Enterprise IT
Voice And Data: Together At Last
MIS manager: "I want an integrated voice and data network." Network manager: "We are designing a network based on the best practices available. We are using dedicated leased T1lines from each location to carry both voice and data to the network. Channels on each T1 are dedicated to either voice or data. From there, the voice is split off to our long-distance carrier. By the way, did I mention what a great rate we're getting on long distance? And the data is routed to a frame relay network."
ReadA Jolt of Java for the Database
Corporate IS is carefully wading through both the hype and reality of using intranets as the basis for the next generation of application development. Conventional wisdom holds that users focus only on solutions to business problems, but the client/server systems we created typically haven't kept pace with the dynamic user populations the market has thrown at them. Hence, the enticement of the Internet's key benefits: any desktop, anywhere. The propo nents of this universal Internet client have gone as far as to say we don't really need PCs, we simply need network appliances. In this world view the client is stabilized by the transparency of dynamic, ongoing updates with the latest functionality, and servers are practically tangential. As long as the servers communicate with the client in a standard way, it doesn't matter if it's a 3090 or an Apple Macintosh, DB2 or Access on the other end of the network. Well, it does matter. We need to move applications among servers as easily as clients can switch between servers.
Read