Communications as a service (CaaS) is a hot new market that promises to grow quickly. Small and medium businesses (SMBs) that need enterprise-class communications services already do business with service providers. This study focuses on the factors that are driving CaaS and how service providers can take advantage of them. 

In this research, we examine the lessons that have been learnt from the current financial crisis, and propose ten practical lessons that could help to address perceived weaknesses in risk identification, assessment and management. 

Businesses are turning to IT to drive down operating expenses as well as ratchet up productivity and efficiency to drive a more effective, leaner business in 2009 and beyond. IT needs to help save the business while remaining responsive, reliable, and agile, all using less investment than was previously available. Read on to learn more. 

To maximize profitability, companies must know the true cost of making and delivering their products and services. Traditional cost accounting, devised in a simpler era, does not satisfy that need. This paper examines indirect and overhead costs, which are crucial to managing profitability. 

Marcio Nespatti, Alcatel-Lucent, discusses the latest research on next generation advertising. 

Videoconferencing, training, surveillance, and executive communications are leading use cases for enterprise video. In this webcast, IDC Analyst Melissa Webster discusses the "operationalization" of video in organizations and AT&T's Ethan Fox explains how to manage its distribution across the corporate network. 

Next generation services need to meet customer and carrier needs; network convergence is the technical goal, while IP transformation is the business goal. This guide addresses the challenge of planning for providers doing both at the same time and lays out a service delivery platform (SDP) and SOA roadmap to recreate the network architecture. 

The purpose of this paper is to describe the attributes of a true customer-centric converged solution. From these attributes, a framework to measure and compare providers' converged solutions emerges. We will conclude with a review of Sprint's approach to offering true convergence to business and government customers. 

Developments in alternative energy technology are creating solutions that provide network operators with the ability to reduce their energy costs and carbon footprint. Read this short whitepaper for more information about alternative energy sources that can make your wireless network more eco-friendly and save you money. 

Network providers must re-examine how they can speed up innovation and time to market by working with trusted partners and developer communities. However, energizing such an ecosystem takes careful planning. This podcast covers market trends driving network providers to change their relationships with application developers. 

This paper will identify the challenges mobile operators face in the current environment; outline the steps they can take to evolve the backhaul network to support greater capacity at lower cost; and examine the role of a trusted partner in helping implement a mobile backhaul solution that meets their specific business imperatives. 

This paper provides an overview for effectively creating BlackBerry applications that interact with Domino databases. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server is part of an integrated mobility solution that connects Lotus Domino databases to mobile users. 

System reliability is a vital component in Storage Area Network (SAN) design. But since SANs are built using both mechanical and electronic parts, component failures due to usage, environmental factors, or manufacturing defects are not uncommon. This paper covers how to reduce and eliminate downtime.