Colin C. Haley

When the dot-com crash came, Akamai , like other IT product and service sellers, was burned by an over-dependence on startups not long for this world. So the Cambridge, Mass., firm quickly changed tack, emphasizing the importance of big customers that would provide a more reliable revenues and the chance for follow-up orders for products […]

BOSTON — AT&T‘s CTO today challenged telecommunications vendors to develop “plug-n-play” technology to help the carrier transition to Internet-protocol (IP) networks for all voice, data, streaming media traffic. The call for concerted action comes as the industry weathers a “perfect storm” of economic, regulatory and technological problems that have forced many companies out of business […]

BOSTON — It wasn’t that long ago that service providers took a “Field of Dreams” approach to broadband deployment, said Mark Uncapher, a senior vice president and counsel for the lobbying effort Positively Broadband. But with adoption rates for U.S. homes and small businesses stalled (between 11 percent and 16 percent depending on whose numbers […]

The outgoing president and CEO of Giga Information Group , will remain on the job until Nov. 1, two weeks longer than originally planned, while a search for his successor enters it final stages. Robert K. Weiler quit abruptly in late August, after three years with the Cambridge, Mass., IT research firm. At the time, […]

Microsoft isn’t the only tech company rooting for a successful debut of the Tablet PC next month. A host of vendors, from chip producer Transmeta to computer maker Acer to software developer ScanSoft are hopeful the sleek platform can jump-start the stalled PC market. About the size of a legal pad, and based on the […]

BOSTON — In the late 1990s, systems integrators/consultants had more big-ticket, multi-year projects than they could handle. Companies of all sizes and in all sectors rushed to establish a Web presence, implement e-commerce systems and safeguard data from Y2K mayhem. In many cases, the impetus behind jobs could be distilled to “keeping up with the […]

Terra Lycos , a Spanish Internet service provider and site network operator, has opened its $1.86 billion war chest to buy online direct marketer GetRelevant. The price tag for the 3-year-old, privately held San Francisco firm was not disclosed. The buy was made with cash. Neither company immediately responded to requests for additional details of […]

Looking to turn an Internet phenomenon into a business edge, .NU Domain, a Top Level Domain (TLD) registry, is offering customers free software to create and maintain their own blogs. “Blogging has exploded across the world over the past several months, and with good reason,” said Per Darnell, the newly appointed director of Nordic operations […]

With mandates to improve security and share data, government agencies are looking at long-term value rather than near-term pricing when making IT purchasing decisions, according to Sage Research. “The government sector is generally price sensitive,” said Dr. Yardena Rand, research director for the Natick, Mass., firm. “But many of them are talking more like large […]

A startup’s fate often depends on differentiating between a technology trend and a business trend. Gordon Brooks’ last venture, Breakaway Solutions, thrived briefly on the former, specifically, Internet consulting. In the late ’90s, companies rushed to get online. Work for the Web design shops was plentiful but dried up when initial projects were completed and […]

NEWTON, Mass. — Relaxing federal regulations on Baby Bells and establishing a national broadband policy will jump-start the IT sector and broader economy, Ivan Seidenberg, president and CEO of Verizon Communications , told about 250 members of the Massachusetts Software & Internet Council at its fall membership meeting this morning. “Public policy (makers) spend more […]