Letters: Taken in By Cisco?; Simple Choices

Taken In by Cisco?
Is Dave Molta yet another data guy wowed by Cisco when it comes to voice? The bottom line is that Cisco offers only pure IP phone systems ("VoWLANs: Poised for Takeoff," Oct. 30, 2003).

Cisco's setup is more vulnerable than converged systems, such as those from Nortel and Avaya. What's that have to do with wireless VoIP? You must have a Cisco phone system to use its wireless handsets. And Cisco doesn't use SIP, which will become a standard for these devices.

David Barritt
Supervisor of Telecommunications
Meto Health Corp.
[email protected]

Dave Molta replies:
I admit to being a data guy, but I didn't realize I had been wowed by Cisco. We explained some of the limitations of the Cisco system, including its proprietary architecture. We also emphasized that the main appeal of the 7920 is for environments committed to a Cisco VoIP infrastructure. Unfortunately, the major wireless VoIP systems are proprietary to some degree, and we weren't impressed with the SIP clients we tested. We agree that standards are a big issue, and we tried to make that point.

Disharmony
As a computer scientist and an Indian-born U.S. citizen (I've been living in the United States since the 1960s), I think I have an interesting perspective on offshore outsourcing ("Why Offshore Outsourcing Failed Us," Oct. 16, 2003). I experienced the tech boom, the tech bubble burst and a layoff when my job went offshore.

I've worked with "foreign" developers both in-house and offshore. Poor communication is usually the root cause of any problems. We might speak roughly the same language, but sometimes we don't "sing the same song."
Jay Patel
VP, Director, Project Management
Company name withheld by request; [email protected]

College Credit

I read your stories on DIY Lab Testing with great interest (Sept. 25, 2003). My staff and I have operated a test lab at Queens College for many years. It has saved us countless hours of downtime.

When I did a cost-justification for our network testing lab,I pointed out that all the lab equipment would double as hot-spare equipment, which would reduce downtime in the event of an equipment failure. We can deploy a replacement in 20 minutes anywhere on our 76-acre campus. This lets us take advantage of less expensive, next-day replacement services and results in huge annual savings in support costs. We also provide much better uptime--with a payback in productivity and happy students.

Morris Bennett Altman
Director of Network Infrastructure; Queens College of CUNY
[email protected]

Simple Choices?
Mike Lee's column "Technology: Not as Easy as It Looks" (Sept. 25, 2003) brought up a number of good points that speak to simplification. But when you are dependent on vendors to supply solutions, how can you best achieve simplification?

Typically, we are at the mercy of the vendor and the platforms it chooses to support. Often we end up having to compromise our standards and have our IT staff learn new skills to support a different tool set or software suite, increasing IT costs and reducing the opportunity for simplification.I like the idea of simplification, but in reality, a "buy" world makes it very difficult to achieve. No one vendor provides a solution to meet all ends of the business.

Ed Hickey
Technical Architect
Company name withheld by request

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