Fred DonovanChinese telecom gear makers in hot water again
The European Commission is getting ready to impose trade sanctions on Chinese telecom gear makers Huawei and ZTE over what it sees as illegal subsidies, Reuters is reporting. The latest moves might be what is needed for the Chinese government and telecom firms to sit up and take notice.
Google takes on Amazon with new cloud offerings
Google is making its Cloud Platform available to any business or developer, the company announced on Wednesday. With this week's cloud announcements, Google appears to be taking aim at Amazon Web Services. Increased competition in the cloud space can only be beneficial for enterprises and individual users.
IDC lowers 2013 IT spending estimate
Research firm IDC has lowered its estimate for 2013 worldwide IT spending growth to 4.6 percent from a previous 5.5 percent. IDC cited economic uncertainty caused by the U.S. government sequester, the ongoing European debt crisis and China's weakening GDP as the reasons for the adjustment.
Adobe forces customers of future versions of Photoshop, Illustrator to adopt subscription model
Adobe's decision to only offer future Creative Suite products, such as Photoshop and Illustrator, through an ongoing subscription to its Creative Cloud software-as-a-service product has customers rebelling.
Cisco posts strong financials, beating Wall Street estimates
Cisco, the networking and IT giant, posted a healthy 14.5 percent increase in net income for the first quarter of 2013. Cisco CEO John Chambers said Cisco is "starting to see some good signs in the U.S. and other parts of the world which are encouraging."
PC freefall continues across the Pond
As smartphones and tablets gain popularity, PC sales continue their steep decline. The latest example is the 20.5 percent year-over-year drop in PC shipments across Western Europe in the first quarter, the worst decline since Gartner began tracking PC shipments in the region.
Alcatel-Lucent extends reach of application fluent networking
LAS VEGAS–Alcatel-Lucent unveiled a number of new routers and switches here at Interop that extend the reach of its application fluent networking to branch offices, data centers and corporate local area networks.
Enterprises not yet 'jumping' to public cloud, says CSC's Almog
LAS VEGAS–Enterprises are embracing private cloud but not yet "jumping" to the public cloud, observed Eli Almog, chief technology officer at CSC Cloud Services, at a Thursday panel on enterprise cloud at the Interop conference.
Attackers could gain control of infected systems through Microsoft Office, Lync holes
There is a risk that attackers could execute commands remotely on infected systems through vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office and the Microsoft Lync unified communications platform, Microsoft warned last week in its Patch Tuesday advanced notification bulletin.
End of the password is nigh, predicts PayPal CISO
LAS VEGAS–The end of the password is nigh, predicted Michael Barrett, chief information security officer (CISO) at PayPal and president of the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance, during his Thursday keynote speech at the Interop conference.
Worldwide BPO market to reach $209.4B in 2017, says IDC
The worldwide business process outsourcing (BPO) market is forecast to increase at a 5.7 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), reaching $209.4 billion in 2017, according to the latest stats from research firm IDC.
Report: Icahn, Southeastern Asset Management to submit alternative bid for Dell
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management are ready to submit a bid for struggling computer maker Dell, the New York Times is reporting.
Touring the InteropNet network - we can all just get along
LAS VEGAS--I took a tour on Wednesday of the temporary InteropNet network set up to supply the communications needs of this IT conference and trade show and was impressed that companies which are often battling for enterprise customers were able to cooperate to deploy this massive wired and wireless network.
Juniper Network unveils JunosV Contrail Controller for SDN
LAS VEGAS–Juniper Networks this week unveiled its JunosV Contrail Controller, an open standards-based controller for software defined networking (SDN), as part of its JunosV Contrail family of products.
Twitter lawyer considered as White House privacy adviser
Twitter's legal director, Nicole Wong, is being considered by the White House as a senior privacy adviser to chief technology officer Todd Park, the New York Times reported.
Spotlight: ShoreTel launches docking station that turns iOS devices into desk phones
Unified communications (UC) provider ShoreTel unveiled this week a docking station that enables Apple's iPads and iPhones to function as desk phones when combined with the company's ShoreTel Mobility app.
Networks must get 'faster and flatter,' judges Broadcom's Ramaswami
LAS VEGAS–Networks need to get "faster and flatter," Broadcom's Rajiv Ramaswami told an audience Wednesday at the Interop conference being held here.
Cisco: Some IT professionals in 'London fog' regarding business initiative visibility
LAS VEGAS–Cisco released on Wednesday the results of a survey of 1,300 IT professionals from 13 countries which found that close to one-third of respondents equated their IT department's visibility into business initiatives to a "foggy day in London."
Investors agree to acquire cloud management firm BMC for $6.9B; Dell buys Enstratius
There were two major cloud management acquisition announcements on Monday. A group of private equity firms agreed to pay $6.9 billion for BMC Software, and Dell acquired Enstratius for an undisclosed sum.
Spotlight: Polycom's board okays $100M share repurchase program
Videoconferencing firm Polycom (Nasdaq: PLCM) announced on Monday that its board approved a $100 million share repurchase program which expires on May 2, 2014.
