Welcome back or welcome to the Next Generation Communications community. For our frequent visitors you will notice something completely new. We have done a total redesign of the community home page to facilitate your getting to the information you are interested in more easily.
We think we have improved readability with a cleaner look for all of the postings, and have categorized items in a way that lets you navigate more easily as well as added access to additional featured links like GridTalk, TrackTalk and LifeTalk along with quick access to the TMC (News - Alert) resource center. We hope you like the new format and look forward to your comments.
Before getting to the news and features, I wish to reiterate your review of the article I wrote about community sponsor Alcatel-Lucent’s (News 
- Alert) recent publication of research done with the ENPC School of International Management, “Megatrends: A Wave of Change Impacting the Future.” It is aimed at giving us context for the impact information and communications technology (ICT) will have on the way we all live and work.
News
It is no secret that the financials of various household names in tech the past few days have highlighted the impacts of the global economic slowdown and concerns about the future. A clear toll has been taken almost across the tech board and particularly by suppliers to service providers. Whether it is the slowdown in iPhone sales or continued struggles for Nokia and community sponsor Alcatel-Lucent, we live in challenging times.
Having lived through numerous downdrafts, I think history is instructive. And, that history points to those who focus on their core competencies and invest in innovations that create long-term differentiated and sustainable value tend to emerge in very strong competitive positions. That said, despite outward appearances, we have not hit an apocalypse as was demonstrated by several important wins in the news this week for Alcatel-Lucent. These included:
- Teaming with TSC on communications systems for Shell's Prelude Project in Australia.
- Being integral to the introduction of mobile and Internet services in the Channel Tunnel in time for the Olympics.
- Obtaining a new patent for an advanced visual monitoring system.
- Supporting with partner AuthenTec (News - Alert) Portugal Telecom's Meo Go! Service.
Also of note was the announcement by Lindenbaum that its new carrier grade platform, Lindenbaum Media Resource Function (MRF) Platform is based on MicroTCA (News - Alert) Technology for the provisioning of high quality voice and video conferencing.
Features
While we have left the old descriptors for this week on our features, they have been placed in their new respective sub-areas, along with being accessible from the community home page.
- Enterprise: TMC Executive Editor Erin Harrison had an interesting article on what enterprise IT departments should be considering as they look to tame the BYOD phenomenon.
- Service Provider: Contributor Mae Kowalke turned her attention to how the deployment of LTE (News - Alert) capabilities is helping transform the abilities of public safety agencies to respond rapidly and effectively to emergencies.
- We also featured a review of a recent white paper on why all clouds are not created equal and how the emergence of “carrier clouds” may be the solution carriers and their customers are looking for.
One thing we have not done is stopped our bloggers from providing insights. TMC’s Susan Campbell devolved into the area of eco-sustainability with a look at the Seven Steps to Assess Eco-Impact of ICT. Focus is on current life cycle assessment tools such as those developed by Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), which can be employed by ICT vendors, particularly the telecom ones, for estimating the eco-impact of services and/or networks in a meaningful and actionable way.
Weekend reading
For additional weekend reading that a look at:
As mentioned above, the redesign let you have convenient access to a slew of valuable resources which now includes the new interface to the Resource Center for access to whitepapers, videos and case studies. And, if you missed it, don’t forget to hear the recent webinar, Prepare Your Network for the Multi-media & BYOD Revolution, and pass it along to colleagues.
Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. ITEXPO offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO click here.
Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.
