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Join Curt Franklin as he tells reviews the Kingston Data Traveler Secure and discusses Strategic E-Mail security.

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BT bought Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) Counterpane this week for "tens of millions of dollars," according to Chuck Pol, president of BT Americas.

Chances are your organization is clamoring to jump on the Web 2.0 bandwagon. Spurred by the popularity of slick applications such as Google Maps that look more like desktop apps than Web sites, Web
2.0-enabling technologies including Ajax and mashups are all the rage
right now.

But the reality is that Web 2.0 and RIA (Rich Internet Applications)
will dramatically change your infrastructure in terms of monitoring,
management, deployment and availability.

Extreme Networks is trying to strengthen it’s play in the mid-size market with two limited engagement assessment services, a Mid-Size Networks Security Assessment, $6000, and a Convergence Readiness Assessment, starting at $9500. The two day on-site assessments aimed at assisting mid-sized companies with defining the scope of security and convergence projects and determining the steps to get from where the company is to where it needs to be. Extreme claims that the assessment is vendor neutral, and that may be the case for equipment that Extreme doesn’t sell, but I bet any assessment will suggest Extreme hardware or it’s partners products.

Let’s face it, Extreme is a one trick pony in a sea of competitors that have diversified their product offerings in the last few years. Extreme has to do something to stay in the game and compete against vendors like Cisco, HP, and Nortel, that can offer broader solutions and going after the mid-market makes sense for them. I chuckle every time I talk to a vendor that is targeting the Fortune 500 or Fortune 100 because there are only 500 or 100 potential customers and a whole bunch of competitors. Do the math. It’s refreshing to see a vendor target a smaller, and much larger customer base.

While smaller IT shops, and Extreme’s initiative is aimed at companies ranging in size from 100 to 1000 users, probably do have more need for consulting on advanced network issues because the IT staff or busy running the network, the big question is why would a mid-sized company go to Extreme and not a trusted, or at least local, value added reseller, that can offer a broader set of services and possibly get discounts for consulting services? It’s not a matter of whether Extreme has the chops to provide consulting, it’s a matter of what a mid-sized company needs and that often means more reliance on a VAR for more than just assessment. That’s the hump Extreme has to get over.

Beyond Print 13 Podcast - Tag, You're IT (download here) - Social bookmarking and tagging have grown in popularity during the past few years. It brings a human element into search, by allowing the collective power of the Internet to classify and index the web. Social bookmarking is a great way to find content, browse topics, and share information with others. This podcast explains how social bookmarking and tagging works, benefits and problems, and ends with a list of a few popular sites. If you would like to subscribe to the NWC podcasts, please subscribe to our podcast RSS feed. It'll let you get all the new episodes automatically.

Major vendors are partnering with start-ups in the emerging Information Leak Prevention (ILP) market to spice up their products and tap into compliance dollars.

I don't normally cover the cellular space, deferring to co-columnist and 3G expert Peter Rysavy, but it's impossible for me to pass by this past week's biggest wireless news story: T-Mobile USA's joint announcement with German parent company Deutsche Telekom to roll out nationwide 3G.

Beyond Print 12 Podcast - Culture of No (download here) - IT departments have a reputation of saying 'no' to any and all requests. Want to set up a blog server? "No, you're not allowed." Normally I would say that this isn't the best way of going about business. However in the age of Internet applications and free hosted services, saying no may just push users to bypass the IT group altogether. In this podcast, I mention an article written by InformationWeek. You can read the piece here. If you would like to subscribe to the NWC podcasts, please subscribe to our podcast RSS feed. It'll let you get all the new episodes automatically.

The idea seemed compelling. ESPN as a brand dwarfs all other providers of sports content, in both scope and breath. With the emergence of broadband cellular networks and smartphones, the delivery of rich content to sports nuts had become a viable possibility. Virgin Mobile had achieved significant success as an early MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), buying cellular capacity at wholesale prices and reselling it at retail to consumers. However, after making a big splash with a well-publicized Super Bowl launch last February, Mobile ESPN attracted far fewer subscribers than expected. Imagine if the first Super Bowl was held in an 80,000-seat stadium and only 10,000 fans showed up. It might have been one and done for that idea as well. That was the scenario facing managers at ESPN Mobile. In July, Merrill Lynch analysts recommended that the plug be pulled. Last week, Mobile ESPN subscribers were informed that they had until the end of the year to find a new provider.

On September 20, I chaired a meeting of the Portable Computer and Communications Association on the topic of "Mobile Computing Policy and Network Access Control." The PCCA meets quarterly to address developments in wireless and mobile computing, and meetings have good representation from operators, device vendors, computer vendors and wireless middleware providers. This meeting, hosted by NetMotion Wireless, proved quite illuminating, making me realize that mobile computing is simultaneously maturing and becoming an evermore complex field, with new aspects to consider. Policy management is one aspect. De-perimeterization (not an English word, but used at the meeting and a descriptive nevertheless) is another.

The following post contains the correspondence between Barracuda Networks and Frank Bulk in response to Frank’s blog on Barracuda’s representation of its Spam Firewall e-mail capacity.

Veteran IT buyers know that vendor promises about performance or capacity tend to be aspirational rather than factual. But Barracuda, maker of the Network Spam Firewall, has stooped to a new low: eight times lower, that is.