IBM Introduced Cloud Services Platform for Service Providers

IBM introduced its new cloud services platform to service providers saying it will help communications service providers (CSPs) capitalize on the growing market opportunity for public cloud services expected to grow to $89 billion by 2015.

IBM says this will help CSPs to bring their customers new services to run a business and centralize access to their information. It enables them to offer customers a pay-as-you-go model for hundreds of new services and immediately make those services available.

The IBM Cloud Service Provider Platform is a comprehensive set of hardware, software and services to help providers rapidly deliver cloud computing on their own. The company says it includes the most advanced, carrier-grade technology with all the essential security and service management to ensure the service reliability essential to their own customers.

The platform allows CSPs to rapidly transform their business to deliver new services over their existing networks and drive new sources of revenue. They can use it to deliver “as a service" offerings like collaboration software, customer resource management, storage and backup, and industry-specific applications like claims-processing and specialized mobile applications to small and mid-sized businesses as well as large enterprises.

It can be installed in days, allowing service providers to:

• Tap thousands of ready-to-use services and applications and accelerate the launch of new partner services from six months to six weeks
• Provision tens of thousands of virtual machines per hour
• Help partners create new services such as unified communications, collaboration and customer relationship management
• Provide developers a secure development and test cloud
• Offer infrastructure services to employees, partners and customers such as secure storage and virtual office desktop
• Provision new services in less than a minute
• Scale to manage millions of virtual machines
• Use the Tivoli Netcool service assurance portfolio to manage service quality

IBM global telecommunications industry General Manager Scott Stainken said:

“Communications Service Providers play a fundamental role in society. They touch every industry, interconnect them and help make them intelligent. IBM is using its cloud expertise to help the world’s existing communications networks take on a whole new meaning." 

Steve Jobs Attacks Android - Is the Apple CEO Scared?

Steve Jobs, CEO of iPhone maker Apple, is the telecom industry’s resident pot-stirrer. And people eat it up. On Monday, he was at it again during a conference call with analysts to discuss the company’s ridiculously high fiscal fourth-quarter earnings results.

Jobs took the stage for about five minutes, and in those five minutes, fomented a free-for-all over smartphone operating systems – namely, Apple iOS good, Google Android sucky.According to multiple reports, Jobs said:

“Google loves to characterize Android as ‘open,’ and iOS and iPhone as ‘closed’,"

“We find this a bit disingenuous, and clouding the real difference between our two approaches. … Android is very fragmented. Many Android OEMs, including the two largest, HTC and Motorola, install proprietary user interfaces to differentiate themselves from the commodity Android experience. The user is left to figure it all out. Compare this with iPhone, where every handset works the same."

The big question popping out of the telecom world is: Is Jobs worried about the competition he’s seeing from Android, or does he firmly believe iOS is the superior system? We’ll probably never know. Anyway, Jobs went on to talk some smack about “fragmented vs. integrated" platforms, trying to make the case that Android makes life difficult on apps developers and users alike. That’s when the guy who developed Android, Andy Rubin, took to Twitter – for the first time ever – to say (and this is a direct quote, for obvious reasons):

“the definition of open: ‘mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make.’"

Ah, geek speak. Well, the point Rubin was making is that that exact series of words and symbols allows a person to “develop for, hack, or even create their own version of Android," as PC Mag explained.

“The same probably cannot be said for Apple," the publication noted.

What do you say to that, Jobs?

Alas, don’t expect an answer to the question (as if that would happen anyway). The Silicon Valley magnate was too busy preparing for Wednesday’s launch of a new line of Mac computers.

Choosing the Perfect Business Phone System For Your Business

Business phone system is a must in every organization to improve its productivity, no matter how big or small the company is. It helps maintain high-end communication within the company as well as its clients and customers. Business phones provides complete and hassle free customer care solution putting your business in the competitive edge.

Business phone systems are available in the market providing different features like VoIP, call forwarding, voicemail, call recording, email integration, caller groups, call reporting, auto attendant and many more. You can choose a business phone system based on the size of your company and the number of extensions you need.

There are four different models of business phone systems which are available in the market that you can choose from. These are key systems, Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems, KSU-less phones and Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VoIP). Each has different features and capacity to accommodate different number of extensions to meet the varying needs of different business organization.

Key phone systems are controlled by the Key System Unit (KSU). These business phone systems come with extra features which are not present in the ordinary phones. The key phone systems allow an individual to call another person in the office extension and permit one user to stay on hold. These business phone systems can support extensions ranging from five to forty. Therefore they are the best options for business organizations which are small and medium sized. The costs of the key phone systems vary depending on their features.

Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems are for businesses that requires more features, advanced functions and support for more than forty extensions. Previous models of private branch exchange (PBX) systems were too big, but now with the help of advanced technology, these systems are available in sizes which can be placed on a desk.

Moreover, these systems also have all the basic features. Some of them can also be completely programmed. However, these business phone systems involve high costs per user. Therefore, they are suitable for large business organizations only.

The KSU - less phone systems can support up to a maximum of 10 extensions. During installation they are not wired permanently into an office. Therefore they can be shifted from one place to another without much difficulty, whenever required. Some of these phone systems have the features available with the PBX and key phone systems. Therefore, the small business organizations with few employees prefer to get them installed in the office. They are available at comparatively cheaper prices too.

Voice over Internet Protocol or popularly known as VoIP, with its cost effective existence, has become the popular choice of businesses worldwide. Many small business telephone systems on the market today are equipped to handle VoIP telephone lines through either a simple hardware or software upgrade. An upgrade may include adding an Ethernet (or media) port to the system or if already equipped, simply enabling this port through software activation. Simply plugging this unit into your company LAN and perhaps minor firewall configuration you can now start saving on land line costs by calling out over less expensive VoIP lines.

Multi-line business telephone can benefit as well but through a 3rd party VoIP gateway. This gateway converts a VoIP line (sometimes called a "Trunk") to a standard telephone port. You will need as many gateways as you want lines, (or opt for a multi-port unit).

However you may have to plan on spending some time configuring and adjusting the settings of the unit to obtain the proper volume levels while minimizing echo and other artifacts that may be induced when converting the signal from a standard Analog telephone line to SIP or other VoIP protocol. Many high end units come with built in (hardware or software) echo cancellers and noise suppressors which minimize these adjustments (and work very well) but increase the cost of the gateway dramatically.

Have a Convenient Business Phone System

The growing number of businesses nowadays – both small and medium in size – has created a demand for business phone systems that are not only professional and highly-reliable, but also affordable and flexible. This is why the voice over internet protocol (VoIP) option for voice communication has become quite popular – because it requires minimal hardware and manpower for setting up, less money needs to be spent activating and maintaining the system. And because the system is powered by the internet, your phones have little chance of going down when power is lost or when phone cables go down.

Most VoIP business phone services can offer your business this kind of convenience, but there are other service providers that believe you should expect more. RingCentral, for example, wants to make sure that your phone system is equipped with all the features that your company will need to succeed in its industry. Not only does it ensure that your phone system is activated as soon as you have it set up, it also gives you the ability to easily modify your phone system settings to better suit your business communication needs.

You can make sure that your phone system is set up to send you your calls and voicemail, no matter where you happen to be. Receive important calls via your mobile phone or home phone after business hours – the service runs 24/7. With the help of its visual interface, you can easily make changes to your virtual phone system without the hassle of having to physically re-route phone lines. And because your phone system is virtual, you make it so that your business phone system need not be affected when you move your base of operations from one state to another.

RingCentral provides its customers with convenience that not only involves affordability, but also immediate activation, user-friendly system customization, and high-quality execution of features.