The Lippis Report

June 8th, 2011

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. The Open Cloud: The Nexus Between Open Source and Cloud Computing The next wave of cloud computing’s growth will be fueled by the growth of open-source software. From Eucalyptus to Openstack, and OpenNebula to Nimbus, open-source is growing in importance at all layers of the cloud compute stack. Today’s CIOs see open-source as a viable alternative to proprietary software both in their own data center as well as in the public-cloud and hybrid cloud environments. In order to learn about the increasingly important nexus between open-source and the cloud, please join GigaOM Pro and Rackspace for a free one hour analyst roundtable on June 15 at 10 a.m. PDT. We’ve assembled a panel of cloud experts, including: Paul Miller, Cloud Curator, GigaOM Pro – Moderator Nick Lippis, CEO/Industry Analyst/Consultant, Lippis Enterprises Inc. Derrick Harris, Infrastructure Curator, GigaOM Network Jonathan Bryce, Co-Founder, The Rackspace Cloud Some of the questions we’ll discuss include: How open source fits within the public and private cloud environments The potential benefits of utilizing open-source within cloud environments The relationship between open-source and cloud-computing standards Are there downsides to going with non-proprietary solutions? How to prepare your business to transition to an open-source cloud environment  Who should attend: CIOs IT decision makers Cloud platform providers Service provider executives Enterprise software and technology vendors This free webinar, hosted by GigaOM Pro and our sponsor, Rackspace, will take place Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 10 a.m. PDT. Register today to get a glimpse into The Open Cloud. The Open Cloud Register here to attend the upcoming GigaOM Pro webinar, sponsored by Rackspace.

June 7th, 2011

In Lippis Report 172, I mentioned three huge trends that are starting to interact with each other creating a perfect storm that is gripping the tech industry. One of those trends is the creation of a software ecosystem in the networking market, thanks to the Clean Slate program out of Stanford University that has spawned the Software Defined Network (SDN) initiative and open controller protocol called OpenFlow. I spent a week in the Valley talking to people at Stanford and many industry executives from Cisco, Juniper, Marvell, Big Switch, Nicira, Arista, IBM and others. In this Lippis Report Research Note, I share with you what I learned. OpenFlow-based SDN is being both hyped and in its current state, limited, but it does represent a new paradigm that has the industry abuzz, filled with possibilities.

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June 7th, 2011

By Evangelyze Communications, LLC

With a broad series of new Unified Communications (UC) and collaboration offerings by Avaya and Microsoft, IT organizations have been prompted to evaluate their UC strategy. Microsoft promises to lower the overall Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a UC platform by leveraging an all-encompassing software powered communications environment integrated with its Microsoft Officeâ„¢ suite through the release of Microsoft Lync, while Avaya introduces its newly released UC platform through Avaya Aura.

The purpose of this whitepaper is to clearly identify the comparisons between both provider’s UC offerings through a process of evaluating value that matter to IT organizations in selecting the right UC platform.

June 7th, 2011

By Robin Gareiss Nemertes Research

Although line shipments for IP telephony have outstripped TDM for some time, many organizations have not yet fully replaced their TDM phones. In fact, only 17% of companies have fully deployed the technology, and the bulk of those are small and midsize businesses. Larger organizations have rolled out the technology in a spotty manner where the TDM system is end-of-life, or other tactical reasons. IT organizations are evaluating the economics, plus desktop IP phones investment when people increasingly rely on mobile devices and soft clients.

Many others are re-evaluating the market as they solidify unified-communications plans and once again contemplate go-forward strategy for IPT. Will they use the same vendor(s)? Will they shift to a hosted- or managed-services model? And what is the true business case? Understanding the true costs is crucial to a successful business case—and a cost-effective implementation.

June 7th, 2011

By Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks has a long history of supporting industry standards that are mature and enable customers to effectively solve their networking problems. Therefore, before jumping on the Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) bandwagon, Juniper took a close look at how the protocol proposes to solve the fundamental issues plaguing the data center, specifically as they relate to connecting infrastructure designed for cloud computing. This white paper outlines the results of those reviews and presents Juniper’s conclusions about TRILL.

June 7th, 2011

In the world of High-Frequency Trading (HFT), opportunities exist only fleetingly and therefore trading solutions must run at the lowest latency to be competitive. Low-latency 10 Gigabit Ethernet has become the interconnect of choice for HFT solutions. IBM® and Mellanox® have demonstrated a solution that performs at high throughput rates and low latency to facilitate High-Frequency Trading solutions.

June 7th, 2011

This paper revisits the benefits of centralized 802.11n wireless LAN networks and describes the case for transforming the controller-based architecture to match market needs. Centralization of wireless LANs (WLANs) delivers networks that are easy to deploy, scale, and manage. A local-mode controller-based campus environment delivers increased device scalability and an interactive multimedia experience coupled with enhanced policy to manage the full range of mobile devices. A controller-based deployment using FlexConnect technology enables multisite, lean branches to manage the increased scale of deployments without additional increase in operational complexity.