News

• Vocus sells for $20m to investment fund

  Vocus Communications has been sold to an ASX-listed private equity firm for $20 million.

• Don't forget file sharing performance

  Consolidating 10 dispersed branch offices into one virtualised data centre can produce significant savings, as Australia's second largest manufacturer of non-alcoholic and non-dairy beverages P&N Beverages found out three years ago.

• Australian Crime Commission to overhaul network

  The Australian Crime Commission (ACC) will overhaul its voice and networking infrastructure, flagging that it will simplify and consolidate its fixed-line voice telephony contractual arrangements and deploy a higher capacity secondary data network.

• Defence to roll out computer cluster

  Defence continues its IT overhaul with the announcement that it will deploy a new multi-node computer cluster and outsource its help desk service for the Defence Science & Technology Organisation (DSTO).

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  ISP-level filter "ideological" and "political": iiNet

  iiNet has taken a swing at the Federal Government’s mandatory ISP-level filter, calling it an “ideological approach aimed at a political objective”.

• Finance Department announces networking panel

  The Department of Finance and Deregulation will establish a panel of suppliers for the provision of Internet-based network connections as part of its move to establish new whole-of-government arrangements for the procurement of a range of telecommunications and related products and services.

• NewSat raises $3.9 million

  NewSat has reported that it has raised $3.9 million under a share purchase plan.

• New routers let companies exploit 3G cellular data networks

  Sixnet is introducing hardware to help corporate customers exploit the growing throughput, reach and reliability of expanding 3G cellular data networks.

• Cisco invests in virtualization security start-up

  Cisco and several other investors have given $10.5 million to HyTrust, a start-up that is tackling some of the thornier security problems posed by the growing popularity of VMware's virtualization platform.

• MyNetFone records increased profitability

  MyNetFone (ASX:MNF) has reported major growth across its business for the half year ended 31 December 2009, driven by increasing monthly profit and organic growth across its entire voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and broadband product range.

• Haiti Wi-Fi network links relief centers

  The exploratory trip last month by San Francisco-based nonprofit Inveneo might have been fairly routine -- or at least as routine as things can be for a group that brings information technology to poor countries all over the world. Members of its team would go to yet another country and meet with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) there to talk about their connectivity needs and discuss ways they could work together to aid the local population. Inveneo, founded about five years ago, had done similar work with partners in 23 countries, including Rwanda, Uganda, Afghanistan and Nepal.

• NewSat moves to reassure investors

  Satellite communications company NewSat (ASX:NWT) has moved to reassure investors over the future of the company with the issuing of a chairman’s address on the company’s financial progress.

• Mobile traffic helps push up optical demand

  Demand for high-speed links to cell sites and homes will rejuvenate sales of optical network equipment this year and help to create a US$16.6 billion worldwide market for it by 2014, according to research firm Dell'Oro Group.

• In Brief: TPG raises $65m

  TPG Telecom has completed an institutional placement to raise $65 million through the issue of around 41 million new ordinary shares at $1.585 – a 5.4 per cent discount to the last closing price.

• Facebook sees need for Terabit Ethernet

  Facebook's data centers already need 100-Gigabit Ethernet and ideally could use 1-Terabit Ethernet, according to a senior network engineer at the company.