Nemertes Impact Analysis

Expert Insight On How Recent News Affects You

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WiMAX Gets Another Shot in the Arm

WiMAX should be called the come-back kid of wireless. Last week, Comcast
(NASDAQ:CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (NASDAQ: TWC) announced they would partner with
Sprint (NYSE:S) to bankroll deployment of Sprint's WiMAX network. Google
(NASDAQ:GOOG) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) have also expressed interest in
participating. Although the anticipated investment ($1.5 billion) falls short of
Sprint's estimate for full deployment ($3 billion to $5 billion) it is enough a
significant partial build-out.

Nemertes' latest benchmark, Advanced Communications Services,
identifies the proliferation and uncertain futures of wireless standards as a
source of confusion for enterprise IT planners. Time Warner and Comcast's
involvement will allay some of this uncertainty about WiMAX, although the
question of WiMAX's ultimate footprint still remains.

Impacts:

Enterprises: Enterprises whose mobility applications would benefit from WiMAX
attributes that make it attractive for high bandwidth roaming, such as obstacle
shadowing and spectrum efficiency, should evaluate WiMAX as a potentially viable
alternative.

Carriers: Sprint has legs, or as Monty Python would say, it's "not quite dead
yet!" WiMAX will now likely beat LTE (Long term Evolution) pre-4G to market and
might make Sprint a significant competitor in post-3G services.

Investors: The new consortium poses some interesting opportunities. WiMAX
could allow the participants to jump the current market leading carrier plans
for LTE.

Mike Jude, Senior Analyst

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com
http://www.nemertes.com/ii

 

Will You Take Chips with that Router?

Whoever said that the chip wars were a thing of the past? Last week,
Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU) announced that it was releasing new silicon for its
high-end 7750 edge router series. The new FP2 chipset more than doubles the
density of GigE ports per card and enables a maximum throughput of 500 Gbps.
Alcatel-Lucent's planned evolutionary path for this platform targets 2 Tbps
(2000 Gbps) throughput.

Alcatel Lucent has developed carrier-evolution strategies around the new
platform's denser routing capabilities. These enable wireless carriers, for
example, to substantially improve back-haul networks while supporting 2G to 3G
and pre-4G migration. They also help address congestion at the Internet edge,
mitigating somewhat the access-layer impact of consumer demand for bandwidth.

Impacts:

Carriers: Alcatel-Lucent has raised the bar significantly, although they
expect this lead will be short lived. Wireless carriers should be more
interested in the path provided to evolve past 2G technology without bringing
down existing networks.

Investors: The gauntlet has been thrown down to Juniper and Cisco. Alcatel
Lucent has established new benchmarks for edge routers, and has a platform on
which to build even more capability; other vendors must respond to maintain a
viable market position.

Mike Jude, Senior Analyst

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

 

SMB VOIP Offerings Just Keep Coming

Aastra Telecom announced its entry into the SMB IP-PBX market, offering
AastraLink Pro - Model 160, an IP PBX created specifically for the small (25
user and under) business. Key features include auto-discovering and
self-provisioning of extensions, visual voicemail delivered via XML, SIP
trunking, enhanced Web-based user interface, remote teleworker features, and the
ability to network multiple AastraLink Pro's via IP. Aastra's SIP-based phones
can also be used with multiple hosted solutions, if an SMB moves in that
direction.

According to Nemertes' benchmark, Building the Successful Virtual
Workplace, a majority of SMBs are doing something regarding VOIP. They
understand the value and cost savings of an on-premise solution, but can be put
off by the complexity of systems intended for larger enterprises.

Impacts:

Enterprise: Another plug-and-play solution for evaluation by SMBs or branch
offices wanting to migrate to a VOIP solution that requires little training or
IT support.

Vendors/Carriers: SMBs represent a tremendous market opportunity with rapid
growth. They want full featured systems without the usual complexities, and are
looking for VARS that specialize in SMB offerings.

Investors: On-premise VOIP solutions tailored for SMBs could pull business
away from the smaller hosted VOIP players such as Vonage.

Katherine Trost, Research Analyst

http://www.aastratelecom.com/cps/rde/xchg/SID-3D8CCB6A-09091F18/03/hs.xsl/27288.htm
http://www.nemertes.com/products_services/research/issue_papers/nemertes_issue_paper_voip_trends_and_directions_0

 

Opening the SMB All-in-One Frontier: Vyatta's 514 Open-Source Appliance

Setting a base price under $700, privately held Vyatta has aimed its new
open-source router, the 514, at small businesses, and at enterprises looking for
low-cost branch routing/security devices. Vyatta makes its code base (built on
Linux, and the Extensible Open Router and Free Secure WAN projects) freely
downloadable, building its revenues on support, training, and sale of
preconfigured systems.

Interest in all-in-one devices for branches is growing, according to
Nemertes' new Advanced Communications Services benchmark. Given growing
enterprise willingness to use open-source tools for critical applications, shown
in Nemertes' Services-Oriented Architectures and Applications research,
Vyatta's move to expand its market with a lower-priced box should succeed if it
can bring those two streams of interest together.

Impacts:

Enterprise: Evaluate open-source routing and security alternatives, including
Vyatta's: the price/performance point makes it hard to justify not doing so.

Vendors: Low-end router, firewall, and VPN vendors should see this as a
threat and act accordingly, including exploring open-source options themselves.

Investors: If Vyatta succeeds, adjacent network functionality such as
optimization and VOIP will be the next logical additions to open-source
multi-function devices, increasing interest in open-source voice companies such
as Enterux and Digium.

John Burke, Principal Research Analyst

http://www.nemertes.com/benchmarks/nemertes_benchmark_service_oriented_architectures_and_applications
http://www.vyatta.com/about/pressreleases.php?id=52

 

Microsoft Socializes With telligent

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and privately held telligent announced a partnership
to integrate telligent's Community Server platform into Microsoft Office
SharePoint. This move underscores the growing importance of social networking in
the enterprise.

Sixty-five percent of IT executives who participated in the Nemertes
benchmark, Building the Successful Virtual Workplace, said that they are
deploying shared workspace platforms such as SharePoint. SharePoint users can
now build social networking services on top of their existing collaboration
platforms, reducing complexity and cost by leveraging existing services.

Impacts:

Enterprises: SharePoint customers should leverage existing investments to
create social networking communities around current collaboration environments.

Vendors: Sixty-one percent of enterprise IT executives participating in
Building the Successful Virtual Workplace were deploying or planning to
deploy SharePoint. Make sure your products extend rather than replace existing
platforms.

Investors: Follow the development of the SharePoint ecosystem, paying
attention to other partners such as privately held Atlassian for wikis, and
Newsgator for RSS integration.

Irwin Lazar, Principal Research Analyst and Program Director, Unified
Communications and Collaboration

http://communityserver.org./blogs/announcements/default.aspx
http://www.nemertes.com/nemertes_benchmark_building_a_successful_virtual_workplace

BroadSoft Xtends Web 2.0 to the Service Provider

Privately held BroadSoft announced "Xtended," a set of Web-services
interfaces and APIs, coupled with a developer community and marketplace, to
enable third-party developers to build applications that leverage the BroadWorks
hosted IP-telephony platform.

Only 30% of IT executives participating in the Nemertes' benchmark,
Advanced Communications Services, indicated their organizations are
considering or planning to adopt hosted telephony services. BroadSoft hopes to
drive demand for hosted telephony services by fostering the development of
innovative third-party applications capable of leveraging service provider
infrastructure.

Impacts:

Enterprises: Look for opportunities to leverage applications such as
integration of telephony services with other Software-As-A-Service offerings
including Salesforce.com.

Vendors: Enterprises will adopt hosted services if they add significant value
or flexibility to on-premises alternatives. Look to leverage developer networks
to deliver innovative new applications.

Investors: Follow developments around the BroadSoft XTended marketplace as
independent vendors bring their own products and services to market.

Irwin Lazar, Principal Research Analyst and Program Director, Unified
Communications and Collaboration

http://www.broadsoft.com/xtended/
http://www.nemertes.com/benchmarks/nemertes_benchmarks

 

Building Security In as Opposed to On: Fortify 360

The Fortify 360 application suite targets security vulnerabilities during
application design-time and run-time. Implementing security early in the
development process is becoming increasingly important, driven by the move to
Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA).

Fortify 360's design-time solution underscores the intersection of two trends
highlighted in Nemertes' research: nearly one-quarter of participants in the
Security and Information Protection benchmark rank improving security of
new or upgraded enterprise applications a key goal; and, 70% of participants in
Nemertes' Service Oriented Architectures and Applications benchmark have
implemented a SOA.

Impacts:

Enterprises: There are significant OpEx advantages to building security into
the code and using automated code review versus relying solely on
post-development penetration testing and manual code reviews.

Vendors: Application security, particularly in a SOA-based world must tie to
governance. IBM (NYSE:IBM) has Watchfire, and other SOA governance solution
providers, such as HP (NASDAQ: HPQ) and Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) should look to
integrate Reflex 360-like functionality.

Investors: If SOA governance vendors go on a buying spree, likely targets
include Reflex, DynaTrace and Veracode.

Ted Ritter, Research Analyst

http://www.fortify.com/news-events/releases/2008/2008-3-31_2.jsp
http://www.nemertes.com/products_services/research/benchmarks/nemertes_benchmark_security_and_information_protection