The global financial crisis is undoubtedly the focus of everyone’s attention and its impact will be felt in all sectors of the economy. Although the effect on the telecommunications industry remains uncertain, in many ways this industry is better positioned than others to cope with the downturn. Ericsson’s Jacquie Hey explains why.

Unified Communications has been the subject of much discussion in recent years with vendors, analysts and the media all putting forward views and predictions. Yet, for many, the profusion of information has simply been confusing and it appears that for now, only those organisations with distributed, remote and mobile workforces seem to be reaping its clear advantages, reports Pushkar Taneja, managing director of GlobalConnect.

Clearly, improved electrical efficiency within the IT room - the ‘greening of the data center’ - is now a priority. APC’s Gordon Makryllos outlines why data centres are so energy inefficient and offers practical tips that they can use to become ‘green’.

2008 has been a roller-coaster ride of uncertainty. Every day we seem to hear new reports of organisations facing unexpected pressures and challenges. ProCurve’s Gurkirat Singh reports on the current state of play and provides common sense advice on what to do.

As the new managing director at Cisco Australia and New Zealand, but an old hand at Cisco, it is Les Williamson’s responsibility to help the local arm of the company capture new and emerging market transitions. In that role, he says he is extremely excited to be leading a business at a time of great change, wrought chiefly by the current wave of internet technologies and the incredible productivity benefits they provide.

A scant decade ago, packet-filter firewalls were sufficient to protect against virtually all threats coming from the internet. Today, however, the number, variety and sophistication of threats against business networks have multiplied, and firewalls and antivirus software on desktops are no longer sufficient. This has led to the evolution of unified threat management (UTM) solutions, reports Fortinet’s Richard Stiennon.

The topic of sustainability or green IT remains a key focus for everyone in the industry this year. On the bright side, doing business is more accessible than ever before. Advances in technology have reduced transaction costs, created broader access to global markets and advanced technologies, and levelled the playing field among small businesses, large corporations, emerging economies and industrialised nations. IBM’s Mark Latchford tracks the positive changes in sustainable IT.

Instead of succumbing to all the gloom and doom emanating from the global financial crisis, which by some rather alarmist reports will see 100,000 Australian small and medium businesses (SMBs) go down the gurgler, why not look for the opportunities, suggests D-Link’s Maurice Famularo.

The truth is that VoIP technology is really as simple as putting another IP-based application - voice and voice-related services in this case - onto the network. And it does provide cost savings as it enables a method of doing away with the legacy voice network by digitising voice into data so that it can ride on the existing data network. Grant Howe, country manager, ANZ for 3Com, poses the question: so what’s not to love about VoIP? He explains that VoIP’s cost and complexity is really in the licensing.

Global electricity prices have jumped more than 50% in the past five years, right along with a dramatic upswing in data centre energy consumption. Whether the motivation is reducing costs, minimising carbon footprint, or both, many Australian organisations are committed to finding solutions that help improve data centre efficiency. Emerson Network Power’s David Scott uncovers one solution guaranteed to lower your high-density energy bills.

Cloud computing is becoming an important new tool for IT managers in controlling the cost and complexity of business-critical applications and data. The technology is compelling to enterprises because it allows them to consolidate resources, provision services more quickly and even rationalise costs more effectively with new business models. But there are limitations that often limit the effective gains of a scalable cloud computing model.

Oracle Sun will join IBM, Dell and EMC at Storage Decisions Australia 2010, the premium storage event. [ + ]

In the current economic climate, companies simply cannot afford to lose customers. This means customer service must always be spot on, from the point of sale and well beyond, and a very large part of that is in the contact centre. So how are companies going to make sure that every customer contact results in complete satisfaction? Avaya’s Rob Wells provides an overview of the future of contact centres and the important impact this will have on business.

Storage Decisions Australia 2010 heads to Melbourne and, because of popular demand, international backup guru W Curtis Preston will present the keynote again. [ + ]

If your business relies at all on the internet, then you'd better get up to speed on IPv6 - if you don't, your customers won’t be able to reach you. Andrew Collins takes a look at what IPv6 means for business, how much time is left before the transition and what businesses need to do to prepare.