Networking

Thanks to 4G LTE technology, the global market for mobile communications gear will grow 17% in 2012, according to research firm IHS, formerly iSuppli.

The growing importance of reliable applications in the enterprise has opened a lucrative market opportunity for application performance management vendors, some of which have taken full advantage lately.

Cisco, the world's largest maker of computer networking equipment, says its net income jumped 44 per cent in the latest quarter as it continues to put last year's slump behind it.

The scoop: Canvio 3.0 Plus external hard drive, by Toshiba, about $180 (1TB version).

Juniper Networks this week has unveiled access routers designed to provide an on-ramp to the service provider network from residential, business and mobile networks.

While there are sure to be a lot of new networking and IT companies that emerge in 2012, these nine stood out for their potential to deliver game-changing innovations in a wide array of fields, including Cloud computing, enterprise search, and mobile application development. (These are in addition to seven hot Cloud companies and seven storage companies to watch that we highlighted last year.)

Technology firms wowed us in 2011, delivering tablets, ultrathin laptops, innovative cloud services, and voice command digital assistants. Not so long ago, the technology underlying these products was nothing more than research and development projects. So, in an effort to peek into our not-so-distant tech future, here's a glimpse at ten promising projects percolating in tech research labs.

Networking will be an exciting field in 2011. With that in mind, ARN asked six prominent vendors in the space for predictions and trends that can be expected to be big in the New Year.

One of the chief benefits of getting in on the ground of a fast-moving startup company is a speedy ascension up the promotion curve as the company grows.

Servers get most of the glory when it comes to energy management, but networking gear is about to catch up.

Running the internal IT operations of Cisco Systems is a big job not just because of the size of the company -- more than 70,000 employees worldwide and a market capitalisation in the range of $US100 billion -- but also because Cisco is continually developing new IT products across a broad range of technologies and is known for rapidly adopting those products for its own use. Cisco CIO Rebecca Jacoby spoke with IDG News Service on the sidelines of the NetWork conference last week and shared some insights into the legendary enterprise IT company's own enterprise IT.

NICTA CEO, David Skellern, who has been in his post since 2007 and has 20 years in the ICT sector, was one of several keynote speakers discussing strategies for Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) at the recent CeBIT show. He sat down with ARN to discuss the viability of the largest ICT infrastructure project in Australia’s history, as well as Internet filtering and why our industry needs more unity. Skellern will be retiring next year to head over to the UK.

Wireless and networking specialist distributor, Lan 1, is celebrating its fifteenth birthday this year. NADIA CAMERON caught up with managing director, Daniel Lee, to discuss the importance of the NBN, potential acquisitions and his plans for the future.

Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Tony Smith, is vehement in his views about ICT policy. ARN spoke to him about why he won’t oppose mandatory filtering outright and why the National Broadband Network (NBN) will be scrapped if he comes to power.

In the second instalment of an in-depth interview, John Chambers talks with John Gallant, Scot Finnie, and Editor-in-Chief Eric Knorr about the changing competitive landscape, Cisco’s datacentre strategy and its relationship with HP.

As the red mist clears and Julia Gillard assumes the top job in politics, many of the anti-filter crowd are hoping that pro-choice Senator, Kate Lundy, will take out the more divisive Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy. But they shouldn’t hold their breath.

The former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has stood down and been replaced by Julia Gillard as the leader of Australia.

As the most important supplier of network infrastructure to enterprises, Cisco's NAC products are a natural point of curiosity for network managers. Unfortunately, though, Cisco's approach to NAC has been riddled with in-fighting, false starts, delayed product releases, and a good dose of chaos and confusion.

Information security was always an esoteric field but with personal computing came personal security issues, culminating in the identity theft problem that concerns even the most techno-phobic of consumers. It's about to get much worse.

US iPhone lovers who want their device freed from AT&T's wireless network could soon get their wish.

ARN had the opportunity for a hands-on experience with the new E1500 wireless-N router with SpeedBoost.

Revolutionary. Cutting edge. State of the art. These are words and phrases that are bandied around so very many products in the IT field that they become useless, bland, expected. The truth is that truly revolutionary products are few and far between. That said, Cisco's Unified Computing System fits the bill.

Cisco WebEx Connect

3Com Wireless LAN MAP 3950

There has been a dearth of conveniently packaged servers for the midsize market. HP decided to try to change that with the introduction of the HP BladeSystem c3000. I recently tested a well-equipped unit, and overall, my impressions are positive.