Wireless LANs are becoming an essential element in the enterprise infrastructure, and as the market matures, buyers face a growing number of choices. In terms of AP architectures, there are centralized versus distributed versus virtual options to consider, and a raft of security options -- the pre-standard Draft 2.0 802.11n radio link, WPA2 and 802.1x, Now that voice is moving onto the WLAN, security takes on new importance. This session will bring you up-to-date on the important WLAN developments and provide guidance for selecting your WLAN infrastructure. KEY QUESTIONS: * What are the trade-offs between centralized versus distributed WLAN switching architectures, and why should I care? * Has Cisco's new Motion Architecture really altered the WLAN landscape? * Is it wise to deploy the set of 802.11n Draft 2.0 products when the final standard will not be released until 2009? * Under what conditions do stand-alone access points make sense? * What are the new security threats and what steps can we take to mitigate them?
Michael Finneran is an independent consultant and industry analyst specializing in wireless technologies, mobile unified communications, and fixed-mobile convergence. With over 30-years in the networking and wide range of experience, he is a widely recognized expert in the field. He has recently published his first book titled "Voice Over Wireless LANs- The Complete Guide" (Elsevier, 2008), though his expertise spans the full range of wireless technologies including Wi-Fi, 3G/4G Cellular, WiMAX, and RFID. A lively and informative speaker, Michael has appeared at hundreds of trade shows and industry conferences including VoiceCon and InterOp; he now serves as the program chair for Wireless and Mobility at VoiceCon. In the consulting area, Mr. Finneran has provided assistance to carriers, equipment vendors, end users, and investment firms in the US and overseas. For twenty-three years he wrote the Networking Intelligence column for Business Communications Review. He now contributes on wireless and mobility to NoJitter as well as UC Strategies. He has published numerous articles and white papers and has contributed to Computerworld, Data Communications, The Ticker, and The ACUTA Journal. A long-time member of the IEEE and the Society of Telecommunications Consultants, Mr. Finneran holds a Masters Degree in Marketing and Management Information Systems from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
Fixed mobile convergence is coming, but there are still a wide array of options that range from a simple simultaneous ring feature to solutions that extend presence-enabled directories and visual voicemail to mobile devices worldwide. The cellular carriers are also hinting at plans to introduce their own FMC services based on either Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) or the more comprehensive IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). Meanwhile, IP-PBX vendors, technology partners and now WLAN switch vendors are all proposing their own solutions. This session will provide an overview of FMC and mobile unified communications and a description of the various strategies now being proposed. KEY QUESTIONS: * To what extent is FMC really ready for prime time? * Will FMC allow you to reduce your cellular costs? * What are the advantages of rooting an FMC solution in an IP PBX, a WLAN Switch, or an adjunct appliance? * Which of the solutions require dual mode cellular handsets, and will those handsets require special software to operate? * How will the picture change when and if the cellular carriers finally embrace FMC?
Michael Finneran is an independent consultant and industry analyst specializing in wireless technologies, mobile unified communications, and fixed-mobile convergence. With over 30-years in the networking and wide range of experience, he is a widely recognized expert in the field. He has recently published his first book titled "Voice Over Wireless LANs- The Complete Guide" (Elsevier, 2008), though his expertise spans the full range of wireless technologies including Wi-Fi, 3G/4G Cellular, WiMAX, and RFID. A lively and informative speaker, Michael has appeared at hundreds of trade shows and industry conferences including VoiceCon and InterOp; he now serves as the program chair for Wireless and Mobility at VoiceCon. In the consulting area, Mr. Finneran has provided assistance to carriers, equipment vendors, end users, and investment firms in the US and overseas. For twenty-three years he wrote the Networking Intelligence column for Business Communications Review. He now contributes on wireless and mobility to NoJitter as well as UC Strategies. He has published numerous articles and white papers and has contributed to Computerworld, Data Communications, The Ticker, and The ACUTA Journal. A long-time member of the IEEE and the Society of Telecommunications Consultants, Mr. Finneran holds a Masters Degree in Marketing and Management Information Systems from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
Dan Jacobson is Senior Portfolio Manager for Converged Voice Services at Sprint Nextel. He leads a dynamic team of individuals responsible for the technical development and life cycle management of integrated wireline and wireless services. His team launched Sprint Wireless Integration, a product which extends the PBX functionality to a mobile handset. Dan has over 20 years of industry experience across a diverse set of disciplines including VoIP, FMC and TDM product development, network, information technology, business development, operations, marketing, regulatory and customer service. Dan received his Masters in Business Administration from Baker University and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics from University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Panelist - Imran Akbar, Vice President and GM of Converged Enterprise Communications, Motorola, Inc.
Imran Akbar is the Vice President and General Manager of Converged Enterprise Communications at Motorola. Currently, he is leading Motorola's initiative into converged communications, which includes bringing forth the single (WiFi) and dual (WiFi and Cellular) mode solutions with voice services like Dispatch (PTT) and PBX mobilization. He also played a key role in the acquisition of Symbol Technologies and its integration into Motorola. Akbar has more than 15 years of experience in the Telecom and IT industries. His responsibilities have included general management, strategy and business development, and corporate finance at Motorola, Unisys and Sprint. Akbar has been with Motorola since 2000.
Panelist - Pejman Roshan, VP of Marketing and Co-Founder , Agito Networks
Mr. Pejman Roshan is the Vice President of Marketing and a founder of Agito Networks, responsible for outbound marketing and product management. He brings more than 16 years of wireless expertise and an extensive track record to the company. Prior to founding Agito, Mr. Roshan was Product Line Manager in the Cisco Systems Wireless Networking Business Unit, responsible for software, security, voice and WLAN management products. Roshan joined Cisco's Wireless Networking Business Unit just after its acquisition of Aironet in 2000, helping drive Cisco into its wireless market leadership position. Prior to his product role at Cisco, Mr. Roshan spent eight years as a network engineer and architect. Mr. Roshan designed and deployed large-scale networks for companies such as Cisco Systems and Automatic Data Processing (ADP). Mr. Roshan's accomplishments include participation in the IEEE 802.11 task groups responsible for security (802.11i) and QoS (802.11e); co-authoring the Cisco Press book 802.11 Wireless LAN Fundamentals, published by Cisco Systems in 2004; as well as publishing numerous wireless security and wireless voice white papers. Mr. Roshan earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from California Polytechnic (Cal Poly) University.
Panelist - Rich Watson, Director of Product Marketing, Divitas Networks
In the mobile UC environment, users will be provided with presence-enabled directories, visual voicemail, and the full range of desktop UC capabilities on their mobile device. But getting from where we are today to that mobile UC future is going to require investment by all parts of the industry - carriers, enterprises, equipment and software vendors. In this session, a panel of wireless carriers, VOIP and desktop application vendors, and consultants will describe their best solutions for mobile employees, and how to integrate those with our wired communication systems. KEY QUESTIONS: * What UC capabilities are available on mobile devices/services today? Can these integrate with the IP Telephony and UC infrastructures, and do they need to? * What are the key impediments (such as bandwidth or battery life) to end users' enjoying the same functionality on a wireless UC application as its wired counterpart? * Can wireless UC solutions be implemented in conjunction with the enterprise infrastructure, or will service providers only offer these as their own standalone services? Do we have to wait for FMC to become widely available? * Are video and collaboration solutions viable UC applications for mobile users today? * What does the picture look like for operations and service workers versus office workers?
Speaker - David Leach, Senior Marketing Manager, Siemens Enterprise Communications
David has been one of the chief creative forces behind Siemens emergence as a leader in the presence-based, unified communications landscape over the past six years. Holding various positions within Siemens over the past 20 years, David has spent the last six plus years building the marketing vision and driving the success of OpenScape. Now he is focused on building broad market awareness of the benefits presence offers for business communications in the next decade.
Speaker - Eran Shtiegman, Principal Group Manager, Office Communications Group, Microsoft
As Group Manager for mobility within the Unified Communications Group at Microsoft, Eran Shtiegman is responsible for the roadmap, feature set and execution of mobility related efforts within UCG including Office Communicator Mobile. Previous to his current position Eran was the Group Program Manager for Office Communicator where he was responsible for both the release of Office Communicator 2005 and 2007. Eran has been with the UCG team since joining Microsoft 6 years ago. Prior to joining Microsoft Eran worked at a variety of companies in the VoIP space including Vocaltec Communications where we was Director of Product Management. Eran has a Bachelor in Computer Science from the University of Rochester.
As a senior manager, Isabelle Guis is responsible for the marketing strategy of Cisco Mobility Solutions with a heavy emphasis on developing marketing activities for Context Aware Mobility, Fixed Mobile Convergence (including Mobile Unified Communications), and Mobility solutions for Healthcare and Manufacturing. Isabelle was instrumental in the launch of Cisco Motion, Cisco vision and associated strategy to empower IT to meet and exceed business mobility demands. She leads the efforts to grow Cisco mobility eco-system so technology partners can integrate with the Cisco Motion open architecture and API. Her team also drives messaging and tools on products and solutions to help enable sales and partners to promote the vast potential business opportunities offered by Cisco Mobility solutions. Prior to Cisco, Isabelle served at Nortel Networks for seven years in a variety of roles in the Enterprise and Service Provider divisions from R&D engineer, to product line pricing, product manager and product marketing manager. As a senior product marketing manager for Nortel, Isabelle was responsible for the Wireless LAN 2200 series portfolio. She also has strong international wireless experience, having launched 3G technologies in Europe and North America, and was instrumental in the company's involvement in WLAN technologies for both Hot Spots and Enterprises. Isabelle holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Supelec in France and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Speaker - Sean McManus, Manager, Voice Solutions, Software Product Management Group, Research In Motion
Sean McManus is a Manager for Voice Solutions, Software Product Management at Research In Motion (RIM), makers of the BlackBerry® smartphone. Sean is responsible for articulating RIM's Enterprise Voice Strategy to large global accounts. Sean has over 17 years experience selling and marketing advanced voice solutions, including call centres, unified messaging, IP Telephony and IVR. Prior to joining RIM, Sean worked at IBM Global Services and a number of private firms in the voice and telecom industry.
Moderator - Jim Burton, CXO, CT Link/UCStrategies.com
Jim Burton is Founder and CEO of CT Link, LLC. Burton founded the consulting firm in 1989 to help clients in the converging voice, data and networking industries with strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances and distribution issues. In the early 1990s, Burton recognized the challenges vendors and the channel faced as they developed and installed integrated voice/data products. He became the leading authority in the voice/data integration industry and is credited with "coining" the term computer-telephone integration (CTI). Burton helped companies including Microsoft and Intel enter the voice market and helped AT&T (now Avaya), Mitel, NEC, Nortel, Siemens and Toshiba with their CTI strategies. In the late 1990s, venture capitalists turned to Burton for help in evaluating potential investments in IP PBX start-ups. He went on to help these and other companies with strategic planning and partnering, including NBX (acquired by 3Com, Selsius (acquired by Cisco), ShoreTel (IPO 2007) and Sphere Communications (acquired by NEC). In 1998 Burton recognized the telecommunications industry was on the verge of a major shift, from circuit switch to packet switch (IP) technology and cofounded Circa Communications to develop IP phones to address the emerging market. Polycom acquired Circa in 2000. The Circa acquisition has been a major contributor to Polycom's growth during the past several years. In the early 2000s, Burton began focusing on wireless services and technologies. In 2005 Burton started helping vendors with their Unified Communications strategy and in 2006, along with several colleagues, created a web site, UCStrategies.com, to provide information for enterprise customers and vendors.
Cellular service has become the fastest growing element in the enterprise communications budget, but remains poorly managed. As organizations move from a strategy based on reimbursing employees to centrally managed cellular service contracts, how should they manage this purchase to ensure they get the best value? This session is designed to give you practical guidance regarding cellular service management and some basic strategies to get your cellular spend under control KEY QUESTIONS: * What type of cellular pricing options are available for voice and data? * Should I be looking at negotiating for indoor antenna system as part of the contract? What about cellular gateways? * Will the open handset initiatives and FMC have a major impact on cellular costs? * What is the status of the IRS position on withholding taxes for personal use of company cell phones?
Speaker - Robert Harris, Consultant, Communications Advantage, Inc.
Robert Lee Harris is president of Communications Advantage Inc., a consulting firm specializing in strategic technology acquisition, implementation and cost management. His firm's TEM strategies are directly credited with saving enterprises more than $5 million. He's been involved in the research and implementation of TEM software solutions since 2003. Robert has also served on the board of directors of the Society of Telecommunications Consultants and was a frequent contributor to the magazine Business Communications Review.
Stephen Leaden is founder and President of Leaden Associates, Inc., an independent Telecommunications IT consulting firm providing specialized support in Telecommunications technologies and ROI strategies. Mr. Leaden has been in the Telecommunications field over 25 years, with 17 of those with his own firm. Clients include recognized enterprise clients in healthcare/education, manufacturing, financial services, publishing, and government vertical market segments. Mr. Leaden's firm focuses as an extension of IT staff to facilitate the design, procurement, project implementation, and outsourcing for converged voice and data solutions. During their engagement, Leaden Associates proactively adds value via ROI strategies integrated into the projects they serve on. Mr. Leaden's practice has focused on Voice over IP and Unified Communications and key market trends in these areas - he has spoken at national and International conferences on VoIP, has written four papers on VoIP strategies, troubleshooting and security, and has been quoted in national industry publications including BCR Magazine, Computer World, Information Week, and the Washington Post among others. Mr. Leaden is on the faculty of BCR Training and teaches two day training courses entitled "Optimizing Enterprise Networks" and "Cost Control of Wired and Wireless Networks: Best Practices". Mr. Leaden is Past President and member of the Society of Telecommunications Consultants, a national Telecommunications association that requires objectivity and professionalism as a prerequisite for membership. Mr. Leaden's degree is from Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York.
More and more critical business applications are migrating from laptops to PDAs and smartphones, but, these small form-factor devices introduce a number of new considerations into the design process. There are issues with display sizes, input mechanisms and ruggedness; and desirable features like bright displays and high-speed network interfaces are power hungry, which impacts battery life. For applications support we can now choose among Windows Mobile, RIM, Symbian, LiMO, iPhone, and the developing Google Android platform, but more importantly, the developer communities that are growing up around each of those. Finally, we have to determine whether to design apps to run directly on the mobile device itself or whether wireless networks can provide reliable access. In this session we'll get to ask the major vendors what they have, how Apple's iPhone has impact their plans and how they see the market developing. KEY QUESTIONS: * What's keeping organizations from advancing their mobility plans beyond push email? * How are the other manufactures adjusting their product plans based on the iPhone? Can we QWERTY on a touch screen or are buttons really better? * What are prospect for fixed mobile convergence, or should we simply stick with the cellular carriers? * How big a concern is mobile malware and what are the overall security concerns with mobile devices? * Does the iPhone solution provide the type of management and security features enterprise users need?
As the Americas Senior Technical Product Manager, Aaron Williams is responsible for managing the Marketing activites for Nokia Mobilible Unifed Communications for the Americas. In this role, Aaron oversees the creation and execution of the organization's go-to-market strategy, Cisco & Alcatel-Lucent collaboration and product development activities for Call Connect. Aaron is based in San Diego and reports to the Director of Mobile UC, Olli Makinen in Espoo, Finland. Aaron began with Nokia in March of 2004. Prior to joining Nokia, Aaron served as Senior Sales Engineer for ICG Communications. In this position, he served on the S.W.A.T team and executed the sale of over 5000 VoicePipe seats, a managed business service offering of VoIP and data services. Aaron has an impressive track record of success leading sales and marketing teams in the Americas and APAC. Aaron has successfully served as Senior Sales Engineer for Crossbeam Systems, Vividon, InfoLibria and 5 years as a Network Engineer for 3Com Commworks Carrier division. Aaron holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from the University of San Diego, CA.
Panelist - David Heit, Director Enterprise Product Management , Research In Motion
Mr. Heit has been with Research In Motion (RIM) since 2000. As part of his efforts at RIM, Mr. Heit has established the BlackBerry extensibility strategy, succeeding in transforming BlackBerry into a wireless platform for all applications. Mr. Heit was also integral in leading the collaborative development and release of the BlackBerry solution for Novell GroupWise. Prior to his time at RIM, Mr. Heit spent 14 years with NCR Corporation and AT&T Global Information Solutions in Product Management, Sales Management and Consulting roles. He has experience working with products ranging in areas such as document management and workflow, financial transaction processing equipment, automatic handwriting recognition and high volume document image archives. Mr. Heit has worked with many Fortune 1000 organizations re-engineering business processes with new technology techniques. This has ranged in areas from tax processing to field data collection. Mr. Heit is a sought after public speaker, having participated in a variety of industry events and trade shows on a number of different topics. Examples include speaking at CTIA IT & Entertainment on Location Based Services and the Mobile Web, JavaOne on the Future of Java in Wireless Communications, and at Gartner CRM on Utilizing BlackBerry for Salesforce Automation. Mr. Heit holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Waterloo and a Master of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier Univeristy in Waterloo, Ontario.
Panelist - Mario DiPrizio, VP of Architecture and Engineering, Motorola, Inc.
Panelist - Russ Knister, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Motorola, Inc.
Russ Knister leads product marketing for Motorola's Converged Enterprise Communications (CEC) product division, with responsibility for strategic planning, channel development and marketing. Prior to CEC Russ worked in Corporate Development's acquisition integration team as the integration manager for Good Technology. He also led business development for the Mobile Office product group in the Enterprise Mobility business. Before that he led business development and ecosystem development for the Seamless Mobility (Windows Mobile) product group in Mobile Devices (MDb), which he joined from the MDb strategy team. Russ came to Motorola in 2002 from IBM Global Services' Strategy Practice. He joined IBM when it acquired Mainspring, an eStrategy consulting firm. Prior to Mainspring he ran Professional Services at Installshield Software Corporation and before that was a senior engagement manager at McKinsey & Company focused on electronics and telecommunications clients. Russ holds an MBA from Harvard, and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Michael Finneran is an independent consultant and industry analyst specializing in wireless technologies, mobile unified communications, and fixed-mobile convergence. With over 30-years in the networking and wide range of experience, he is a widely recognized expert in the field. He has recently published his first book titled "Voice Over Wireless LANs- The Complete Guide" (Elsevier, 2008), though his expertise spans the full range of wireless technologies including Wi-Fi, 3G/4G Cellular, WiMAX, and RFID. A lively and informative speaker, Michael has appeared at hundreds of trade shows and industry conferences including VoiceCon and InterOp; he now serves as the program chair for Wireless and Mobility at VoiceCon. In the consulting area, Mr. Finneran has provided assistance to carriers, equipment vendors, end users, and investment firms in the US and overseas. For twenty-three years he wrote the Networking Intelligence column for Business Communications Review. He now contributes on wireless and mobility to NoJitter as well as UC Strategies. He has published numerous articles and white papers and has contributed to Computerworld, Data Communications, The Ticker, and The ACUTA Journal. A long-time member of the IEEE and the Society of Telecommunications Consultants, Mr. Finneran holds a Masters Degree in Marketing and Management Information Systems from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
Traditional cellular service remains the dominant mobility option, but cell phones don't always work indoors, particularly in a building core or basement. To boost cellular reception, a growing number of enterprises are building indoor or distributed antenna systems that distribute the cellular signal within a facility. This session will examine the options for improving indoor cellular coverage and compare their capabilities and limitations. It will also cover the business aspects of this decision, in particular, who will pay for the antenna system -- you or your cellular carrier. KEY QUESTIONS: * Why is indoor cellular coverage so problematic? * What are the options for improving the situation? * Is there more than one kind of distributed antenna system, and what are the differences? * What are microcells, picocells, and femtocells? * Will one of these solutions improve my wireless data as well as my wireless voice coverage?
Michael Finneran is an independent consultant and industry analyst specializing in wireless technologies, mobile unified communications, and fixed-mobile convergence. With over 30-years in the networking and wide range of experience, he is a widely recognized expert in the field. He has recently published his first book titled "Voice Over Wireless LANs- The Complete Guide" (Elsevier, 2008), though his expertise spans the full range of wireless technologies including Wi-Fi, 3G/4G Cellular, WiMAX, and RFID. A lively and informative speaker, Michael has appeared at hundreds of trade shows and industry conferences including VoiceCon and InterOp; he now serves as the program chair for Wireless and Mobility at VoiceCon. In the consulting area, Mr. Finneran has provided assistance to carriers, equipment vendors, end users, and investment firms in the US and overseas. For twenty-three years he wrote the Networking Intelligence column for Business Communications Review. He now contributes on wireless and mobility to NoJitter as well as UC Strategies. He has published numerous articles and white papers and has contributed to Computerworld, Data Communications, The Ticker, and The ACUTA Journal. A long-time member of the IEEE and the Society of Telecommunications Consultants, Mr. Finneran holds a Masters Degree in Marketing and Management Information Systems from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
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