Phil Hochmuth

Allied Telesyn International Corp. next month will announce two fixed-configured switches targeted at helping businesses boost the number of gigabit ports in their networks.

Dell Computer Corp. this week at LinuxWorld unveiled several Linux cluster offerings as well as services in an attempt to wean enterprises off Unix and onto Linux.

A proposed standard for powering network devices over Ethernet cabling is still a year from completion, but users of IP telephones and wireless LAN endpoints are adopting the technology in the meantime.

Converged voice/data WAN projects and applications are helping customer call centres of all sizes cut costs and to become more efficient. Benefits include savings on long-distance and local phone charges as well as improved performance of customer call agents due to better-integrated voice and data technology.

Hoping to extend its PBX market success into the IP realm, Avaya Inc. last week unveiled new IP phones and added Wi-Fi into its IP telephony mix.

Alcatel SA this week will release an updated version of its management software that could help businesses manage a large-scale Alcatel network, while simplifying quality-of-service deployment for applications such as voice over IP.

Users of some older Cisco Systems Inc. gear should act quickly to extend their service contracts or face paying higher bills after the vendor restructures its maintenance pricing on July 1, Gartner Inc. says.

3Com Corp. this week released three Ethernet switches