Nemertes Impact Analysis

Expert Insight On How Recent News Affects You

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YouNext? What Happened to YouTube Could Happen to Any Enterprise

When Pakistan decided to censor YouTube this weekend, it unfortunately
botched the technology. By issuing BGP routes that black-holed YoutTube,
government officials hoped to stop all national access. Unfortunately the BGP
routes leaked, causing a worldwide re-route of all YouTube requests to a
blackhole in Pakistan.

Not only was YouTube effectively off the global Internet for a few hours, but
Pakistan's actions then backfired. First their Internet connectivity became
saturated as the world's traffic to the world's busiest site ended up on their
doorstep. Then, Pakistan's upstream providers cut Pakistan off the Internet to
stop the flood. YouTube re-published granular routes to override the poisoned
routes and everything was back to normal. That is, except for Pakistan's
connectivity and technical savvy reputation.

Impacts

Enterprises: National or regional censorship efforts can have global
unintended consequences. Your Internet presence, or that of your major
suppliers, partners and customers may be effectively denied intentionally or
accidentally. Any company could fall on the wrong side of someone's parochial
customs, morals or national interest. Enterprises should have contingency plans
for denial-of-service attacks, and they should evaluate their use of YouTube as
a marketing distribution channel

Vendors: Review your Internet presence and its susceptibility to broad-brush
actions by local or remote ISPs. The Internet can route around censorship in the
longer term, but you may suffer in the short term.

Investors: The overlap between consumer and business services is often
blurry, but the lesson here may be the opposite of what is obvious. Advertiser
dollars are better motivators than SLAs. Consumer-class services with billions
of eyeballs may be more reliable (or recover faster) than business class
services with strict SLAs.

- Andreas Antonopoulos, Senior Vice President and Founding Partner

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9877614-7.html

802.11n Standards Becoming 'Academic'

Last week, Duke University announced it's selected the 802.11n WiFi standard
for its massive new WiFi installation. That, combined with similar announcements
by the University of Miami, Concordia University, and Lodgian (a large hotel
management firm), signals the end to any remaining doubts about 802.11n
viability.

As Nemertes has noted in previous analysis, Cisco's 2007 move to capture
802.11n early has galvanized the WiFi market. Many vendors have moved to push
802.11n products to customers. In addition to Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO ), these
include: Aruba (NASDAQ: ARUN), Ruckus ( Private ), Xirrus, Trapeze, and Meru.

Impacts:

Enterprises: 802.11n can no longer be considered an emerging standard. Any
new WiFi deployments or retrofits need to be 802.11n-compatible. Increasingly,
other WiFi flavors will be unavailable.

Vendors: The war is over. If you don't have viable 802.11n offerings now, you
may have a serious competitive liability.

Investors: Vendors of 802.11n solutions will do better competitively. Any
investments in WiFi vendors without such solutions must be examined closely.

- Mike Jude, Ph.D. Senior Analyst

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/022008-duke-cisco-11n.html?fsrc=rss-wireless
http://www.nemertes.com

EMC Buys Pi to Serve SMBs

EMC (NYSE:EMC) bought storage software vendor and service provider Pi
Corporation to fill out EMC's "cloud computing" strategy for delivering
storage-related services over the Internet to SMBs and enterprises. Pi products
center on information management and retrieval, currently aimed at consumers and
their personal data (photos, videos, etc).

Nemertes' Services Oriented Architectures and Applications benchmark
finds that businesses of all size are embracing software as a service (SaaS).
More than 60% of participants now use SaaS for at least one full application -
and that the willingness to use services "in the cloud" is on the rise
generally.

Impacts:

Enterprises: SMB IT should closely compare cloud-based storage to developing
a robust storage infrastructure.

Vendors: Storage software vendors should examine the possibility of offering
(or teaming with service-providers to offer) SaaS versions.

Investors: Small companies oriented on the consumer market can repurpose
their products for SMBs, and consequently be attractive acquisition targets.

--John Burke, Principal Research Analyst

http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2008/20080221-01.htm
http://www.nemertes.com/benchmarks/nemertes_benchmark_softwareoriented_architectures_and_applications_vendors_and_technologies

Intelliverse Announcement Demonstrates Growth in SIP Trunking

Privately held Intelliverse announced that it was adding SIP Trunking
capabilities to its "COMPLETEcall" hosted VOIP solutions. SIP Trunking enables
customers to connect their SIP-enabled VOIP systems with the PSTN without the
need for gateways or dedicated PSTN trunks.

More than 45% of IT executives interviewed for the upcoming Nemertes'
benchmark, Advanced Communications Services, expressed an interest in SIP
Trunking services as a way to reduce costs and improve call routing flexibility.

Impacts:

Enterprises: Investigate SIP trunking services to reduce PSTN access costs
and add flexibility for routing of incoming calls. SIP trunking services are
rapidly growing in availability.

Vendors: We expect strong growth in enterprise adoption of SIP trunking
services. Achieve SIPconnect certification to ensure interoperability.

Investors: CLECs such as Cbeyond, AGN Networks, and now Intelliverse have
emerged as early SIP trunking providers. Evaluate the potential for these
companies to beat larger service providers to market and watch for consolidation
as larger providers grow their own offerings.

- Irwin Lazar, Principal Research Analyst and Program Director

http://www.intelliverse.com/corporate/release25.shtml

Credant Streamlines Disk Encryption, Potentially Making Compliance Easier

Credant Technologies announced enhancements to its endpoint encryption
solution, eliminating a second encryption password, yet still protecting system
files. Reducing the number of end-user passwords should result in lower
administration overhead with increased ease of use.

In Nemertes' Security and Information Protection benchmark, one of the
top priorities among IT executives is protection of data residing on laptops.
The dominant method is encryption. A concern with any end-user security
application is complexity since there is an inverse relationship between
complexity and user compliance. Streamlining the end-user experience is a good
move to increasing adoption.

Impacts:

Enterprises: If you are not yet implementing an encryption solution for data
at rest, start now. Pay close attention to the relationship between end-user
compliance and ease-of-use.

Vendors: Competitive endpoint security solutions should focus on ease-of-use.
Hard-disk-only encryption solutions face increased threat from integrated
solutions, like Credent's.

Investors: Credant's announcement puts pressure on other hard-disk encryption
solutions from Checkpoint (NYSE: CKP), GuardianEdge, McAfee (NYSE:MFE) and
Utimaco (FRA:USA).

-Ted Ritter, Research Analyst

http://www.credant.com/content/view/314/105/
http://www.nemertes.com/products_services/research/benchmarks/nemertes_benchmark_security_and_information_protection

Riverbed's RSP Aims to Open Up Acceleration

The recent announcement by Riverbed (NASDAQ:RVBD) of the RIOS Services
Platform opens up its application acceleration platform to third-party
providers, which can now embed their applications in Riverbed's Steelhead
appliances. Available with the first version of RSP is the ability to run
print-serving capabilities (provided by Riverbed). Additional
functionality--including streaming video acceleration, embedded IP address
management and UTM--is to be provided by third parties relatively shortly.

Impacts:

Enterprise: All-in-one doesn't mean settling for less than best-of-breed.
Push vendors to adopt similarly open strategies.

Vendors: See above. Don't assume your solution is the best.

Investors: Licensing may be a viable revenue source for new entrants. Keep a
close eye on licensing revenues.

- Johna Till Johnson, President and Sr. Founding Partner

http://www.crn.com/networking/206900040

Concerned About VOIP Eavesdropping? Assess ShoreTel/Enterasys Partnership

Enterasys and ShoreTel (NASDAQ: SHOR) have allied, resulting in potential
improvements in Voice Over IP security. Enterasys says its switches will detect
unauthorized use of ShoreTel's VOIP system, monitor for threats, and help
improve reliability. The switches can prioritize unified-communications traffic,
helping to improve overall performance.

Although 96% of organizations say they haven't experienced a VOIP security
incident, it's only a matter of time before they do, according to Nemertes'
Building the Successful Workplace benchmark. And 60% expect providers to
help address VOIP security.

Impacts:

For enterprise: Consider ShoreTel on your list of VOIP vendors. ShoreTel's
partnership program continues to grow, and because of its attention to security
and performance, it's winning business from larger companies.

For vendors: Continue to cultivate your partner ecosystem to address
ancillary-but important-areas related to VOIP and UC. Just because security or
performance monitoring may not be your core expertise doesn't mean customers
don't expect a solution, even if it's provided by a partner.

For investors: Invest in VOIP vendors with large partnership programs that
address all areas of communication. Avaya, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), and Nortel
(NYSE: NT) all have large programs. ShoreTel isn't far behind.

Robin Gareiss, Executive Vice President & Sr. Founding Partner

http://www.nemertes.com/issue_papers/nemertes_issue_paper_voip_security_0
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/021508-enterasys-shoretel.html

Microsoft/SAP Announcement Underscores Need for Vertical Solutions

 

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and SAP (NYSE:SAP) announced a partnership for
delivering collaborative solutions aimed at improving healthcare business
processes.

In the Nemertes' benchmark, Building the Successful Virtual Workplace,
IT executives say they want demonstrable business benefits to justify
investments in collaboration tools and technologies. These include the ability
to grow revenue, improve employee productivity, and reduce costs.

Impacts:

Enterprises: Vendors increasingly are delivering solutions for specific
verticals or horizontal business purposes. Work with your vendors to understand
their vertical offerings and key partnerships.

Vendors: Don't sell products; sell solutions. Be prepared to tell your
prospects exactly how your solution can solve specific business challenges.

Investors: Success is dependent on teaming with firms with specific vertical
expertise. Look for opportunities with professional-services companies such as
privately held Urix (healthcare) and 1st Software (financial services).

- Irwin Lazar, Principal Research Analyst and Program Director

http://www.nemertes.com/nemertes_benchmark_building_a_successful_virtual_workplace
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/feb08/02-24SAPHealthcareITPR.mspx