Irwin Lazar's "Real-Time" Blog

Business Communications Review

About twelve years ago a manager of mine handed me a copy of Business Communications Review and told me to make sure I read it every month if I wanted to survive in the networking/telecom industry.

I followed his advice, and over the years I've had the opportunity to contribute a couple of articles on topics ranging from IP multicast to Unified Communications to MPLS.

Starting next month (the August issue) I will be a regular columnist authoring a bi-monthly column entitled "real-time".  I just submitted my first piece on enterprise considerations for Web 2.0.   I look forward to the opportunity to join folks like Tom Nolle, Marty Parker, Michael Finneran and of course Eric Krapf in contributing to the only "must read" journal in our industry.

Apple iPhone - Enterprises Beware!

We just posted this to the Nemertes web site earlier today:

There's no doubt many enterprise IT managers will spend next week fielding requests from employees who want to know how to sync their brand-new Apple iPhone with enterprise messaging and calendaring applications. But at this point in time the iPhone is a consumer device. Even with rumors of an impending announcement from Apple regarding support for Exchange ActiveSync, the iPhone lacks enterprise controls for security and management of mobile devices. However, the introduction of the iPhone should serve as a drive for enterprises to develop a mobility strategy that enables proactive, rather than reactive approaches as new devices hit the market. In our Building A Successful Virtual Workplace Benchmark we noted that only 40% of enterprises have such a strategy.

Just when you thought the iPhone hype couldn't get any worse?

Paul McNamara blogs about an ad on Craig's List in Los Angeles offering $18 an hour for someone to camp out in line for an iPhone.

iPhone - Exchange Integration?

OK, now I'm intrigued.

Via Peter O'Kelly:

Here's what I'm hearing: Apple will announce this week - possibly as soon as June 27 - that it has licensed the Exchange ActiveSync licensing protocol. Via the licensing arrangement, Apple iPhone users will be able to connect to Exchange Server and make use of its wireless messaging and synchronization capabilities.

» The iPhone will be compatible with Microsoft Exchange, after all | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Alec Saunders: Grand Central acquisition shows Google's hand.

Alec Saunders writes on the potential Grand Central acquisition by Google

After all the attention that Grand Central has received, the rumour on the street is that they may have been acquired by Google for a cool $50 million. If true, it reveals a lot more of Google's hand than we've seen previously.  Until now, they've studiously avoided any knd of service which connects them directly with the PSTN.  GoogleTalk famously relies on third parties to provide origination and termination services.  With Grand Central in the mix, however, that would no longer be true.  Grand Central's message of One Phone Number, for life also fits nicely with Google's aspirations to be your one mailbox, and online identity resource.

I've been using Grandcentral for a number of months, and I've been telling just about everyone I know about how wonderful a service they provide.  It will be interesting to see Google's approach, will they market the service at the masses, or will they roll into the suite Google Apps (or both)?

I wonder if the telcos realize what a threat Grandcentral is to their business models simply because it makes the phone number from your service provider unimportant.  I'm assuming many people stick with their current providers simply because they want to avoid the hassle of changing phone numbers (and because number portability doesn't always work, or isn't always an option).

BTW - it was great finally meeting Alec in person at Enterprise 2.0!

Mac notebook sales surge

Apple Insider:

• Mac notebooks accounted for 14.3% of all April notebook sales, an increase of 65% over a year ago
• Mac desktop sales accounted for 10.4% of the market (with flat growth)
• Overall Mac market-share is 13%

We've come a long way from the predictions of the Mac's demise.

Top 50 Analyst Blogs - Number 27

I made it to #27 on the Top Fifty Analyst Blogs over at Technobabble 2.0.  There are a number of great blogs on the list, check them out.

 

Enterprise 2.0: Skype: and the Enterprise

Joe Thornley at ProPr blogged the session on Skype and the Enterprise that I moderated this morning at Enterprise 2.0.

I think Joe captured the main points, and yes, the audience was particularly quiet, perhaps because it was the last session before lunch?

Technorati Tags: Skype, Enterprise 2.0

Enterprise 2.0 Conference

A couple of quick observations:

• The conference is packed, I've heard that there are around 1,200 registered attendees.  The demo pavilion was jammed last night
• This may be the first conference I've attended where Macs outnumber PCs
• I really like the balance between UC, social computing, and organizational, societal and cultural issues
• There's a good balance of end-users and vendors among attendees

I haven't had much time to attend sessions due to meetings, but there are a number of folks blogging the event:

• Michael Sampson is blogging numerous sessions (including my IM 2.0 session from yesterday)
• Stowe Boyd
• Technorati Keyword - Enterprise 2.0

Nortel-IBM Partnership Underscores Demands of SMB Market

We just published our Impact Analysis of the Nortel-IBM partnership announced this week to integrate Nortel unified communications applications with IBM System i.

Nemertes Impact Analysis: Nemertes Impact Analysis: Nortel-IBM Partnership Underscores Demand of SMB Market

Site registration is required to read the analysis (it's free).