Alan Stevens

Latest from Alan Stevens

Show search filters
Quintum Tenor ASM200

Quintum Tenor ASM200

US-based <a href="http://www.quintum.com">Quintum Technologies</a> sells a range of VoIP switches based on its own Multi-Path technology which, it claims, offers superior performance, quality and availability compared to alternative solutions. Its principal product family, the Tenor, is available both through resellers and from Nortel Networks as part of the <a href="http://products.nortel.com/go/product_content.jsp?parId=0&segId=0&catId=-9274&prod_id=51121&locale=en-US">Nortel Communication Server 1000</a> IP telephony solution.

May 6, 2005 by in Networking

Sipura SPA-3000

Sipura SPA-3000

Unlike the other VoIP gateways we have tested, the SPA-3000 from Sipura can only be used to handle a single PBX extension. However, for many teleworker applications that’s all you really need. And at just over £80 (ex. VAT), the Sipura gateway is a very cost-effective solution.

May 6, 2005 by in Networking

Fedora Core 5

Fedora Core 5

Fedora Core 5 is the latest Linux release from the Red Hat-sponsored <a href="http://www.fedora.redhat.com ">Fedora Project</a>, a free-to-download distribution that's mostly community developed and aimed at developers and hobbyists. As such it’s very much cutting edge, with Fedora Core regarded as a test bed for upcoming technologies. Technologies that could, eventually, make it into the commercial <a href="http://www.europe.redhat.com/software/rhel/">Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)</a> product, but only when fully proven and debugged. The Fedora release cycle is much shorter than for RHEL. Indeed, it’s just nine months since version 4 was released, although a lot has happened in that time.

March 24, 2006 by in Enterprise Software

Sun Solaris 10

Sun Solaris 10

For Sun customers, upgrading to Solaris 10 is very much a 'no-brainer', and for several very good reasons. To start with, it's faster than any previous Solaris implementation, with a slick new IP stack just one of many performance enhancements. Plus it’s a lot more secure, featuring a new integrated cryptographic framework based on the Trusted Solaris product. The Role Based Access Control (RBAC) technology, introduced a couple of releases back, has also been extended to give fine-grained control over both users and processes, while applications and services can now be isolated within their own virtual execution space using Solaris Containers (formerly N1 Grid Containers).

April 21, 2005 by in Enterprise Software

Compellent Storage Center 4.0

Compellent Storage Center 4.0

<p> Here's a fact worth knowing: very little of the data held on expensive Storage Area Networks (SANs) is ever accessed. Furthermore, companies routinely spend huge amounts providing enough space to cope with growth &mdash; much of which will never, ever, be used. Compellent understands this dilemma, and its <a href="http://www.compellent.com/Products.aspx">Storage Center</a> solution leverages the company's unique <a href="http://www.compellent.com/Products/Architecture.aspx">block-level virtualisation technology</a> to neatly address both these and other common storage issues. </p>

August 28, 2008 by in Storage

Solwise VOIP-EL404

Solwise VOIP-EL404

The UK importer of a range of Taiwanese VoIP products, <a href="http://www.solwise.co.uk">Solwise</a>, provided us with a pair of 4-port gateways for review. These proved to be somewhat short on extras compared to the competition, but still provided the basic long-line PBX extension support we wanted, and were relatively straightforward to deploy.

May 6, 2005 by in Networking

QuickBooks Pro 2013 review

QuickBooks Pro 2013 review

A jazzy new interface and a CRM-like Lead Centre are the main new features in QuickBooks 2013. Existing users may struggle to justify the upgrade, but there's a lot in the product already and this refresh certainly won't do sales any harm.

September 20, 2012 by in SMBs

Dell PowerEdge R520 review

Dell PowerEdge R520 review

It's not the most powerful or scalable 2U server in Dell's PowerEdge range, but the R520 is still a quick, capable and affordable dual-socket platform that can be configured to handle a variety of both datacentre and distributed office workloads.

September 18, 2012 by in Servers

Dell PowerEdge T620 review

Dell PowerEdge T620 review

The tower equivalent of the rack-mounted R720, Dell's PowerEdge T620 sports the same processor, RAM and management options plus even more flexible storage. It's a powerful and versatile platform that can cope with everything from standard file and print duties through distributed branch office applications to private cloud deployment.

September 7, 2012 by in Servers

Dell PowerEdge R815

Dell PowerEdge R815

The first of the big-name vendors to deliver a server based on AMD's new 16-core Opteron 6200 series (Interlagos) processors, Dell has stolen a march on the competition with an affordable yet highly scalable 2U platform offering all the usual PowerEdge trimmings.

November 13, 2011 by in Servers