FEATURES
Communications
Solutions 2001
Product Of The Year Awards
Announcing the editors picks for the
most interesting communications products of 2001.
Whats Up With
Uptime?
Chris Donner, Contributing Editor
People are always asking each other whats
up? High-availability means that you can, at any given time, have at
least one definite answer: my system.
VoiceXML: Enabling
Voice Access To Information
Kimberlee Kemble, IBM Voice Systems
Long frustrated, the demand for more
natural information access finally approaches fulfillment, thanks to
VoiceXML, an open standard that gives regular Web developers a common,
easy way to build applications that respond to spoken requests. With
VoiceXML, developers no longer need as much specialized voice expertise
that for so long has complicated creation of these applications. VoiceXML
may do for voice what other open standards, such as Java and XML,
accomplished for the Internet, and will allow mainstream developers to
build voice applications.
Protect
Your Business-Critical Communications With Disaster Recovery
Ryan ONeil and Michael Cave, TopCall
While disaster recovery for the general
business environment is a well-worn topic, discussions of disaster
recovery are seldom attuned to the special needs of communications
systems. This article, however, focuses specifically on business-critical
communications systems, and how businesses may keep them up and running,
despite events that may be adverse in the extreme. Read this article, and
follow a clear disaster recovery outline, from initial to final stages,
encompassing discovery, trial, implementation, evaluation, and re-evalution
-- all with a communications systems emphasis.
REVIEWS
Centrepoint
Technologies TalkSwitch 48-LS
Gentner
Communications VuLink 326
First Virtual
Communications Click To Meet For Microsoft Exchange
NEWS AND VIEWS
Go to TMCnet.com for
the latest communications technology news
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PUBLISHER'S OUTLOOK
An Important Message
From The Publisher
Rich Tehrani, Publisher
You can always count on change. Anyone
who has been in the telecommunications industry the past year or so knows
that all too well. It has been a tough year, and TMC has also been
challenged by this tough marketplace. The broad-spectrum coverage of
Communications Solutions magazine, on an array of dynamic and innovative
communications technologies and products, was responsible for its rapid
growth and success during the boom. But, ironically, this positioning also
made the magazine especially vulnerable to the downturn.
EDITOR'S OUTLOOK
Bred To A
Harder Thing
Kevin Mayer, Editorial Director
While cleaning out his cubicle,
bringing to light the detritus of six years effort, editorial director
Kevin Mayer tapped out one last column, which offers both a backwards
glance as well as a glimpse forward, a meditation on relevance, which
seemed relevant, for although Communications Solutions consigns
itself to silence, the industry it covered will continue, and even thrive.
Along the way, it will, of course, find new ways of communicating its own
relevance. New growth may require a shedding of old skin. And as a snake
may shed its skin, an editor may depart in a flurry of dessicated Post-It
notes...
TOM KEATING'S CC:
Voice-Ready VPNs -- A
Flexible Alternative
Tom Keating, Executive Technology Editor
Traditionally, virtual private networks
(VPNs) have been viewed strictly as a data-access medium, but several
vendors are aiming to change that by providing voice services across a VPN.
Tom Keating provides an overview of some companies offering intriguing
solutions.
DEPARTMENTS
Analytical Views: Analytical
Views: SALT Seasons The Speech Rec Market
Brian Strachman, Cahners In-Stat Group
Microsoft, in conjunction with Cisco,
Comverse, Intel, Philips, and SpeechWorks, has founded a forum called
Speech Applications Language Tags, or SALT, which focuses on multi-modal
access to information. Brian Strachman discusses the importance of the
groups goal.
Inside Networking: Securing
The Enterprise
Tony Rybczynski, Nortel Networks
Enterprises operate generally in two
environments: the enterprise network and the Internet. Protecting
enterprise assets across these two environments is a major challenge for
IT organizations, complicated by the many potential electronic points of
entry to enterprise resources. This month, Tony Rybczynski explores
security options.
On The Horizon: Mobile
Telephony -- Making High-Quality Voice A Reality
Brough Turner, NMS Communications
Mobile telephonys success in recent
years has more to do with mobility than telephony. However, Brough Turner
believes that in the next five years, voice quality will improve so
dramatically that mobile phone service will sound better than a landline
phone call.
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