Friday, February 19, 2010

Kordia’s Application Assurance hits a sweet spot with customers

Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Kordia’s Application Assurance (A-A) capability, provided as part of our OnKor service, has hit a sweet spot with customers looking to gain some visibility of what is going on inside their WAN environment.
This is not surprising given research shows that 87% of CIOs did now know what applications were running over their WAN.
OnKor Application Assurance is a cloud based service available to all our OnKor customers but there are also a number of CPE based solutions out there. So how do these fit with our network based solution? 
Have a read of this short blog from Tech Republic. It talks about WAN acceleration, gives a good overview and provides a basis to compare with our Application Assurance capability.
WAN acceleration can sit side-by-side with OnKor Application Assurance, as one down side of WAN acceleration is that it does not speed up connection or delay sensitive applications such as VC, VoIP or collaboration.
A-A can improve these services by putting them into a higher priority queue and also by prioritising each application. A-A also provides good reporting to provide the CIO with visibility of what is happening over the WAN.
Another advantage of A-A is that there is no capital outlay required, no onsite boxes to fail, no software licenses, no reliance or cost associated with expert resources to run and maintain the service.
A-A is provided by Kordia in the cloud so there is no requirement for onsite visits if something goes wrong. Plus, as a network or cloud based service, there is no need to replace or upgrade the CPE every three or so years.
A-A is therefore a solution that can be implemented cost-effectively compared to a CPE based WAN Acceleration solution – but cannot provide all the WAN caching advantages described below. 
A-A can therefore be a cost effective alternative to WAN Acceleration or it can sit alongside; for example, reducing the number of sites where WAN Acceleration is used and also solving the delay sensitive application issues and reporting shortfalls of the CPE solution.
-- Murray Goodman, Business Manager at Kordia

Kevin Myers on Kordia

Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Welcome to my first blog…..ever.  One of the indications that this is my first blog is that the word “blog” was coming up as misspelled on my PC. 
To be precise, I had the options to correct to “blog” to bog, bloc, blot, blob, and blow – hopefully my “blog” will not be synonymous with these words. 
I have previously threatened to blog – this was in relation to my most recent home renovations hitting a bit of a snag in the kitchen….pardon the pun.  Interestingly, the kitchen is getting sorted in short order.
As I think about heading to the world of blogging for Kordia, I’m thinking about what I can write about and communicate about that will be of interest to the many people who hit our site on a daily basis.
I think for those folks, I’d like to represent Kordia in a very accessible and open manner.
I’m planning to bring you my thoughts on the technologies Kordia is working with, the projects we are working on, the NBN and its evolution forward, green field requirements, emerging technologies, and my work with the Asia Pacific Fibre to the Home Council and jumping into the Communications Alliance. 
I hope to bring my thoughts in a light-hearted and fun manner and if I’m short on material - I will sneak in some jokes.
I will leave this first blog with a quote that reflects my thoughts around the NBN heading forward: 
"I don’t know if the optimists or the pessimists are right. But the optimists are going to get something done.”  Craig Venter
-- Kevin Myers, Kordia

Broadcast services continue to dominate with consumers - Steve Roberts Blog

Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Research and debate around the future of ‘traditional television and radio’ broadcasting continues.
A recent report from Deloittes seems to counter mass thinking that the demise of traditions broadcast is just around the corner.
Throughout this year at least, the report is predicting over 90% of all TV viewing and over 80% of all audio content consumed will be from the traditional TV and radio broadcast systems.
Reason stated for continued use of scheduled programming include the ease of use and inertia of those services - no user intervention or forward planning needed.
The report goes further to suggest that the availability of on-demand content, appropriately supported by the mainstream Broadcasters, can actually increase the demand scheduled programming.
This is a theme the ABC in Australia promoted at the Australian Broadcasting Summit in Sydney last year. Much of their on-line presence was aimed at getting viewers back in front of their television sets enjoying scheduled programming.
There seems to be a small but growing voice of caution around the now widely accepted view that all consumers want to completely control what they watch, when they watch it and where they watch it. Do mass market consumers always embrace the possibilities of new technology like early adopters?
Change is constant, but what of the pace of that change in viewing/listening habits – maybe we need to think about change more in terms of generations than tens of years?
-- Steve Roberts, Kordia

Putting some substance behind customer service


Thursday, January 21, 2010 -- Regan Hughes' blog:


Excellent customer service has become a key differentiator for a lot of new market entrants in the service provider space.  But what does that really mean? And how do you tangibly achieve excellent customer service? 
There's no single answer of course. Any answer has to include process, people and systems. But a big part is having visibility and control across third party access. Without these aspects, the other elements become redundant. 
So how do you get that visibility and control?
A NID is a Network Interface Device - a demarcation device for Carrier Ethernet services that is replacing the familiar terms of NTU, NTE, CPE, etc. 
The big difference between a decent NID and previous incarnations, is that this device gives service providers a set of service management tools.
These tolls let allow service providers to put some substance behind 'excellent customer service' catch phrases that many new entrants put a lot of emphasis on.
The Metro Ethernet Forum has been working with various standards bodies to pull together some of these tools.
These include keep-alives for fault isolation and SLA reporting, loopbacks for throughput and commissioning tests, hierarchical QoS, and features such as dying gasp that send an alarm whenever the power goes down at the customer site. 
These tools finally let service providers deliver end-to-end guarantees and proactive fault response across third party circuits. 
When you match those tools with best of breed wholesale access, good people and process, it can make an environment ripe for some healthy competition in the WAN service provider space, with a genuine capability to provide excellent customer service.
- Regan Hughes, Kordia

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Kordia commits to community engagement


Kordia is pleased to announce that it has made a commitment to the "Guidelines for Undertaking Community Engagement for Wireless Telecommunications Facilities", as recently developed by the Telecommunications Carriers Forum.
“These guidelines represent a bold step forward for the telecommunications industry, as they set a standard for the way telecommunications companies consult with local communities when installing wireless telecommunications facilities”, explains Susie Stone, Kordia’s General Manager of Strategic Development.
The guidelines will give New Zealand communities access to plans for new sites at the beginning of the approvals process; rather than at the beginning of the site installation. This empowers the community with information at an earlier stage.
“The inception, consultation and development of these guidelines reflect the desire of participating telecommunications companies to undertake future engagement with local communities in a meaningful way,” says Stone.
“Kordia would like to acknowledge the valuable input of the other members of the working group – namely Vodafone, Telecom and Woosh – in developing these guidelines”.

MORE INFORMATION

The guidelines can be viewed on the TCF website at www.tcf.org.nz

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Check out Iggy’s new band


The Orcon ad made by rock legend Iggy Pop and nine Kiwi musicians is online on the company’s website and hitting TV screens today.
Late last month more than 200 New Zealand musos auditioned for the chance to lay down Iggy’s renowned solo track ‘The Passenger’ under the direction of the Godfather of Punk.
The final nine chosen assembled online to hook up with Iggy in Miami live via Orcon broadband and record the track.
Since then the audio and visual feeds has been mixed in Miami by the renowned rocker and his studio team.  It is now an advertising commercial for Orcon as well as a full music video as part of a promotion from the telecommunications company for its next generation broadband.
Orcon CEO Scott Bartlett says, “We set ourselves a goal of really showcasing the amazing things possible online – and the results have outstripped what we thought we would achieve. Iggy, the band, and the team have created a brilliant track that demonstrates the talent lurking behind computer screens throughout New Zealand, and what happens when you link those screens together.”
Visit http://www.orcon.net.nz/lifestyle/page/together_incredible_the_finished_product to see the ad. The ad hits TV screens on November 17th.
Media release date: 17 November 2009

MORE INFORMATION

For more information, please contact:
Angely Grecia,
Pead PR
T: +64 9 918 5576
M: +64 21 303 403

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Iggy has his Kiwi band


The auditions have closed and Iggy Pop has his brand new band.
More than 200 New Zealand musicians auditioned for the chance to lay down Iggy’s renowned solo track ‘The Passenger’ online and under the direction of the Godfather of Punk.
It’s all part of a promotion from telecommunications company Orcon for its next generation broadband.
Now the band has been chosen and it assembles on Friday (Oct. 30) to hook up with Iggy in Miami live via Orcon Broadband. They’re spending the day under the maestro’s expert guidance laying down a brand new version of 'The Passenger'.
Iggy’s new band comprises four musicians from Wellington, two from Auckland and one each from Warkworth in Rodney District and Paraparaumu.
The group comprises:
  • Tia Beaufort (Pukerua Bay, Wellington) & Stephanie Engelbrecht (Evans Bay, Wellington), drums
  • Charley Davenport (Paraparaumu), cello
  • Ben Jurisich (Warkworth) & Sam Logan (Karori, Wellington), guitars
  • Takumi Motokawa (Brooklyn, Wellington), xylophone
  • Daniel Tate (Onehunga, Auckland), bass
  • Miho Wada (Remuera, Auckland), flute
The recording session is being streamed live at www.facebook.com/Orcon from around 1pm (NZST) and the finished track is being turned in to a television ad for the company. It will be available for viewing from November 17.
Orcon CEO Scott Bartlett says he’s amazed at the quality and number of musicians who jumped at the chance to audition for the band.
“Iggy obviously has huge pulling power in the global music community. We were expecting around 50 New Zealand musos to audition but in the end we had more than 200.
“It was a pretty tough job screening them down to eight but with Iggy’s help I think we have unearthed some awesome talent.
Mr Bartlett says it looks like it is going to be a pretty incredible re-make of 'The Passenger' and not just a re-hash of the original.
“We are really excited about what is going to come out of this.”
On Friday, the New Zealand band members connect to Iggy’s Miami studio via the Internet with everyone in the band laying down their tracks and Iggy singing the vocals.
The studio is going to capture all the audio and visual feeds and create a unique musical and video rendition of ‘The Passenger’. The music and footage is then going to be used to create commercials and a full music video.
“The internet is enabling Kiwis to do incredible things each day and this helps us prove that,” Mr Bartlett says.
The Iggy Pop ‘Together Incredible’ auditions were viewed online more than 65,000 times on Facebook and the site attracted close to 4,000 fans.
Media release date: 29 October 2009

MORE INFORMATION

For more information, please contact:
Quentin Reade
Pead PR
T: +64 9 918 5552
M: +64 21 847 908