After years of working with financial markets firms around the globe I believe we are heading towards an environment where “High-intelligence trading” will likely replace “High-frequency trading”.  Why, because low-latency is becoming table stakes in the search for competitive differentiation. A firm’s business advantage is going to be in the ability to operate on a global scale and process more complex information sets.  So in today’s markets, it’s not just speed — but span of awareness that counts -- in a search for Alpha. How do firms evolve to  “high-intelligence trading” infrastructure ?   Read More »

Tags: financial markets, high frequency, infrastructure, low latency, scalable, trading

Telepresence and videoconferencing services (both hosted and managed) will reach a whopping $1.2 billion(US) worldwide by 2016, according to ABI Research.

Cisco partner Tata Communications is riding that wave and shares insights in a recent FastChat video with MSPmentor Editorial Director Joe Panettieri.

In the video below, Joe interviews Greg Brophy, Director of Product Management at Tata. Greg shares ways that the company is using the cloud to help its customers connect globally using Cisco’s TelePresence technology. He also shares a recent customer win and what he sees are key trends among his customer base.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erszpHxrf8U&

Wondering how can you plug into Tata Communications’ infrastructure? Read More »

Tags: business, channels blog, Cisco, cloud, communications, customer, endpoint, FastChat, infrastructure, MSPMentor, partner, tata, technology, TelePresence, TP, unified communications

By Howard Baldwin, Contributing Columnist

There is a country whose east and west coasts border on major oceans. Its major cities dot its coastline, while its internal areas, while populated, could accurately be described as “flyover” zones. It takes about six hours to fly coast-to-coast.

Its government is making the single largest infrastructure investment in the country’s history, investing $43 billion over eight years in order to connect 90+ percent of all its homes, schools and workplaces with broadband services over fiber-optic cable with speeds up to 100 megabits per second, 100 times faster than those currently used by many households and businesses.

Which forward-looking nation committed to this bold goal?

Read More »

Tags: Australia, broadband, economic development, infrastructure, innovation, NBN

The way a nation’s people collectively participate in the Global Networked Economy may seem like a complex topic that’s only relevant to the few academics and industry analysts that study these emerging trends.

However, recent events in Egypt offer insight about the close relationship between the cause and effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy decisions,  and the likely resulting socioeconomic impact on the whole population.

In my prior dialogue with U.S. economic development practitioners, sometimes they would raise concerns about being unable to quantify the tangible benefits of telecommunications network infrastructure assets. Granted, it can be  a challenge.

Read More »

Tags: economic development, Egypt, global networked economy, ICT, infrastructure, OECD

By Howard Baldwin, Contributing Columnist

In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama identified government investment in infrastructure as a key antidote to the U.S. economic doldrums. This is not a new concept. During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration spent $7 billion over a three year period to construct buildings, roads, parks, and bridges, bringing short-term jobs and long-term competitive advantage.

Nor is it strictly a U.S. strategy. During the recent downturn, multiple countries have started taking the same tack, but instead of dams and highways, they’re funding telecommunications network infrastructure.

According to a 2009 speech by Taylor Reynolds, an economist with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the numbers are impressive for countries both large and small:

Read More »

Tags: economic development, government, infrastructure, Service Provider, stimulus