Major European Research Infrastructure Initiative Deploys Juniper Networks Ethernet Routing and Switching Solutions at Heart of Experimental Architect

FEDERICA, a major long-term project to implement an experimental network infrastructure to support future Internet research on new networking technologies in the university and research community, is using Juniper Networks to provide its Ethernet-based high-performance network infrastructure. FEDERICA selected the Juniper Networks MX Series Ethernet Services Routers and EX Series Ethernet Switches following a rigorous performance, functionality and total cost-of-ownership (TCO) evaluation.


Full Details.

Make the Most of Your Energy - APC (KL Hilton 5 Mar 09)

Image via Wikipedia

APC (American Power Conversion) had a press conference for local media which includes bloggers. Check out the corporate fact sheet.

APC was previously acquired by Schneider Electric not too long ago.

The media is greeted to a presentation by Mr. TS.Khoo (VP for ASEAN). According to TS (as he preferred to be known), during this economic crisis period, ASEAN is the place to be.



APC is most known for its innovation capabilities and the acquisition by Schneider caters for the ability to provide total solution and also turnkey solutions.

To understand this easily, APC used to provide IT-centric products and services while Schneider used to provide products and services on electrical engineering. Now, with their combined capability, they can simply provide a 4C design model for data centers.

1. Components - Modular and scalable, with best-in-class efficiency
   
2. Close-coupled cooling - Placement of cooling units near the heat source
   
3. Containment - Thermal containment of airflow in high-density zones
   
4. Capacity and energy management - Instrumented intelligence to optimize use of power and cooling capacity
   

which will result in energy management in buildings. It yields the following benefits:

1. Renewable energies solutions
2. Automation
3. Energy efficiency
4. Critical power and cooling
5. Eletrical distribution & wiring devices

The challenges of today's industry are two things; the ever increasing demand for energy while there is a need to reduce emission. Ok, so even if you don't care about the environment, perhaps cost efficiency is something that will bother you.

The vision of APC (by Schneider Electric) is thus to provide safe, reliable, efficient, productive and green energy usage. Their target market is data center because that contributes to about 2% of energy usage globally. No big deal but it generates 98% of opportunities. Check out survey from IDC last year (2008).

According to Mr.Benedict Soh (Enterprise Business Development Director), energy consumption for data center is growing at 12% per year and the pressing issue for data center to tackle is in fact power and cooling efficiency which not just to help the environment but also to save cost.

Most people like me thought that APC was just selling UPS (Unlimited Power Supply) but in actual fact, they also provide professional services and consultancy to clientele in the industries of banking, health care, telecommunication and government sectors.

And more interestingly, data center need not just limit to big data-centers like MyLoca in Cyber Jaya or AIMS somewhere near Bukit Bintang. It can also be a data-center for a factory with self managed applications servers and etc. As long as you need to house your servers properly with air-conditioning, you can consider it as data-center. In that case, my office has a data-center too.

Mr.TS Khoo is optimistic about the current economy crisis, first of all, let me assure you that they don't have cash flow problem because of recent acquisition from Schneider Electric which has a total sales revenues of Euro 4,652 billion. Also, APC by itself is Euro 17.3 billion revenues company with combined workforce of 120,000 people around the world.

On the question about the trend of company being acquired and so there will be less data center around, Mr. TS Khoo has this to offer.

First of all, the company focuses on solutions and in any good or bad day, it is beneficial for them if there are more data centers or if there are more consolidation of data centers. This is because have solutions for data center consolidation as well. Period.

He added that at times of crisis, the strategy is to stay with customers by providing more supports and also better services. (and more discounts) APC relies on and values business partners as one of its business elements.

Finally, APC is also announcing two new launches which are:

1. Integration with Microsoft Systems Center Operation Manager 2007
   Integration of APC's data center management suite to tightly couple with Microsoft's System Center Operations Manager 2007. This integration will give data center managers the ability to view and manage physical infrastructure, including power, cooling, physical space and security, as well as providing a comprehensive view of the health of the servers, applications, and clients within the datacenter.
2. Second Generation Symmetra PX - All in one modular power protection UPS System for data centers
   Symmetra PX UPS provides up to 48kW of power protection for 400V deployments in a single rack footprint. Additionally it offers longer life batteries with up to 25 percent more runtime and hot scaleable power distribution. These new capabilities enable the second generation Symmetra PX to extend the product family's reputation as the leading power protection system providing high levels of availability at the lower overall total cost of ownership.

Presenters' Profile:

Mr. TS. Khoo
ASEAN Vice President

Khoo Teng Seen joined APC in May 2006 as General Manager of Services, Asia Pacific and was later promoted as the Vice President of Services for Asia Pacific/Japan. Currently, TS is the ASEAN Vice President, overseeing the business strategy in ASEAN, ensuring that APC across Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand remains focused on customers and partners. He will lead the team in developing customer-oriented processes, delivering innovative energy efficient solutions in data centers, and building successful relationships as part of Schneider Electric.

Having joined APCI with 17 years experience from the IT industry and almost 10 years in regional services management across Asia Pacific, TS has been involved in building, growing and transforming services businesses throughout his career.

TS started his Singapore career in IT from 1992, working for a multi-national corporation as a manufacturing consultant. In 1997, he was assigned to establish and manage a large consulting practice in Japan. He later returned to Singapore and was promoted to Director of Services and was instrumental in equipping his team wit the right technical and professional skills to assist the transformation of their company from a traditional services provider to a consultative services trusted advisor.

Benedict Soh
Enterprise Business Development Director

Benedict joined APC in year 2003 as an Enterprise Account Manager with the responsibility of managing Singapore key customer accounts and APC Data Center InfraStruXure® sales. Having consistently exceeded the company’s expectations over the past few years, Benedict was promoted to Enterprise Business Development Director. Benedict would be responsible to lead the ASEAN business development team in Enterprise System and Solution strategic planning.

In the current capacity as Enterprise Business Development Director, Benedict would be managing the APC product life-cycle conception through introduction to evolution, driving successful value position of the APC data center products and solutions in the market by ensuring that the product lines meet the growth targets for the assigned market segment. Benedict also supports various operating ASEAN countries in their bidding processes and sales cycles.

With over 13 years of experience in the IT industry with specialization in the data center infrastructure business, Benedict has held various positions, mainly in the area of account management, sales management and business development. Prior to joining APC, he was a Sales Team leader at Datasphere (S) Pte Ltd, a turnkey data center solutions provider.

Benedict graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor Degree in Electronics Engineering, majoring in IT and Power Electronics.

With strong industry knowledge and a technical background, Benedict is tasked with growing the data center solution business in ASEAN with achieving the corporate objective of “Trusted Advisor” in the data center arena.

Juniper Networks Outlines Vision and Strategy to Develop Next Generation Data Center Fabric

Legacy architectures constrain today’s data centers as they attempt to cope with the exponential increase in applications, servers, storage and network traffic.

By rethinking the network from the ground up, Juniper has created a long-term strategy to develop a single data center fabric with the flexibility and performance to scale to super data centers, while continuing to drive down the cost and complexity of managing the data center information infrastructure. This is based on Juniper’s vision for a Cloud Computing Infrastructure that enables operational innovation based on the ability to connect everything and empower everyone.

The leader in high-performance networking today reinforced its commitment to the data center by disclosing the existence of a program within the company to deliver the next generation data center fabric. The program, code-named the Stratus Project, represents an initiative to create a single data center fabric that will deliver a quantum jump in scale, performance and simplicity, with the flexibility to support fully converged and virtualized data center environments.

The Stratus Project, which has been underway for more than one year, was coined after the meteorological term ‘stratus,’ defined as a low-altitude, flat, single-layer cloud. The Project, initially inspired and led by Juniper’s CTO and Founder Pradeep Sindhu, now spans across multiple business groups and has resulted in more than 30 patent applications filed to date.

Check out here for more details.

Multi-Touch G2

Multi-Touch G2 is a touch screen overlay that can be easily mounted onto any LCD or Plasma TV monitors. This simple, lightweight and low cost solution let you deploy Multi-Touch technology instantly to existing monitors without the need of any configuration. Multi-Touch G² is connected to the computer via a USB cable (No power cable is needed).

This is how it looks like..


Usage (Applications):

1. Gaming using your hands
   
2. Photo presentation
   
3. Syn. with mobile devices
   
4. Mapping
   
5. Illustration, design
   

Malaysian government will be buying a lot of these stuffs for:

1. Infrastructure (facilities, roads) planners
   
2. Tax agencies to figure out where are the high taxable area in Malaysia
   
3. Events organizers
   
4. Simulators
   
5. Security departments
   
6. Marketeers
   
7. Idealists for better multi-media presentation.
   
8. Enforcers like police, fireman and etc.
   
9. Engineers, architects, designers

This will give new life to many more software applications to come. Something to look forward to.

Stuff like this is cool because it is something new.

People will not hesitate to buy because it is new.

Sun Microsystem Business Revenues (Latest Discovery)

Image via CrunchBase

Thanks to Sun Microsystem's CEO Jonathan Schwartz for his sharing.

Check out how Sun Microsystem actually makes money these days because Sun is usually associated with the open source notion.

1. Enterprise SPARC systems - Unix server (hardware platform) such as blade server.
   
2. Licensed Java run-time (JRE) for PC, set top boxes and mobile devices (software).
   
   Even though Java run-time can be downloaded for free, but that is from a user point of view. This is the trick.... In fact, if you are hardware system manufacturer, Java run-time is not free for you.
   
   First of all, if you download Java run-time (JRE), you have to install it, you can't copy the JRE from one machine to another, therefore, you can't redistribute the JRE (without the installer) without permission from Sun.
   
   Secondly, there is only a handful of platforms for download of JRE and Symbian, Mac OS, Windows Mobile are not included. Try to download and see.
   
   
   
   Then, check out here why would hardware system manufacturer would purchase the Java run-time.
   
   
3. MySQL - Enterprise database
   
4. Solaris - enterprise computing and the cloud
   
5. Niagara platform - Competiting with IBM's AIX and HP's HPUX
   
6. Amber Road - storage system

This indicates that Sun Microsystem is selling technology and the marketing is free-for end-user download termed as either GPL or LGPL.

Juniper Networks Brings Virtualization to the Core with Industry’s Most Flexible Multi-chassis Routing System

Juniper Networks unveiled a matrix switch for interconnecting core routers into a higher density, more scalable system. The TX Matrix Plus is designed to enable service providers to unite up to 16 core routers into a single 25Tbps system. It can also work with the company’s Juniper Control System (JCS) 1200 to allow the virtualization of routing systems, networks and services to create efficiencies by consolidating networks, services and functionality, Juniper says. A virtualized core is one in which larger routers can be partitioned into multiple routers that might represent services (video traffic or corporate traffic) or network element types (aggregation or core nodes) and--most importantly--can if desired share resources such as interconnecting links and uplinks.

Service Providers today deliver applications through a large number of silo networks (e.g., separate networks for Internet, ATM, Enterprise, FR/ATM, voice, IPTV, VoD, etc.) Convergence of these silo networks to deliver all these services seamlessly has been a priority. However, there are questions about service availability, service consistency, service integrity and security. Virtualization in the core allows service providers to build one physical network, but still deliver all the above requirements. Another important factor is that the services mentioned, are delivered to different sets of customers by different administrative groups within the service provider organization. These groups need visibility, manageability of the network that delivers these revenue generating services. Virtualization delivers clear visibility and manageability to the groups that are responsible to deliver the services.

With huge growth in traffic driven by various factors especially video sites such as YouTube, Video on demand services such as Netflix and large amounts of user generated video traffic is being exchanged by users through applications such as Facebook. Enterprise high definition Video conferencing, Cloud Computing, SaaS etc. are other high bandwidth drivers. Also, with the advent of smart phones, which are nothing short of handheld computers, traffic generated by the wireless users is expected to grow exponentially.

A virtualized core helps service providers move extremely quickly in order to translate changing traffic and market factors into revenue in a timely fashion. These factors include an unpredictable rise in bandwidth, the need to monetize high-value content when it crosses multiple networks, and the ephemeral business models of content providers and network operators. The largest Tier-1 providers and providers of content worldwide are the Juniper customers who have requested IP/MPLS systems of the magnitude announced. The TX Matrix Plus will be available in the third quarter. The OTN interfaces will be available later this quarter. The TX Matrix Plus consists of Line Card Chassis and Switching Card Chassis. The Switch Card Chassis lists at US$300,00, but the price will be dependent on various system configurations and the number of LCC that need to be interconnected. The Line card chassis is a T1600 system, and pricing depends on the interfaces populated on the chassis.

Check out the full press release.

Streamyx Broadband Connected Phone Line Not Working

When connected to Streamyx, the phone line is not working.

By default, while connected to Streamyx, your phone line (for verbal conversation) should be working as well.

This troubled yet intrigued me, for the fact that it used to be working until suddenly.

It could be related to my doing of downgrading the Streamyx package from RM 88 / month to RM 66 / month. But this is not a practical reason even though it may be possible.

I delayed going for customer service because I suspect that I wouldn't get a good answer. Eventually, I relented and took a trip to customer service and indeed, the customer service representative gave me a practical answer; the splitter. I argued that splitter couldn't be a good reason because it is a fact that you don't need a splitter to have the Internet and phone line working together. However, I appreciated that he stood by his ground and gave me a brand new splitter. I thanked him and went home and indeed the splitter didn't solve the problem.

I was determined to find out what happen... so, I just took out everything and slowly connect them back one by one while testing out the connection.

Eventually, I found the answer.

It is due to the lighting insulator; I have had my cable connected to a lighting insulator. Taken that out of the setup, everything is doing fine, went back to normal.





The reason behind all these is that (from my observation), probably the lighting insulator has become malfunctioned and it sucks out all necessary power from the phone line rendering the phone to have no power to operate while Internet connection is undergoing. In other words, there is nothing wrong with the phone line from TM Net and the package from Streamyx, but the phone device was deprived of electric power when the Internet connection is undergoing. If I could put battery to the phone device, it should work normal. But the culprit in this case is the lighting insulator.

Intel and Adobe to Extend Flash Platform to TVs

Adobe Flash to make way into set-top box industry.

Adobe ® Systems Incorporated starts the new year by announcing plans to collaborate with Intel Corporation on development to port and optimize Adobe® Flash® The high-definition capabilities of the Adobe Flash Platform, together with the Intel® Media Processor CE 3100, the first in a new family of purpose-built Intel System on Chips (SoCs) for CE devices, creates a powerful entertainment hub capable of delivering rich Web content and Adobe Flash based applications to an array of Internet-connected CE devices.

Check out the full press release.

Indonesia’s Education Department DIKNAS) Accelerates Country’s Largest WAN and Significantly Increases ROI with Juniper Networks

The Indonesian Ministry of National Education (DIKNAS) has reduced traffic latency, improved network application response time and eliminated wasted bandwidth on its school network -- Indonesia's largest WAN -- with Juniper Networks application acceleration and routing integrated on a single platform. The Juniper Networks WXC Integrated Services Module (ISM) 200 with the J2300 Services Routers can deliver the fastest throughput currently offered in the application acceleration industry, enabling DIKNAS to boost network performance and value, and increase operational simplicity for 1140 schools and other sites across the country.

Check out the full press release.

Juniper Networks Helps Laboratory of Neuro Imaging Double Network Performance, Cut IT Management Time in Half

Located at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), LONI is a leader in the development of advanced computational algorithms and scientific structures for the comprehensive and quantitative mapping of brain structure and function. LONI has the largest neuro-imaging database in the world with more than 25,000 unique scans and at nearly a petabyte in size. Hundreds of researchers work with datasets ranging from 20MB to several hundred gigabytes.

As usage of their high-performance computing (HPC) cluster grew, the network infrastructure was straining under the demands. LONI set out to improve performance and simplify the network in order to improve both researcher and IT staff productivity, and overall reliability, while controlling costs. LONI selected the Juniper Networks MX-series Ethernet services router, EX-series Ethernet switches and Secure Access SSL VPN appliances. LONI has doubled network performance, reduced network management time by 50 percent and increased user productivity with secure anywhere, anytime access to computing resources using any Web-enabled device. This allows researchers to shorten the time from theory to results and improve the productivity of their neural research.

Check out the full press release.

Juniper Networks and IXIA Announce Telecom Energy Efficiency Metric

Juniper Networks, the leader in high-performance networking, and IXIA, a leading, global provider of IP performance test systems, today announced the formation of the Energy Consumption Rating (ECR) Initiative — a framework for measuring the energy efficiency of network and telecom devices. Juniper, Ixia and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs collaborated to develop the energy efficiency metric in response to increasing requirements from service providers, enterprise businesses and government agencies for better methods to estimate, project and regulate energy efficiency of telecom and network equipment.

The vendor-neutral ECR framework and methodology offers a turnkey solution for reporting, measuring and regulating network component energy efficiency. The ECR draft specification 1.02 establishes a framework for classifying network equipment and a methodology for measuring energy efficiency. The final "performance-per-energy unit" rating, expressed in (watts) / (Gigabit per second) can be reported as a peak (scalar) or synthetic (weighted) metric that takes dynamic energy management capabilities into account.

"Energy efficiency is an increasingly important factor in customers' decision and evaluation process, but to-date there has been no reliable, standardized method for testing the efficiency of networking equipment. The ECR Initiative is an important step toward making energy efficiency ratings for telecommunications a reality," said Wan Ahmad Kamal, Juniper Networks Malaysia Country Manager. "Our service provider customers are focused on energy efficiency for maximum operational savings, service quality, reliability and the environmental impact of their networks, and our products are designed to help them meet these objectives. By participating in the launch of the ECR Initiative, Juniper is not only helping advance the industry towards its efficiency goals, but is also validating the advantage Juniper's platforms such as the T1600 have in this area.""

The Juniper Networks T1600 Core Router was the first system to be tested (today) under the ECR, and has been verified as the industry's most energy-efficient core router, with a performance-per-energy unit rating of 9.1 watts per Gpbs. The tests were performed at Ixia's iSimCity in Santa Clara, California using its IxGreen energy measurement solution. The Juniper Networks T1600 is a core router that can deliver 25 percent more routing capacity at half the footprint and with up to 40 percent less power than competing solutions.

Press Release:

MALAYSIA – October 29, 2008 -- Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, and IXIA (NASDAQ: XXIA), a leading, global provider of IP performance test systems, today announced the formation of the Energy Consumption Rating (ECR) Initiative — a framework for measuring the energy efficiency of network and telecom devices. In an event hosted by Ixia, key definitions and methodology of the ECR initiative were unveiled to the public, alongside a live technology demonstration.

In response to the increasing requirement from service providers, enterprise businesses and government agencies for better methods to estimate, project and regulate energy efficiency of telecom and network equipment, Juniper Networks, Ixia and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs collaborated to develop a vendor-neutral energy efficiency metric.

The ECR metric creates a common energy denominator between different network and telecom systems operating within a single class. The ECR methodology defines the procedures and conditions for measurements and calculations, and can be readily implemented with industry-standard test equipment.

Check out here for full press release.

The New MacBook - Apple Oct 2008 Event

At the recent Apple Oct 2008 event...

State of the Mac

Sold 2.5 millions mac (last quarter)

How they did that ?

1. Better computers
   
2. Better software
   
3. Compatibility (Enables Windows to run natively on the Mac)
   
4. Vista (Hasn't lived up)
   
5. Marketing
   
6. Retail Stores (247 stores in 8 country) - 400k visitors each, 50% new conversion.

• Outgrown the market in 4 years.
  
• Revenues share 30% (1 out 3 dollar is spent on Mac)
  
• Top supplier of notebooks for Education sector 39% (47% for major universities)
  
• The real momentum is 71 M in 2007, q1-q3 (2008) 71 M.

New Ways to Build Notebooks

The challenges of building thin and light notebook is to make the structure strong and robust.

The old MacBook was made from assembling small units of structures.









The revolutionary Macbook Air reinvents the wheel by doing the opposite - started from a solid board, removing away unwanted parts to cater for the features and it results as 'unibody enclosure'.










New Graphics for Notebooks

Combine the chipset and embedded graphic processor all in one part - Nvidia GForce 9400M.

• Chipset + GPU
  
• 70% of die area is GPU
  
• 16 parallel graphics cores
  
• 54 Gigaflops
  
• Up to 5 times faster than Intel integrated graphic

New Trackpad

• 39% larger
  
• Multi touch for gestures
  
• Glass
  
• Entire trackpad is the button

Conclusion of the new MacBook Pro:

• Unibody Enclosure
  
• LED backlit display
  
• Next generation graphics
  
• Multi-touch glass trackpad
  
• Mini Display Port connector
  
• Backlit keyboard
  
• Built-in iSight and microphone
  
• Stereo speakers
  
• Magnetic latch.
  
• Environmental friendly.
  
  
  • Arsenic free
  • BFR free
  • Mercury free
  • PVC free
  • Highly recyclable material
  • 37% shrinkage of the packages

What I like about it is the removable hard disk (solid state drive) known as 'slot-loading super drive' feature.

Still expensive for Ringgit Malaysian conversion and thus Apple computer is still a luxury thing in Malaysia. I still think that my next upgrade of Notebook will be Lenovo Thinkpad T61. I would love to have a tablet PC but the screen is usually just 12 inch (too small).

Juniper Networks Extends Edge Routing Leadership with the Intelligent Services Edge

Juniper Networks, the leader in high-performance networking, today announced the Intelligent Services Edge, a fully integrated portfolio of new hardware and software features that address business challenges for customers building and expanding high-performance networks. As providers continue to rapidly expand their service portfolio, the ability to converge services across a set of intelligent edge routing platforms will greatly enhance scale, performance and operational efficiency. Leveraging the architectural integrity of the powerful JUNOS® software and Juniper’s advanced M- and MX-series platforms; the advancements facilitate intelligent convergence at the edge, which drives network monetization by speeding deployment of new services and reducing operational costs and complexity.

The Intelligent Services Edge will extend the power of the JUNOS operating system by adding the following advanced edge services:

• Broadband Services Routing: extends subscriber management technology from the market-leading E-series Broadband Services Routers to the M- and MX-series platforms
  
• Dynamic Application Awareness: leverages Juniper’s leadership in security and policy management to provide stateful, subscriber-aware application monitoring, enabling advanced, application-specific service levels and QoS treatments
  
• Intrusion Prevention: provides application layer security leveraging Juniper Networks advanced Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) technology
  
• Session Border Control functionality: manages VoIP and multimedia sessions to ensure quality of service and security for VoIP and multimedia applications.

“JUNOS has long been a key differentiator for Juniper, and with the Intelligent Services Edge, we are further extending our leadership by leveraging JUNOS as the foundation for many more advanced edge services such as application awareness, broadband routing, security, voice and multimedia,” said Wan Ahmad Kamal, country manager for Juniper Networks Malaysia. “Our customers will continue to benefit from the operational efficiency and simplicity of a single network operating system in additional parts of their network and, together with the Partner Solution Development Platform, can create and deploy a virtually limitless number of services on JUNOS. This will enable service providers to monetize their networks by improving service flexibility and velocity, while also delivering maximum scale to meet increasing demand for new services.”

Press Release:

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, October 22, 2008 – Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, today announced the Intelligent Services Edge, a fully integrated portfolio of new hardware and software features that address business challenges for customers building and expanding high-performance networks.

Check out the full press release.

Juniper Networks High-Performance Application Acceleration Platforms Win Computerworld Malaysia Readers' Choice Award

Juniper Networks, the leader in high-performance networking, today announced the Juniper Networks WXC application acceleration platform has won a Computerworld Malaysia “Readers' Choice Award" in the WAN Accelerators category.

The Award was received by Sandra Wong, Juniper Networks Distribution Manager for Asean & India; from Avanti Kumar, Deputy Editor of Computerworld Malaysia (see pic attached : photo courtesy of Computerworld Malaysia) last night at the 2008 Computerworld Readers' Choice Awards ceremony dinner in Kuala Lumpur.



Juniper's WXC application acceleration platforms help distributed enterprises accelerate application delivery over the WAN, more effectively leverage WAN investments and boost user productivity.

Press Release:

MALAYSIA – October 14, 2008 -- Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, today announced the Juniper Networks WXC application acceleration platform has won a Computerworld Malaysia “Readers' Choice Award" in the WAN Accelerators category.

Check out here for full press release.

JUNIPER NETWORKS Ex-Series Ethernet Switches Achieve Avaya Interoperability Certification To Deliver Enterprise IP Telephony Solutions

Juniper Networks today announced certification compliance of the Juniper Networks EX-series Ethernet switches with Internet protocol (IP) telephony solutions from Avaya, a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services. Committed to delivering best-in-class IP telephony solutions, Avaya and Juniper Networks have been global strategic partners since 2005. In addition to enabling customers to support converged applications on a single network, customers benefit from joint solution and product development that leverages the innovation of two industry leaders, as well as reseller agreements that facilitate the sale of converged solutions and the global delivery of services and support for enterprise customers.

More about Juniper Networks.

Press Release:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, September 18, 2008 -- Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, today announced certification compliance of the Juniper Networks EX-series Ethernet switches with Internet protocol (IP) telephony solutions from Avaya, a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services. Juniper's EX-series Ethernet switches were successfully compliance tested by Avaya resulting in seamless interoperability with Avaya Communication Manager R5.0, Avaya 9630 IP telephones and Avaya 4610SW IP telephones.

Running on Juniper's powerful JUNOS® software, a single-source code base network operating system, the EX-series Ethernet switches deliver the operational simplicity, carrier-class reliability and integrated security that helps high-performance businesses accelerate the deployment of business-enabling applications and services across the extended enterprise. By leveraging JUNOS software, EX-series switches offer carrier-class continuous systems availability, automated network operations and a platform for open innovation that enables customers to quickly align the network with changing business requirements.

Mutual customers including Scottsdale, AZ-based AmazingMail.com, Inc., a leading provider of advanced direct mail marketing solutions, have successfully deployed interoperable Juniper/Avaya solutions to achieve greater levels of IT flexibility and investment protection.

"AmazingMail.com relies on converged communications services from Avaya to deliver exceptional customer service while reducing IT costs," said Larry Prine, lead systems administrator for AmazingMail.com, Inc. "Avaya's interoperability certification of the EX-series switches ensures us that the investments we are making in Juniper's high-performance network infrastructure today will support the IP telephony solutions we deploy now and in the future."

Committed to delivering best-in-class IP telephony solutions, Avaya and Juniper Networks have been global strategic partners since 2005. In addition to enabling customers to support converged applications on a single network, customers benefit from joint solution and product development that leverages the innovation of two industry leaders, as well as reseller agreements that facilitate the sale of converged solutions and the global delivery of services and support for enterprise customers.

"Juniper's open, high-performance network infrastructure provides enterprises greater choice and control in quickly meeting their changing business requirements while reducing costs," said Chris Spain, vice president of product management, Ethernet Platforms Business Group at Juniper Networks. "By achieving compatibility between EX-series Ethernet switches and Avaya's IP telephony solutions, Juniper helps enterprise customers to accelerate the deployment of carrier-class converged business communications that enhance business agility and workforce productivity."

Juniper Networks is also a member of the Avaya DevConnect program — an initiative to develop, market and sell innovative third-party products that interoperate with Avaya technology and extend the value of a customers investment in Juniper's high-performance network infrastructure.

Juniper Networks is eligible to submit products for compatibility testing by the Avaya Solution Interoperability and Test Lab in Lincroft, N.J. There a team of Avaya engineers develops a comprehensive test plan for each application to verify whether it is Avaya compliant. This ensures businesses can confidently add best-in-class capabilities to their network without having to replace existing infrastructure—speeding deployment of new applications and reducing both network complexity and implementation costs.

"By offering compliance testing to the many innovative companies including DevConnect program members such as Juniper Networks, Avaya promotes fully interoperable solutions that have been designed to help businesses unleash powerful new possibilities," said Eric Rossman, vice president, developer relations and technical alliances, Avaya. "They are able to use Unified Communications to connect supplier, partners, employees and customers to information from wherever they are, over whatever device they have available – getting more out of their multivendor network and delivering incremental value to their bottom line."

For information regarding Juniper's Avaya interoperability certification, visit www.avaya.com/devconnect, go to "application notes" on the left navigation bar, and search Juniper Networks.
About Avaya

Avaya delivers Intelligent Communications solutions that help companies transform their businesses to achieve marketplace advantage. More than 1 million businesses worldwide, including more than 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®, use Avaya solutions for IP Telephony, Unified Communications, Contact Centers and Communications-Enabled Business Processes. Avaya Global Services provides comprehensive service and support for companies, small to large. For more information visit the Avaya Web site: http://www.avaya.com. For more information on the Avaya DevConnect program, visit www.avaya.com/devconnect.

About Juniper Networks, Inc.

Juniper Networks, Inc. is the leader in high-performance networking. Juniper offers a high-performance network infrastructure that creates a responsive and trusted environment for accelerating the deployment of services and applications over a single network. This fuels high-performance businesses.

Media Contacts:

Wendy Lang
Juniper Networks, Inc.
+65-6511-3519
wendylang@juniper.net

PR Agency Contact:

David Gibson
inter.asia communications
(formerly known as PPM Technology Communications)
m. + (6) 017 357 2895; + (6) 012 612 1425
david@inter-asia.biz
www.inter-asia.biz

VigSys VM10 - USB Data Gateway

VigSys VM10 – USB Data Gateway (99mm x 18mm x 48mm) was launched at Mar 2008, at the CeBIT Exhibition in Germany. The retail price is RM699.00

Architecture:

• Wide total surfaces of the modem have been designed with purpose to avoid
  unit overheating which other slim USB modem may be experiencing.
  
• Designed with super capacitor to load average the power
  required for the modem. This removes the requirement of additional USB port to
  supply additional power for the modem. Protecting host (USB ports on
  laptop/computer) from power peaks. This ensures maximum connectivity and longer
  run times to meet the requirements for true mobility.
  
• VigSys VM10 USB modem provides only a small USB cable for direct connection,
  no more lengthy wire tangling around your notebook

Key Advantages:

• Can used to back up fixed line Internet services where there are risks of power
  failure or line instability.
  
• Tested to work with Skype & other softphone-ware
  
• Can be used in place of fixed line internet access due to comparable broadband
  subscription prices with the advantage of mobility.
  
• Not subject to potential lightning problems compared to fixed line broadband.
  Features
  
• Capable to support data speed up to 7.2Mbps using HSDPA and upload speed of
  up to 384Kbps.
  
• Supports Triband (850/1900/2100MHz) HSDPA/UMTS and
  Quadband(850/900/1800/1900MHz) for EDGE/GPRS. A truly global unit.
  
• Auto detects APN, user id and password makes it convenient for mobile users
  especially for worldwide travelers. User can get connected without much
  configurations required
  
• Auto switch to lower speed connection when higher speed connection is not
  available and vice versa.
  
• VigSys VM10 USB modem is plug and play, which means you just plug them into
  USB port, wait a while then you are ready to go.

Performance:

• Specially designed built-in antenna has been optimized for UMTS/HSDPA
  connections and works well at fringe coverage area. (Check out VigSys Website for
  Benchmark report)
  
• It has been tested in truly mobile situation and works at up to 130KM/h making it
  suitable for highway driving and commuting to work, on the train or bus.
  
• Tested to run on long hours without degrade of performance. No device overheating
  observed.
  
• Tested to work with all 4 mobile broadband providers in Malaysia (Celcom, Digi,
  Maxis, Umobile)
  VM10 Review Sheet v1.0 /200805 Page 2 of 2

Target Markets:

• For SOHO or professionals who travel around and require onsite ‘hotspot’
  
• For businesses to back up fixed line Internet services where there are risks of power
  failure or line instability in more mission critical applications
  
• For businesses with short term rentals and/or requiring instant Internet Access in the
  office, and cant wait for fixed line Internet Access to be set up
  
• For tenants renting houses, apartments and even rooms with short term rental
  leases or without Internet Access provided by landlords
  
• To replace ADSL or Cable broadband at home at similar or less costs with added mobility advantages. See comparison table below:

Operator	Package	Monthly	Downlink	Uplink	Network	Type
TM Streamyx	Combo 4	RM 140	2.0 Mbps	384 Kpbs	ADSL	Fixed
CELCOM	Broadband Advance	RM 98	3.6 Mbps	384 Kpbs	HSDPA	Mobile
DiGi	DiGi HighSpeed Mobile Access	RM 66	384 Kbps	224 Kbps	EDGE	Mobile
Maxis	Maxis 3G	RM 99	3.6 Mbps	384 Kbps	HSDPA	Mobile
Umobile	Surf with U	RM 78	3.6 Mbps	384 Kbps	HSDPA	Mobile

Check out the merdeka promotion.

For more information, please contact.

Mr. Kevin Tham
VigSys Sdn Bhd
www.vigsys.net
Data Mobility Solutions

Korean E-commerce Website Boosts Ethernet Routing and Security

Juniper Networks announced that one of the world’s largest consumer e-commerce websites - Seoul-based Gmarket, is to scale Web-based transactions with Juniper Networks MX960 Ethernet Services Routers; which boost network capacity and manageability by consolidating multiple gigabit Ethernet switching solutions into an easily-managed topology with fortified network security. Gmarket also deployed Juniper Integrated Security Gateways (ISG) – purpose-built, high-performance firewall and VPN gateway, to secure against network threats.

More about Juniper Networks.

Press Release:

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, August 52, 2008 – Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, announced that Seoul-based Gmarket, one of the world’s largest consumer e-commerce websites, is paving the way to scale Web-based transactions with Juniper Networks MX960 Ethernet Services Routers. The MX-series routers boost Gmarket’s network capacity and manageability by consolidating multiple gigabit Ethernet switching solutions into an easily-managed topology that leverages innovative JUNOS software, Juniper’s single-source code network operating system. The MX960’s Access Control List (ACL) capabilities also fortify Gmarket’s network security.

In addition, Gmarket deployed Juniper Integrated Security Gateways (ISG) – purpose-built, high-performance firewall and VPN gateway – to secure against network threats.

This upgrade follows Gmarket’s previous deployment of Juniper’s NetScreen-5400 firewalls, designed to deliver best-in-class performance capabilities and configuration flexibility for large enterprise, carrier and data center networks. The NetScreen-5400 can scale to 30 Gbps of firewall and 15 Gbps of VPN throughput, and handles up to one million concurrent VPN user sessions to provide secure access to Gmarket’s Web servers, network applications and databases, which host highly sensitive e-commerce data.

“JUNOS was the key differentiating feature for our purchase decision,” said Kiseok Lee, group manager of Gmarket’s System Operation Group. “Its proven reliability, excellent CLI tools, and powerful filtering functionality enable us to provide more reliable and secure services to our customers. The cflow and port-mirroring functions offer real time traffic visibility and detailed analysis. Additionally, the MX-series seamlessly interoperates with our NetScreen and ISG firewalls.”

“We’re confident we selected the best platform to meet our current and future requirements,” added Lee. “While our initial assessment pointed to the MX480, with six interface card slots, we decided to go with MX960 routers – which provide up to 12 – to accommodate future expansion. The Juniper network infrastructure is already delivering superior network performance and return on investment. We are now considering future expansion with the new Juniper Networks EX-series Ethernet switches.”



The MX960 platform delivers up to 960 gigabits per second (Gbps) of switching and routing capacity, which enables more revenue per platform and provides the scale to help maximize Gmarket’s return on investment. Purpose-built for the most demanding network applications, the MX-series establishes a new industry standard for capacity, density, and performance.

Gmarket’s ISG 1000 and ISG 2000 gateways integrate best-in-class Deep Inspection firewall, VPN and DoS capabilities into a single platform. They enable secure, reliable connectivity, along with network and application-level protection, for critical, high-traffic network segments. The ISG series can be upgraded to support full Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) capabilities to provide robust network and application layer protection against current and emerging threats.

“Network-based businesses such as Gmarket depend on highly scalable infrastructure that performs at a high level and without unnecessary complexity or overhead,” said Tim Kang, vice president of Korea for Juniper Networks. “The Korean market recognizes the unique value of the MX-series in delivering high-performance, innovative routing and ease of management.”

About JUNOS Software

JUNOS software is the trusted, secure network operating system driving Juniper Networks leadership in high-performance networking. It provides carrier-class continuous systems availability, automated network operations and the open innovation that businesses demand to quickly align the network with changing business requirements, while reducing complexity, cost and risk. This maximizes flexibility and efficiency to fuel competitive advantage.

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks, Inc. is the leader in high-performance networking. Juniper offers a high-performance network infrastructure that creates a responsive and trusted environment for accelerating the deployment of services and applications over a single network. This fuels high-performance businesses.

Juniper Networks, JUNOS, NetScreen, ScreenOS and the Juniper Networks logo are registered trademarks in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners.

Media Contacts:

Wendy Lang
Juniper Networks, Inc.
+65-6511-3519
wendylang@juniper.net

PR Agency Contact:
David Gibson
PPM Technology Communications
03-2094-4091, 017-357-2895
ppmpr@yahoo.com, david.ppm@gmail.com

Invalid Port Number 8002

Image via WikipediaIf you are developing codes using VB6 and is facing this error, this may help you.

First of all, in a typical code, it looks like this.

MSComm1.CommPort = 26

MSComm1.Settings = "57600,N,8,1"

MSComm1.RThreshold = 1

MSComm1.SThreshold = 1

MSComm1.DTREnable = True

MSComm1.RTSEnable = True

MSComm1.PortOpen = True

Thus, if you are able to find out which line the error is triggered, you may be better off.

If it is triggered from the following line.

MSComm1.CommPort = 26

This is because using 'MS Comm Control 6.0' activeX control, you can only set a maximum port number of 16. Thus, the example above with port number = 26 is considered invalid.

If it is triggered from the following line.

MSComm1.PortOpen = True

Then it means that the port is not existence.

Ok, so the bigger problem is that sometimes you may be in a situation where the port number has to be higher than 16, especially when you are dealing with serial-USB connection (the COM Port number is automatically assigned).

How to solve it ?

Two solutions:

1. Using Win32 API instead of ActiveX object to make serial port connection.

And thanks to this forum, and check out this forum for exact solution.

Mainly it involves usage of createFile API.

The API creates or opens a file or I/O device.

The most important parameter is the 'lpFileName'. Which is the exact name of the resource to be opened in Windows system. For instance, if COM Port 1, the name is 'COM1' as listed in 'Control Panel/System/Device Manager/'

Check out a sample code by Riaan Aspeling (from planet source code) is promising, but it doesn't make use of events. It is using timer.

2. Manually change the port to a number less than or equal to 16.

It can be done, only if the situation permits.

Then you can keep using ActiveX control (MS Comm Control 6.0).