Issue 6 Summer 2010

THE ELECTRON

OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE INSTITUTION OF ELECTRONICS

Issue 6: Summer 2010


TRAINING CENTRE NEWS

Spotlight on our training centres focusses on Altimex Ltd based in Barrow, Chester

Altimex Ltd has been in business since 1995 and specialises in providing their clients with products to meeting the ever increasing demand for bespoke solutions.

They are an independent design, manufacturing and distribution house that specialises in:-

Electronic controllers, transformers and bespoke control systems PCB Assembly service, Cable & amp; Wire Assembly, Electronic systems assembly, Prototypes for test and approval, one off products for specific projects or large quantities for call off requirements
Fibre optic & amp; networking connectivity solutions for both the Data and Tele communications industry.
Patchcords, Pigtails, Patch panels, Pre-terminated optical fibre cables, Adapter, Attenuators and all related solutions


The company is totally focused towards customer requirements making great efforts to understanding their needs and forming long term partnerships. Altimex Ltd can design and manufacture one off products for specific projects or large quantities for call off requirements. Their inhouse design and manufacturing capability enables them to produce prototypes for test and approval and thus turn your ideas into finished products.

Altimex Ltd have a reputation for offering quality products and good service and they are working hard to develop this reputation by offering complete solutions to suit customers needs.

Davinder Lotay - Director (Fellow of the Institution of Electronics), has been in the Optoelectronic business for over 15 years and worked for several large blue chip companies - BT&D Technologies/HP, BICC Cables and Corning before taking over Altimex Ltd. Experience ranges from both low and high speed electronics to working on cutting edge technologies for fibre optic communication systems.


MICROSOFT EXCHANGE SERVER 2010

One subject that has been particularly dominant recently in the field of electronic communications is the impact of the newly launched Microsoft Exchange server 2010.

In October 2009 Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to examine the total economic impact and potential return on investment (ROI) that enterprises may expect from the new server, which is the newest release of Microsoft’s messaging and collaborative server software solution featuring email, voicemail, calendaring, contacts and tasks, as well as support for mobile and Web-based access to information and support for data storage.

Essentially Forrester found that the principal benefits of the new server came in the form of cost avoidance of storage, reduced cost of high availability, cost avoidance in voicemail, savings in back-up systems, fewer helpdesk calls, cost avoidance of mobility, enhanced communication security, and simplified compliance and legal discovery. This is then presented as a business case for organisations to invest in Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.

The figures that Forrester present are basically a 48 per cent ROI with a break-even or payback period of less than six months following deployment, risk-adjusted cost benefits of $455,750 over three years, and risk-adjusted costs of implementation of $307,641 over three years. The principal costs are hardware costs, software license fees, implementation costs, administration and maintenance costs, and IT and helpdesk training costs.

According to Microsoft, Exchange 2010 ‘ushers in the next generation of Microsoft unified communications software as the first server designed from inception to work both on-premises and as an online service and introduces new capabilities to help organisations reduce costs, protect communications, and delight email users.’

Key features are:

A new unified approach to high availability and disaster recovery, such as Database Availability Groups and online mailbox moves, which helps to reduce the complexity and cost of delivering business continuity.

Greater choice of storage hardware options, from traditional storage area networks (SAN) to low cost, desktop class direct attached storage (DAS), which helps to tailor Exchange infrastructure.

Administrative advances such as a new role-based security model, self-service capabilities, and the Web-based Exchange Control Panel, which help to lower operational costs by reducing the burden on IT staff.

New integrated ‘out-of-the-box’ email archiving enabling the preservation of email data without changing the experience for users or IT staff.

A new retention policy framework that allows IT staff to define, deploy and automate the expiry and archiving of email data and provides users with the flexibility to select and apply retention policies to individual messages or folders.

New Transport Protection Rules designed to help organisations to safeguard sensitive business information by allowing IT staff to automatically apply information rights management (IRM) policies to both email and voicemail messages.

Time saving inbox management tools such as an enhanced conversation view and MailTips designed to help users to organise and prioritise communications more easily.

A transformed voicemail experience with enhancements such as voice access to email, speech-to-text previews of received voice messages, the flexibility for users to create customised voicemail menus, and call handling rules that are designed to ensure that callers are given the correct priority.

The best three-screen user experience available through Outlook on the desktop, Outlook Web App in the Web browser, and Exchange ActiveSync, the de facto industry standard for mobile devices.

As with its predecessor, Exchange 2007, it can be installed as one server or as several, each handling different roles and adding high availability where necessary, but, also like its predecessor, there is no direct upgrade route from any previous installations. This is because it only runs on Windows Server 2008 R2, with the consequence that it is virtually certain that a new operating system will be required. Also, whilst Exchange 2007 had a 32-bit version for training and for a limited number of deployment scenarios, there is only a 64-bit implementation of Exchange 2010, and only then for Intel 64 and AMD 64, notably not for Itanium.

All of this suggests that there can be a dilemma for those considering investing in the new system, and in ‘Getting to grips with Exchange 2010’ Simon Bisson in IT Expert (Volume 3, Edition 1, March 2010) raises the possibility of implementing a hybrid model which uses hosted Exchange as a cloud-based alternative to the on-premises system.

He states:

‘Perhaps the biggest change, and the one that’ll have the most impact on the clients you’re supporting, is the move to what Microsoft are calling “mailbox resiliency”. Instead of failing over at a server level, Exchange 2010 fails over at a mailbox database level. With multiple mailbox databases on multiple servers in a large installation, that’ll mean much faster failover – and quicker recovery. If you’re hosting recovery servers for a client, then you’ll be able to bring them back much more quickly.’

Some advice on how to effect the changeover from Exchange 2007 is provided by Simon Bisson (www.ITEXPERTMAG.COM>VOL3>ED.1>). The paper ‘The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Exchange 2010’ by Amit Diddee, is available from www.forrester.com


MICROSOFT EXCHANGE SERVER 2010: A CASE STUDY


One organisation that has implemented Exchange 2010, and has reportedly gained ‘huge improvements in employee communication and productivity as a result’ is the Austrian construction materials retailer Wurth.

The Wurth Group sells over 100,000 types of fastening and assembly products such as dowels, tools, machines and chemical products that are used in numerous industries, most notably construction and automotive. It has over 400 companies operating in 84 countries. Their sales representatives spend a considerable proportion of their time travelling to customer sites and therefore need to stay in close contact both with customers and other employees. In these circumstances it can clearly be impractical, for example, to interrupt a customer meeting in order to answer a phone call from a colleague or another customer, or stop to check for email or voicemail.

Until recently, Wurth employees in Austria used Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 for email and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 for instant messaging (IM). Other divisions had separate solutions for email and IM.

Lindsay James, in the Spring 2010 issue of Retailspeak, tells the story in ‘Getting the Message across’. This article explains the problems that arose as a result of having to use these different systems, and how this led to a desire to implement a centralised and reliable messaging solution that could enhance productivity and collaboration for employees, prompting an investigation into the capabilities of Exchange 2010.

The unified messaging capabilities turned out to be of particular interest:



‘Wurth could use Exchange Server 2010 along with Office Communications Server 2007 to create a unified inbox for email, voicemail and IM. Employees could manage their email, voicemail, calendars and contacts with their computers or telephone. The ability to manage messaging with verbal commands would greatly help employees, especially when driving. In addition, the Voice Mail Preview feature displays a speech-to-text preview of voicemail messages, which would give employees a quick way to check voicemail even in meetings.’

Users can also record different voice messages for different callers, set up their inbox so that the system routes specified callers to another employee or phone number and with Microsoft Outlook Web App remote users could access calendars and documents stored on SharePoint sites. Other advantages included the ability to use less expensive storage options, provide all system users with a five-gigabyte mailbox instead of 500MB, ability to store old messages on the server rather than on users’ computers, and maintain more than one copy of the email database through the Database Availability Group Feature.

Design and implementation issues were handled by Microsoft partners HP Technology Services and Se-IT solution, providing an HP storage and infrastructure that will scale mailbox capacity by 900 per cent, increase productivity by 20 per cent, improve customer service and reduce risk.

Andres Zit of HP Technology is quoted as follows:

‘Wurth can use the Database Availability Group Feature in Exchange Server 2010 to affordably maintain at least three copies of the email database at all times. This means the new solution will reduce risk – and be inherently more reliable.’

Importantly Wurth can replace third-party messaging services with a unified messaging solution based on Exchange 2010 and, if a disk or server fails, the Database Availability Group Feature will make it possible for the system to automatically failover in 30 seconds so that users do not experience an interruption in service.

Retailspeak is published by Tudor Rose, 6 Friar Lane, Leicester, LE1 5RA. Telephone: 0116 222 9900. Email: info@retailspeak.com


BREAKTHROUGH VIDEO INTEGRATION FOR MICROSOFT UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS ENVIRONMENTS


Industry-first capabilities in scheduling, user experience, management and enabling smart rooms for Microsoft U.C. environments have been launched by Polycom, a global leader in telepresence, video and voice communications solutions.

The expansion of visual integrated communication solutions for Microsoft Office Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange with breakthrough capabilities make it easier for organisations to deploy, manage and use Polycom telepresence, high definition video conferencing and desktop video collaboration within Microsoft U.C. environments.

As part of its expanded offering for Microsoft U.C. environments Polycom is introducing an innovative video scheduling solution for Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook that will help organisations realise greater productivity gains and higher return on U.C. and collaboration investments by increasing the use of video collaboration and lowering operational costs.

The breakthrough solution Polycom Conferencing for Outlook ties productivity-enhancing and cost-saving visual communication capabilities directly into the normal Microsoft Outlook workflow for users. Users can now incorporate telepresence, unified voice/video conferences and desktop video collaboration into meetings and enable invited participants to join with a single mouse click or remote control. Users can also record video meetings and make the recording available for on-demand playback for those that missed the meeting or as a public record – a requirement for some meetings in healthcare, government and law. This capability can also be used to cost-effectively create high definition video content such as training materials, company announcements and customer support videos by leveraging the Polycom video end points as recording capture stations.

Senior Vice President and General Manager of Video Solutions at Polycom, Joe Sigrist, states:

“Polycom Conferencing for Outlook is a real breakthrough in eliminating some of the key barriers to broader adoption of visual communications within organisations – ease of use and IT support requirements. It helps users easily schedule and join video calls using a variety of methods and automates the entire process from a resource standpoint, significantly reducing the support requirements for scheduling and initiating calls.”

More information is available from angelica.kempf@polycom.com


ALLIANCE SET TO REVOLUTIONISE VISUAL COMMUNICATION NETWORKS


An alliance between Polycom Inc. and Juniper Networks looks set to spark a revolution in visual communications, improving the reliability, cost effectiveness and quality of the customer experience for telepresence and video conferencing services.

The jointly managed video services solution is expected to reduce total capital expenditure as well as ongoing operating and maintenance costs and requirements, whilst at the same time improving the delivery and manageability of visual communications.

As the industry’s first ‘conferencing-aware’ network solution it will provide an intelligent service provider solution that enables assured-quality managed video services over a converged network, driving costs out of the delivery of high-value telepresence and comprehensive video conferencing managed services by allowing service providers to maximise the capabilities of their existing network. A single-network solution will therefore replace the current overlay network model for supporting telepresence and video conferencing services.

The global market for visual communication managed services is projected to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 162 per cent between 2008 and 2015, rising from nearly $83 million to around $940 million, and total demand for visual communication is projected to reach $8.6 billion with a CAGR of 17.8 per cent between 2008 and 2013 (Frost and Sullivan, ‘World Visual Communication Managed Services Market’, November 2009 and Gartner, ‘Video Conference Products and Services Market Forecast, Worldwide 2007 to 2013’, September 28th. 2009.)

Ira Weinstein, Senior Analyst and Partner for Wainwright Research, comments:

“Juniper and Polycom are leveraging their respective strengths in carrier-class network architectures and enterprise telepresence and video conferencing to change how video traffic runs on the network among other applications. Traditionally, video conferencing environments have had no insight into the real-time status of the network. With this solution, the video communication platform dynamically interacts with the network, enabling assured quality for video and other network centric applications. The result is a more efficient and effective use of network and video resources.”

The solution combines high-performance network infrastructure systems from Juniper with industry-leading telepresence and video conferencing facilities from Polycom.

More information is available from polycom@bitecommunications.com or from Ms. Sarah Douglas of Bite Communications on 020 8834 3429.


ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS MOVE TO UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS


The Royal College of Physicians has upgraded its network to underpin the implementation of advanced IP-based unified communications applications such as VoIP, unified messaging and high definition (HD) video conferencing.

Based on the Brocade FastIron SX800 series 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) backbone switches and 1 GbE FastIron GS Power over Ethernet (PoE) edge switches, the new network has substantially increased performance with first-class service delivery to members, and to commercial clients who use the College’s award-winning conference facilities as voted by The Business Development Research Consultants Awards 2008. The new switches also enhance network resilience, reduce power consumption and enhance virtualisation projects, maximising the College’s investment in new server infrastructure.

Founded in 1518 by a charter from King Henry VIII, the College is responsible for providing and setting standards in clinical practice, education and training, conducting assessments and examinations, supporting doctors in their practice of medicine, and advising Government, the public and the profession on health care issues. Internationally renowned with over 23,000 members and fellows, it employs 300 staff and has an annual income of £21.4 million.

The network upgrade has increased reliability substantially (now 99.95 per cent), which is important as the College generates substantial income from its conference facilities where dependable Internet connectivity is crucial. In addition the College conducts large-scale clinical audits where it typically has only a narrow window in which to collect research data in statistical packages, making network availability essential.

In conjunction with the network upgrade, the College has also modified its server environment, reducing the estate by over 70 per cent (36 physical servers reduced to eight virtual servers). The new high-performance Brocade switches ensure that this virtualised environment operates smoothly with no traffic bottlenecks.

Christopher Venning, IT Network and Services Manager for The Royal College of Physicians, states:

“Last year we hit a crunch point with network capacity and decided to upgrade. Faster Internet connectivity had to be provided to conference delegates. Our 15-year-old PBX was end-of-life, giving us the opportunity to move to unified communications technology, and we wanted to save on staff and committee members’ travel costs through HD video conferencing. The new equipment gives us a ten-fold performance increase comfortably allowing us to run all these new services.”

More information on this feature may be obtained from markss@brocade.com or Stuart Marks on 01784 496 474.


HIGH SPEED BROADBAND FOR YORKSHIRE


The city of Leeds has recently become one of the UK’s most advanced business and financial institutions as a result of a high-speed fibre network.

The project is linked with local telecommunications firm aql®, who are engaged in rolling out connectivity throughout the city’s business district, where Internet speeds of up to 100 Megabit per second (at least ten times faster than the national average) should shortly be available.

The award winning mobile and messaging and communications specialists aql® have also installed a fibre network between Leeds and London and also a local fibre from its Leeds sites to strategic points such as multi-tenanted offices.

The service is currently exclusive to The Calls Area, birthplace of Internet pioneers Freeserve and popular amongst the city’s media and marketing agencies, including VTR, who are among the first businesses to pilot the service.

The Managing Director of VTR, Carl Waters, says:

“We can now upload 40 commercials in an hour to our London-based partners as opposed to 45 minutes per commercial. Unlike some of the regional initiatives which have been set up to achieve this, our connection is delivered to our desktop and allows us to access every media company in the country.”

Elsewhere in Yorkshire Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council has become one of the country’s leading local authorities by deploying the first universally accessible superfast broadband network in the UK.

This achievement is due largely to the Totally Online Barnsley Initiative, which has been supported by £1.5 million of European funding, and £1.5 million from the UK Government. It has also been facilitated by the Bull TCL Data Centre, which opened in 2006 to manage the Council’s IT operations.

In the article ‘Barnsley goes Digital’ (Government Technology Vol. 9.2) it is stated that:

‘The data centre now provides a cost-effective, reliable and secure ICT infrastructure which has laid the foundations for improvements in both council services and further economic development in the borough. To date successes include substantial cost and energy savings under the government’s efficiency agenda as well as the securing of commercial contracts worth several million pounds.’

The high-speed network is being built by Digital Region (covering Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield), in partnership with Thales UK. When in place it will bring a broadband service with speeds in the region of 25 Mbits/sec to 550,000 homes, 40,000 businesses and 1.3 million people.

Contacts for this feature are www.aql.com and www.barnsley.gov.uk


CHILD SAFETY GOES MOBILE


Mobile telecommunications firm aql®, along with child safety from Crisp Thinking, have developed an innovative new mobile service aimed at protecting children from the risks of allowing them their own mobile handset.

Mobile phones are becoming increasingly popular amongst the under-16s, with children as young as 5 using mobiles to chat with their friends. Current statistics suggest that the average child in the UK sends nearly 10,000 text messages a year and spends up to 40 minutes a day making calls.

Crisp has a track record of detecting bullying and suspicious messaging within online chat rooms and gaming portals. Their unique software can identify characteristics that are typical of bullying behaviour or Internet predators. When combined with aql®’s wholesale mobile service the result is the UK’s only mobile service that is dedicated to child protection.

The Founder of Crisp, Adam Hildreth, states:
“The technology is unique – aql®’s ability to pass the text messages sent to and from the handset into our screening engine creates a product that addresses every parent’s dilemma – the pros and cons of giving a child a mobile. Crisp technology is at the forefront of cyber bully and predator detection and we’re excited by the prospect of going mobile.”

The product, powered by the aql®-Crisp partnership, will be available from major network brands and also specialist operators such as ‘Keep Kids Safe’. Parents are advised to look for the Crisp logo that shows that the handset is equipped with the protective technology.

More information is available from www.aql.com


ASTERISK SOLUTION FOR AWARD WINNING CHARITY


Located in Canning town, London, Anchor House arose from a hostel built in the 1960s for seafarers visiting the ports of East London. Today it provides support for homeless and workless people, helping them to move on to employment and independent living.

As part of its vision to transform itself from a basic hostel into a homeless and life skills centre, Anchor House utilised electronic technology with Foehn as its technology partner.

As Europe’s Premier Solutions Partner for Digium Asterisk, Foehn is also the leading provider of custom-built PBX and U.C. solutions based on Asterisk and offering consultancy and systems support for all Asterisk-based systems. Foehn was awarded its partner status by Digium as a result of the company’s demonstrated ability to design and deploy successful large-scale communication solutions based on Asterisk, the popular worldwide telephony toolkit. Foehn was founded in 2000 and is a systems integrator with specific expertise in IP networking, VoIP and open source technologies.

At Anchor House Foehn began by designing a core system built around an IP-based network. This meant that all systems adhering to the IP standard would be able to communicate over the network. From there Foehn made use of open source technologies in order to provide as much as possible within the charity’s budget.

The scope varied from electronic key systems on residents’ doors to new phone and media systems in all of the residents’ rooms and public areas, and standard office productivity tools for staff.

The project included an implementation of an Asterisk-based bespoke telephone system that could provide differentiated services to the residents, staff and business tenants. All users of the phone system were to receive advanced telephony features such as voicemail, but the system was to be programmed with different features and routing depending on the type of user. Telephone services for residents, for example, were to be set up to use a pre-pay calling system.
Outbound calls are provided via the Internet and a voice over IP (VoIP) network, which has reduced costly line rental for Anchor House as the voice calls travel over the Internet lines, removing the need for a fixed number of lines for concurrent calls. Call centre features, such as call queuing, have also been incorporated into the system to manage inbound calls.

The designed IP system is scaleable so that new services can be added when desired, but the use of virtual networking technology security means that they can be easily compartmentalised.

The result is that over the past year Anchor House has been able to help 39 residents back into employment, which is above average for their type of enterprise. Recognition came in September 2009 when Anchor House was announced winner of the Best Use of Technology Charity Times Award 2009.

More information on this feature may be obtained from www.foehn.co.uk (telephone: 020 8940 7919).