection Point" podcasts covering IT infrastructure technologies such as security, identity management, networking, and application platforms. From the press release:

Burton Group’s “Inflection Point” is an additional information resource for IT technologists that will enable enterprise organizations to make smarter IT architecture decisions. “Inflection Point” will deliver brief, timely insight on emerging IT issues via the convenience of a podcast.

I'm on the hook to do one of these on Skype now that my report "Debunking The Hype About Skype" has been published.