TechwiseTV is running ran a webinar on UC and collaboration, together with a real-time conversation via Twitter, (under the tag #twtv): “Pushing the Boundaries of Collaboration”

I am of the view that effective communication and collaboration tools are the best competitive weapon that any business can have. As the description of the webinar said, “[they] overcome the technology walls between organizations, while preserving security.” [more...]

When I last spoke with  F5 Networks (F5 Networks – A Case of Applications and the Network) it was clear that they were getting more focussed on the higher application layers. Our discussion touched on Secerno, a specialist database security company based out of the UK. Today the two companies have announced a joint solution which should be of interest to anyone building web-based applications that have a database back-end. [more...]

Yesterday was spent huddled up in a Dockland’s hotel in London, discussing issues of identity management. The Whitehall Media IDM2008 event brought together public and private sector experts to talk about the big, and little, challenges of identity assurance in today’s IT infrastructures. 

From document management to remote access, compliance to shiny web 2.0 style portals, identity management is central to running a secure and efficient IT infrastructure. All the more distressing that it is also one of the most problematic elements of business IT architectures, with forests of directory trees and multiple ‘authoritative’ information sources. Now is the time to get that sorted out. [more...]

Another hosting provider that exhibited at eCommerce Expo in London was NetBenefit. Mark Stephens and Kristel Scattergood of NetBenefit were kind enough to spend some time in conversation about where they see the challenges and opportunities for users of hosting.

NetBenefit are part of the publicly listed Group NBT plc (LSE:NBT) and have a broad customer base. They first came to my attention for their domain registration services, but also offer managed hosting and co-location. They have started to provide virtualization services, based on VMWare technology, and I’m sure we’ll hear more about that later this year. [more...]

Rackspace (UK site here) has been in the news, and rattling around the blogosphere a fair amount these last few weeks. Not just because they are the top dedicated hosting provider (see Gartner report), but because of their recent adventures:

 

• Acquired on-line storage company Jungle Disk.
• Acquired specialist hoster Slicehost. (see Rich Miller’s post)
• Struck a CDN Deal with Limelight Networks (detail at CloudPundit)
• And launched a cloud strategy with Cloud Sites, Cloud Files and Cloud Servers.

I think they’ve rather swallowed this cloud computing thing, and swept in talent from the space. This week’s ecommerce expo in London gave me the chance to catch up with Fabio Torlini, Marketing Director of Rackspace. [more...]