Avaya’s new offering for small business reduces the price point for unified communication by 40 percent, which features a new combination card that provides support for IP, digital and analog phones.  The collaborative tools include video, instant messaging and presence.   The lasted offering utilizes an SD card, which replaces the flash card and license that was required previously.   It is offered as part of the 6.0 version of IP office which is browser based.  The 6.0 version features improved instant messaging, more presence features and the ability to archive voice messaging.

According to Brendan Barnicle, senior research analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, Microsoft has plans to spend $1 billion on its Windows Phone business during this coming year.   Bill Koefoed, general manager of Microsoft’s investor relations, revealed the plans make the hefty investment in research and development in this year alone.   Even for Microsoft, this represents a significant commitment of approximately 10 percent of the company’s R&D budget.  "In our minds, [Koefoed] ruled out them buying somebody like Palm or RIM. He didn't say it directly ... it's our conclusion.”  Barnicle stated to InternetNews.com.

Year over year numbers for January 2010 show that smartphone users are moving toward connecting to social networks via their smartphones in growing numbers.   Users are not just using their PC’s to connect with social networks as the number of smartphone users that are jump on social networks doubled from 5% to 10% when compared to January 2009.   The number of users accessing Facebook via a mobile browser grew by 112%, and Twitter grew by an amazing 347% from the previous year.  "Social networking remains one of the most popular and fastest-growing behaviors on both the PC-based Internet and the mobile Web," Mark Donovan, senior VP of mobile at ComScore, wrote in a statement. "Social media is a natural sweet spot for mobile since mobile devices are at the center of how people communicate with their circle of friends, whether by phone, text, email, or, increasingly, accessing social networking sites via a mobile browser."

HP and the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) have identified the top cloud computing security threats in a new document which features research on the subject.   The CSA has provided a warning to organizations to be aware of technology that accumulates sensitive personal information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers and employee information.     Prevention is less expensive that cleaning up after a data loss or regulatory compliance violation, which require notification and system modification.   Chris Whitener, HP's chief security strategist, noted that although cloud computing can reduce capital expenditures, managing risks is often overlooked.  "The No. 1 thing you shouldn't do is approach this with complete ignorance," Whitener stated. "And unfortunately, this is something that a lot of people do. Understand and limit your risk profile. If you approach this with complete abandon, you're asking for it." 

CA Inc. is moving forward with its latest cloud computing acquisition by buying 3Tera.  The acquisition bolsters CA’s abilities to offer private and public cloud solutions by adding 3 Tera’s AppLogic to the CA portfolio.    It is CA Inc.’s third such cloud related acquisition, as it bought Oblicore recently in 2010 and Cassatt in the summer of 2009. Jay Fry, vice president of business unit strategy for CA explained what attracted CA to make the acquisition. "The most interesting thing about 3Tera is their ability to give both service providers and enterprises a way to take existing applications and bring them to private and public cloud environments via an elegant interface. The process used to be done very manually, but AppLogic automates it and smooths that transition," Fry said.

Valdosta University, located in the state of Georgia, acknowledged that hackers have breached the university’s server to gain access to student and employee private information.     The data breach has exposed up to 170,000 social security numbers as well as information on the student’s academic grades.   John Newton, director of information technology at Valdosta State University, “An initial investigation has found no evidence that any personal data was accessed or transferred. The breached server was secured and removed from the network. We are continuing the investigation with assistance from University Police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.”   The initial investigation shows that the breach occurred in November 2009.