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- TechRepublic Author Biography
DEBRA LITTLEJOHN SHINDER is a technology consultant, trainer and writer who has authored a number of books on computer operating systems, networking, and security. These include Scene of the Cybercrime: Computer Forensics Handbook, published by Syngress, and Computer Networking Essentials, published by Cisco Press. She is co-author, with her husband,...- more about Deb Shinder »
TechRepublic Resources
- 10 ways to make your VoIP rollout easier
- You know VoIP can potentially save your company money and provide your users with convenience features. But making the switch can be a little scary. You depend on your telephone service and may not be able to do business without it, so its important to get it right. Deb Shinder...
- Tags: Deb Shinder, Telephony, VOIP, Telecommunications, Telecom & Utilities, Networking
- Download resources 2008-05-06
- Managing mobile devices the Microsoft way
- We live in an increasingly mobile world, and enterprise IT administrators must now deal with a wide array of devices connecting to the corporate network. In addition to users' home computers and both company-issued and personally-owned laptops, many of today's workers expect to be able to access their email, contacts,...
- Tags: Device, Mobile, Microsoft Corp., Mobile Device, SCMDM 2008, Advertising & Promotion, Marketing, Deb Shinder
- Blog posts 2008-03-28
- Will the iPhone ever be a true unified communications device?
- Many have hailed Apple's iPhone as having revolutionized the mobile phone industry, and it has certainly made an impression. Other cell phone vendors are now coming out with devices that include one or more of the features made popular by the iPhone, such as extra-large screens and more support for...
- Tags: Apple iPhone, Phone, Verizon Communications Inc., Unified Communications, Apple Inc., Telecom & Utilities, Deb Shinder
- Blog posts 2008-03-14
- Understand the role of Wi-Fi in unified communications
- Wireless technologies have played a big role in opening up Internet access -- and thus the ability to communicate with others in remote locations -- to more people in more places. As communication methods converge, Wi-Fi makes it easier for you to access e-mail, instant messages, faxes, voice mail, and...
- Tags: Phone, Mobile, Network, Wi-Fi Network, Unified Communications, WLAN, Cell Phone, Avaya Inc., Convergence, DiVitas Networks, Wireless LANs, Wi-Fi, Wireless, VOIP, Networking, Telecommunications, Deb Shinder
- Blog posts 2008-03-07
- 10 ways to prepare for a wireless rollout
- Rolling out a wireless LAN within your organization can provide numerous benefits -- but it's more complicated than just plugging in a wireless access point WAP. You need to address a number of factors in the planning stage to ensure both accessibility and security. Deb Shinder lists some critical factors...
- Tags: Deb Shinder, Wi-Fi, Wireless
- Download resources 2008-03-17
- Telepresence: The next best thing to being there
- In anticipation of the March 18 and 19 Telepresence World 2008 conference in London, market research firm Frost & Sullivan announced that it expects revenues for the emerging telepresence industry to increase by nearly 850 percent in the next five years. It predicts total world-wide revenues will be around $1.4...
- Tags: Video Conferencing, Remote Location, Cisco Systems Inc., Corporate Communications, Robots, Marketing, Emerging Technologies, Deb Shinder
- Blog posts 2008-02-29
- Unified communications terminology cheat sheet
- If your organization is considering implementing a unified communications solution, you may feel a bit overwhelmed as you examine the options from different vendors. Understanding the new terminology that has sprung up around the new technologies can sometimes be a struggle.To prepare you to intelligently discuss your...
- Tags: VoIP, Phone, Network, Video Conferencing, IM, Unified Communications, IP, E-mail, IP Network, Computer, UC, Instant Messaging, Networking, Telecommunications, Internet, Online Communications, Deb Shinder
- Blog posts 2008-02-22
- Mini-glossary: Unified communications terms you should know
- If your organization is considering implementing a unified communications solution, you may feel a bit overwhelmed as you examine the options from different vendors. Understanding the new terminology that has sprung up around the new technologies can sometimes be a struggle, too. This glossary of common UC terms will help...
- Tags: Unified Communications, Deb Shinder
- Download resources 2008-03-03
- Security threats in a unified world
- Amid all the excitement surrounding the unification of our communications technologies, the issue of security sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. Maybe some are assuming that the threats are the "same old, same old" that plague those same communications methods in their more stand-alone forms. But it's that and more....
- Tags: SIP, VoIP, Attacker, IM, Vulnerability, Unified Communications, Encryption, Attack, UC, E-mail E-mail, Instant Messaging, E-mail, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Security, Internet, Online Communications, Emerging Technologies, Deb Shinder
- Blog posts 2008-02-15
- 10 ways to trim your IT budget
- Nobody likes being told to spend less, but the tough reality is that in many organizations, all departments are seeing their budgets cut -- and that includes IT. The question now is not whether to trim the budget, but how to do it so that it's least painful for the...
- Tags: Budget, IT Budget, Information Technology, Deb Shinder, Strategy, Management
- Download resources 2008-02-25
- 10 things you should know about virtualization
- Virtualization has been a major buzzword in the IT world for the past few years -- and now the buzz is getting bigger. As your options increase, taking the plunge into virtualization can be a big and confusing step. Deb Shinder looks at some things you should know about virtualization...
- Tags: Deb Shinder, Virtualization, Storage Management, Utility Computing, Hardware, Storage
- Download resources 2008-02-20
- Ask these questions to decide your unified communications strategy
- Everybody knows by now that UC is the "next big thing," and many companies are rushing to implement some version of it. As with most tech trends, some are going in blindly, without really analyzing what the costs and benefits will be -- or whether the latter outweighs the former....
- Tags: Strategy, Team, Solution, Unified Communications, UC, Team Management, Fax, Management, Deb Shinder
- Blog posts 2008-02-08
- The evolution of UC with Windows Mobile devices
- Much has been written about Microsoft's Unified Communications initiative in terms of Office Communications Server 2007 and Exchange 2007. The "missing link" is the ability for today's mobile devices - handheld PDA phones and smartphones - to integrate with those server products for a total UC experience for end users....
- Tags: Phone, Device, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Mobile, Microsoft Office, TCP, DirectPush, Office Communicator 2007, Office Communicator Client, Advertising & Promotion, Pocket PC, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Handhelds, Marketing, Hardware, Software, Deb Shinder
- Blog posts 2008-02-01
- Presence: What is it, and why do you need it?
- A key concept that you'll run across again and again in discussions of unified communications is presence. Most users -- and even many IT pros -- have only a vague idea of what it means. Is presence just another buzzword used to sell UC products, or is...
- Tags: SIP, Phone, IM, Presence, Status, Instant Messaging, Telecom & Utilities, Internet, Online Communications, Deb Shinder
- Blog posts 2008-01-25
- Web-based video chat for business or pleasure
- SightSpeed provides video chat and video conferencing services for home and business users. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show CES in Las Vegas, the company announced a new Web-based version of its video chat service called SightSpeed Light that requires no software download or installation. SightSpeed Light...
- Tags: Deb Shinder
- Blog posts 2008-01-16
- Unified messaging with Exchange 2007
- Microsoft touts Office Communications Server OCS, the successor to Live Communications Server LCS, as the cornerstone of its unified communications solution, but OCS targets enterprise-level organizations. Although pricing for OCS is not yet available, LCS costs $1,199 for the Standard Edition with five client-access licenses CALs or $4,969 for the...
- Tags: Message, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Unified Messaging, Microsoft Office, Benefit, Communications Server, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office Communications Server, Hub Transport Server, Client Access Server, Unified Messaging Server, VOIP, E-mail, Servers, Telecommunications, Networking, Online Communications, Hardware, Deb Shinder
- Blog posts 2008-01-11
- Does UC present new opportunities for spammers?
- As we head into a new year, 2008 promises to bring about revolutionary changes in the ways we use familiar communications tools. The premise of the coming integration of different forms of messaging -- e-mail, voice, IM -- into unified communications systems is exciting. UC makes it easy to get...
- Tags: Telemarketing, VoIP, Phone, Spammer, Voicemail, News, UC, Spam, Cyberthreats, Telecom & Utilities, E-mail, Telecommunications, Security, Spam And Phishing, Online Communications, Deb Shinder
- Blog posts 2008-01-04
- On the client side: OCS client software and hardware
- Microsoft's Office Communications Server OCS 2007 is the cornerstone of the company's unified communications UC strategy. OCS is the successor to Live Communications Server LCS 2005, but what a difference a couple of years can make. Microsoft's ambitions for OCS go well beyond the scope of functions provided by LCS,...
- Tags: Netscape Communicator, Phone, Device, Mobile, IP Phone, IM, Unified Communications, Client Software, Client, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Corp., Hardware, Computer, OCS, Office Communicator 2007 Office Communicator 2007, Instant Messaging, Telecom & Utilities, E-mail Clients, Microsoft Office, Internet, Online Communications, Software, Office Suites, Deb Shinder
- Blog posts 2007-12-14
- Microsoft UC for the rest of us
- Most everyone in the IT industry has heard of Microsoft's Live Communications Server 2005/Office Communications Server 2007 (LCS/OCS), the previous/just-released versions of its instant messaging, audio/video conferencing, and "presence" product for the enterprise, which now supports VoIP using the standard SIP protocols. But Microsoft designed LCS/OCS for...
- Tags: Appliance, Phone, IP, Small Business, Microsoft Corp., Telecom & Utilities, Speech Recognition, Emerging Technologies, Deb Shinder
- Blog posts 2007-12-07
- Unified communications: What it means to your business
- Individual communications technologies are converging into an integrated whole. Unified communications UC is an outgrowth of a similar-sounding but different concept, unified messaging UM. UC covers a broad range of applications -- e-mail, instant messaging, VoIP, voice mail, audio and video conferencing (encompassing desktop, application, and file sharing), fax, and...
- Tags: SIP, Unified Communications, Mobility, Deb Shinder
- Blog posts 2007-11-30
