Having been called HP?s best kept secret for 20 years, the networking business of HP - ProCurve is all set to be closely integrated into the TSG portfolio as it guns for the enterprise game. In an interview with CNME, Alberto Soto Garcia, Vice President and General Manager for ProCurve shares views on the road ahead with Kavitha Rajasekhar Vivek.

At this year?s Alcatel-Lucent Forum, the vendor has joined forces with PSA Peugeot Citro?n to demonstrate a next generation automated emergency call handling system for first responders.

In a move that will see Alcatel-Lucent grow its services revenue from the various stimulus packages that governments are injecting into their economies globally, the vendor has unveiled a broad range of services targeting government, energy, healthcare, transportation, education and IT smart community projects.

Alcatel-Lucent has unveiled extensive support for mobile devices and new applications for its unified communications (UC) and collaboration offering, which it has now rebranded as the all-in-one OmniTouch 8400 Instant Communications Suite (ICS).

At the ongoing VMworld Europe 2009, at Cannes, the company?s CEO and President Paul Maritz said virtualisation is now at the tipping point with customers choosing the technology as the default bid for their data centres. Announcing the company?s vSphere Architecture, Maritz spelt out the roadmap for VMware that will particularly focus on three areas ? virtual datacenter OS (VDC-OS), vCloud and vClient. CNME?s Kavitha Rajasekhar Vivek brings you this report from the show.

Healthcare IT solutions provider ALERT has said that it is eyeing the Middle East healthcare sector with its range of healthcare solutions designed to create paper free environments.

Think a SaaS application can't handle GE's massive supply chain needs, including how to manage $55 billion in spending with suppliers? GE's CIO has already proven you wrong. One more thing: He's liking Google Docs, too.General Electric's supply chain is not simply enormous. It's a byzantine web of sourcing partners, touching all corners of the globe: 500,000 suppliers in more than 100 countries that cut across 14 different languages.

Over the last 10 years, the telecommunications industry has grown and begun changing from the familiar patterns of the past. These changes have been driven by customer needs, technology changes and the emergence of new business models.

Although the IT market has generally been flat for most of 2008, that has not dampened down the spirit for technology vendor Dell to reinvent itself by pushing for a services driven model that will complement its traditional hardware business. To this end, Dell has been busy behind the scenes building and piloting an array of consulting and professional services the vendor believes will see it evolve customer service in the IT industry in emerging markets in EMEA. CNME?s Manda Banda writes.

The business environment is different this year, the outlook is less upbeat, and the global economy hasn?t taken a worse hit in decades. CNME?s contributing Editor Ketaki Banga attended HP Software Universe 2008 in Vienna, the vendor?s annual users? conference and came back with this message ? crisis creates opportunity.