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“Unified Communications from Cisco combines all forms of business communications
into a single, unified system that provides powerful new ways to collaborate. Cisco
Unified Communications gives companies the ability to:
• Collaborate across any workspace: Advanced collaboration tools make it
possible to create high quality, secure, adaptive workspaces throughout your
organization. When co-workers, partners, vendors, and customers can collaborate
Virtual Private Networks
Companies all over the world are building virtual private networks (VPN) to help
reduce costs and make it easier for customers, suppliers, and employees to communicate.
The Web
In 1989, a scientist named Tim Berners-Lee created a software program to help him keep
track of his personal information. He eventually offered the software to other users and
called it the World Wide Web. In 1991, commercial use of the Internet was permitted for
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The World Wide Web is a vast repository of data and information connected through
hyperlinks. When you think about the fact that it didn’t even exist 20 years ago, it’s
amazing to realize how much it has permeated everything we do in our personal and
business lives.
Hypertext
We discussed protocols before: The rules by which data are transmitted over networks.
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http) is what allows the Web to operate. When you
Web Servers
All Web sites are stored on Web servers scattered throughout the Internet. Rather than a
small business owning and maintaining their own Web server computers, they can pay a
Web hosting service to maintain the site. It’s often cheaper and easier and the small
business doesn’t have to worry about downtime, scalability issues, or security.
There is a difference between a Web site and a Web page. A Web site has the short
domain address, such as www.prenhall.com. It is the central repository for many, many
Searching for Information on the Web
Search engines and directories use various methods to help you find information on the
Web. You shouldn’t restrict yourself to just one or two search engines, but should try
many different ones. You may be surprised at the different results you’ll get using the
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Figure 7-12 How Google Works
When you’re shopping for products in a brick-and-mortar store, how many times have
you wondered if the price on that new bicycle is the best you can get? With mobile
search capability on your smartphone or tablet, you can access other stores or dealers and
determine on-the-spot if you’re getting the best deal. Mobile search also comes in handy
if you’re trying to find restaurants, hotels, or popular sight-seeing spots in an unfamiliar
area.
“It’s fair to say people aren’t searching for different things on mobile,
Search result listings show you which Web sites contain information related to your
search words or phrases. The listings may also include sponsored links to sites related to
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through the special links at the top of the search result list or a special box on the right
side of the search result page. Each time a user clicks on a sponsored link, the advertiser
pays a fee to the search engine.
Because most people tend to stick to the first ten results of a search list, it’s important that
Webmasters and site owners do what they can to have their sites listed as close to the top
Let’s assume you want to find the specifications online of an Apple iPad so you can
compare it to an Amazon Kindle. You enter the search term iPad specifications in
Google’s search engine and voila, you get a hundred suggested sites to purchase the
product rather than the specifications themselves. Google is working hard to fix that
problem through its development of semantic search. It’s goal is to build a search engine
that understands human thoughts and phrases rather just finding words in its database. It’s
Web 2.0
Making the Web convenient, easy to use, and having it work for us, is the idea behind
Web 2.0 services.
Let’s say you’re looking for a new home in a new city that you’re not familiar with.
You’d like to see information about local schools and perhaps crime statistics for your
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Wikis are becoming a popular way to share information between employees, managers,
suppliers, partners, and even customers. For instance, your collaborative team is devising
a new advertising campaign. You have lots of input that previously was passed around
the team via email. But that’s unwieldy and doesn’t give any of your team members a
convenient method of searching for information. Who wants to sort through 83 emails
looking for one piece of information?
What started out as a way for teenagers and college students to connect to their friends
online and share photos and gossip, is now a multi-billion dollar social networking
industry embraced by the likes of IBM, Ford Motor Company, and Coca-Cola. They have
gone far beyond simply staying in touch with a few dozen—or few hundred—friends to
an almost necessity in corporate life.
It looks as though 2009 is likely to be the breakout year for social
networks in the enterprise. Internal and external spending on social
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Social networks look to be a powerful tool and a way of tapping into the
‘wisdom of crowds.’ But the enterprise versions of these solutions are still
being refined. IT departments need to develop the tools in such a way that
they engender productivity. Measuring returns on investment for ESN will
be challenging, as will balancing an enterprise’s need to control a social
Web 3.0: The Future Web
The same individual, Tim Berners-Lee, who began the Web, is now involved in creating
Web 3.0, also called the semantic Web. Basically, data and content on the Web are
currently stored in individual files that don’t easily connect one to another. A Word file
may be stored on a corporate database server while a spreadsheet file about the same
subject is stored on your laptop. What if all that data were automatically connected so
when you try to find all the information you need about your company’s latest marketing
campaign, the semantic Web would do it for you?
“Some Internet experts believe the next generation of the Web—Web 3.0
—will make tasks like your search for movies and food faster and easier.
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Bottom Line: The Internet is a vast worldwide compilation of networked computers.
IP addresses and the Domain Name System help ensure transmissions are routed to
the correct recipient. Many applications such as email, FTP, newsgroups, instant
7.4 The Wireless Revolution
Much as we’ve seen a convergence in wired digital devices such as computers,
televisions, and telephones, we’re seeing a widespread convergence in wireless
technology and the services it offers. If content can be digitized it can be transmitted over
wireless networks. That includes voice, documents, photographs, music, movies,
television shows, you name it. Why should we wait to show pictures of our vacation until
we get home when we can instantly transmit them over the Internet via a photo-equipped
cell phone? Why can’t we take a thousand songs loaded on a wireless device with us
wherever we go?
On the ground, wireless communications use a variety of gadgets such as paging systems,
Cellular Systems
Interestingly enough, the United States is not among the most “wired wireless” countries
in the world; that honor goes to South Korea, Japan, and many European countries. Many
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Unfortunately, each world region has adopted different standards for wireless networks
and very often the standards don’t allow for cross transmissions. Two major standards
used in the world are:
• Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM): Bandwidth is based on time
Just as we’ve experienced generations of computers and computer languages, we allocate
generational labels to wireless phone systems. Basically, we are working with two
generations of cell technology:
Wireless Computer Networks and Internet Access
In order for wireless networks to work in tandem with each other it is necessary to create
standards such as we have with Internet protocols and other network technologies.
Bluetooth
The Bluetooth wireless technology standard comes installed on some computers, which
helps create small personal area networks (PANs). It’s more appropriate to use
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uniform structure for a wide range of devices to connect and
communicate with each other.
When two Bluetooth enabled devices connect to each other, this is
Even though the Bluetooth technology got off to a slow start in the early 2000s, it is now
being used for all kinds of applications, even automobiles. Vehicles are coming equipped
with Bluetooth technology and allow the use of hands-free cell phones, stereos, global
positioning systems, and security devices. Figure 7-13 demonstrates a typical Bluetooth
network.
Figure 7-13 A Bluetooth Network (PAN)
Wi-fi and Wireless Internet Access
We mentioned earlier that today’s computing environment should be referred to as
“wireless.” The recent proliferation of wireless technology is technically known as the
802.11 networking standard. It’s more commonly, and easily, called wi–fi for wireless
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You can access wi-fi networks in public areas such as libraries, Internet cafes, hotels, and
airports. Access points to a wireless network are called hot spots and are proliferating in
many public places. You should be aware of the dangers in using these hot spots. They
lack strong security measures typical of wireless networks. You may experience
interference problems as more users try to access the network.
WiMax
Unfortunately, there are still large regions of the United States that must continue to rely
on old telephone systems for Internet access. That prevents users from taking advantage
of new high-speed access and many of the feature-rich applications available on the
RFID and Wireless Sensor Networks
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems are an excellent example of how
wireless technology is totally remaking supply chain management systems. RFID tags are
small microchips that contain information about the product. This technology holds a
distinct advantage over the old bar codes because it doesn’t require line-of-sight readers.
Figure 7-15 shows how the RFID technology works.
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Figure 7-15: How RFID Works
RFID tags offer more inventory management control over products than the current bar
code technology for several reasons:
• More data can be written to RFID tags
• More real-time data can be provided by RFID tags
“In 2011, the cost of passive tags started at US$0.05 each and
special tags, meant to be mounted on metal or withstand gamma
sterilization, can go up to US$5. Active tags for tracking
Wireless Sensor Networks
Businesses use wireless sensor networks (WSNs) to connect handheld devices with data
storage devices and allow workers to roam untethered through warehouses and office
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Bottom Line: Wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and wi-fi create small
networks that connect just about any kind of computing device. They are easier to
Discussion Questions:
1. Discuss the advantages of a company using the TCP/IP standard to build a network.
2. Discuss some of the Internet services available to businesses and how they can
provide value.
Answers to Discussion Questions:
1. The TCP/IP provides a universally agreed-on method for breaking up digital
messages into packets, routing them to the proper addresses, and then reassembling
2. A few of the Internet services available to businesses include email, wikis, electronic
3. Voice over IP (VoIP) enables companies to use Internet technology for telephone
4. Answers will vary but should include information about the benefits of linking
functional areas of an organization to increase communication between co-workers
5. RFID tags provide wireless transmission of more data in a real-time mode than does