Matt Hamblen

New mobile devices, such as the iPhone and the OQO ultramobile PC, are putting heavy pressure on IT managers to address compatibility and security challenges that could create roadblocks to the use of the technologies by business workers.

Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications Inc. in Basking Ridge, N.J., on Jan. 6 passed the one year anniversary of its acquisition of MCI. Revenues for the unit are expected to exceed US$20 billion for all of 2006, and John Killian, president of Verizon Business, talked up what he called "a very good first year." In an interview with Computerworld, Killian also weighed in on competition and the future of his business unit. Excerpts from that interview follow:

The city of Philadelphia has restarted a troubled water billing system project after signing a contract for new software that will replace most of the Oracle Corp. applications it initially planned to use.

Cisco Systems announced the addition of "tunnel-less" virtual private network technology and several other improvements to its family of integrated services routers (ISR), which are widely used in branch offices.

CA Inc. is announcing a revision of a Unicenter software tool that consolidates management of a greater variety of vendors' clustered and virtualized servers.

Microsoft Corp. Wednesday released the sixth generation of its Windows Embedded CE software, which is used to build real-time operating systems that power millions of smaller devices, from thin-client computers to point-of-sale appliances to Global Positioning System devices.

In its first foray into the videoconferencing market, Cisco will announce two so-called telepresence systems that it said are capable of supporting conference-room-size areas.

City officials in Providence, Rohde Island, unveiled a US$2.3 million (C$2.5) wireless mesh network on Tuesday that is already being used by police and fire vehicles for access to data for public safety.