Mark Els

As commercials for voice over IP start to flood prime-time television, it's easy to get sidetracked by the hype. Focusing on how IP convergence can add business value is the tricky part.To sustain this focus, Mitel Networks Inc. says it's encouraging greater customer interaction. And that is the raison d'

Juniper Networks Inc. last month released a policy management appliance aimed at securing the network infrastructure by building more intelligent firewalls and combining router technology to effectively marshal more agile business processes.

Accountability for IT success should fall not only on IT managers but more importantly on business leaders, said Frank Koelsch, executive vice-president, corporate strategy and research for Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ont. And by the same token, he said, CIOs must have as equal a role in defining business strategy as the CEO.

When it

Managing the distributed complexities of an ever-changing enterprise network carries inherent risks, both personally to the CIO or network administrator, as well as to the new technology being implemented should that critical first installation fail.

Cisco's enterprise business focus will be unaffected by its planned acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta Inc., but the US$6.9-billion buyout will strengthen its stake in the service provider market, according to a former official with Cisco Systems Canada Co.

The arrival of 3G cellular broadband and the uptake of Internet Protocol (IP) networks have turned digital convergence into reality. But to turn this technology into profits, telecommunications companies need to stay tuned to their customer needs.

Canada's advanced scientific research communities are putting their hands up for more teraflops.