Stories by Tim Greene and Phil Hochmuth

The Avaya sale: Tech buyouts bear risks

The sale of Avaya is just the latest in an increasing number of private-equity buyouts of technology companies that might not be good things for customers.

These VOIP players know the score

It's a given that with time VOIP will replace traditional voice technology in corporate networks. Sales of IP phone systems have surpassed those of traditional PBXs, and business VOIP will exceed traditional voice by 2010, according to IDC.

VoIP: ask questions upfront

Unforeseen VoIP glitches range from who gets the fancy phones to how you track phone use by department so you can bill them for what they use. The phone project manager should have veto power over who requires more than a standard handset, or department heads will start dishing out the more expensive, feature-rich models to people who really don't need them. "They want the phones with more buttons," says IT director Roger Fahnestock.

Nortel working on new security routers

Nortel Networks is working on security routers for businesses looking to move away from dedicated, stand-alone security hardware to software and hardware combinations incorporated in switches, routers and even desktops.