Beth Cohen

Chris Taylor, telecommunications manager of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, had a serious problem. His mission critical Nortel ”Companion” 900Mz phone system was no longer supported and he needed a replacement system double quick. With 2 million square feet of open exhibition space spread over two buildings, he needed a communications system that provided roaming […]

Chris Taylor, telecommunications manager with the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, had a serious problem. His mission critical Nortel ”Companion” 900Mz phone system was no longer supported and he needed a replacement system double quick. With 2 million square feet of open exhibition space spread over two buildings, he needed a communications system that provided roaming […]

Are you still backing up your systems the old-fashioned way – on tape? Have you been mirroring server disks and dutifully dropping tapes into the stacker year after year, only to see your company grow to 10 offices in five states with a recently opened outsourced branch in, say, Bangalore? And now your boss has […]

Are your legacy IT systems making your business vulnerable? One of my client companies recently paid $50,000 for a 20-year-old Data General computer because they have a homegrown business critical software application that runs exclusively on the DG hardware. When the old hardware died, they were forced to replace it at great expense. The person […]

Are your telecom and ISP contracts up for renewal soon? Even if they are not, if it’s been a couple of years since you last looked at them, it may well be time to dust them off for review. Between deregulation, the convergence of technologies, and the glut of available infrastructure, the telecom and datacom […]

Imagine having DSL- or T1-speed communications access for all your office locations, not just in office parks or urban centers. Would you like to provide metropolitan area broadband-speed links for all your staff, without leasing expensive circuits or installing costly fiber? As a home user, would you like to have a wireless broadband alternative to […]

Consider the following scenarios: You’re planning to install the latest Voice over IP (VoIP) phone system to minimize cabling build-out costs when your company moves into new offices next month. Just imagine if you didn’t need to be concerned about losing your telecommunications system every time there’s a power outage. The company staff has been […]

A few years ago one of the engineering VPs I provided IT support for called me up and asked if I could help fix a problem with his laptop. I told him he could open a helpdesk ticket and that they would take care of him. He refused, so I opened the ticket for him […]

A few years ago, I had lunch with a Bob Olshansky, a visionary at GTE Labs who was regaling me with the benefits of moving all voice traffic over to IP data lines. His vision was of a great convergence of technologies; everything was going to be part of the great internet revolution — data, […]

Passwords, SecureID cards, pass cards, yet more passwords? I have corporate accounts with my clients, tens of personal accounts and overwhelming numbers of passwords, not to mention the secure ID cards, bank Personal Identification Numbers (PIN) and other accoutrements of the modern connected life. How can we possibly remember all our passwords? Yes, I admit […]