3CX Phone System V5 stable beta out

It took some time, but today we finally uploaded a really good beta of 3CX Phone System V5. The reason it took so long is because we packed a lot of new functionality in there. We also made significant changes to our phone system in order to prepare for new features and scale even better.

3CX Phone System V5 adds 3CX bridges, allowing for easy connection of remote branch offices. It has a built in VPN to allow external extensions to connect with a minimum of firewall configuration. It features phone provisioning, call recording, an inbound fax server, sip forking, BLF (so that you can see busy status of other lines on the phone), SIP trunking and G729 codec support. Many other the hood features too, such as a fully configurable SIP templating system. Check out version 5 by going to our version 5 beta forum

Oracle volunteers for a hammering in the virtualisation market

Just read a post by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols of eweek titled 'Is VMware a dead duck?'. I assume that article was not meant seriously, but in deed last week Vmware shares went down on the announcement that Oracle had 'entered' the virtualisation business. As if VMware with a technology lead from here to the moon and 95% plus market share, should have anything to worry about??

Oracle makes databases and knows nothing about virtualization. VMware on the other hand, has been doing virtualisation for more then 10 years and has fought off attacks on its core market succesfully. Microsoft's attempts have been pathetic (centered around its purchase of Connectix, a second rate technology it bought cheaply years back). Citrix just flushed $500 million down the toilet buying Xen Source (at least it knows its plumbing is OK). Well I'm off to buy some more VMware shares whilst they are still cheap (relatively)......

McAfee buys ScanAlert

McAfee announced today it bought ScanAlert for US$54 million. ScanAlert sells a web site security scanning service. After a number of bad buys, McAfee seems to be on to a good thing this time. US$54 million for 75,000 paying customers is a fair price.

There's a US$24 million earn out, but if that is worded and devised similar to most earn outs, at the end it's either going to add significant value or not end up being paid at all ...

It seems McAfee plans to couple ScanAlert with their excellent SiteAdvisor service, purchased in early 2006, which rates websites for their safety. I think McAfee has made an excellent move and with this acquisition is putting itself in a good position to take advantage of the emerging web
security market.