Adobe releases Captivate 2 e-learning solution
Adobe Systems Inc. announced Adobe Captivate 2, software which enables the creation of interactive simulations, software demonstrations and scenario-based training modules. Based on Macromedia Flash technology, Adobe Captivate 2 generates interactive content in Flash, without requiring users to have programming knowledge or multimedia skills. With Adobe Captivate 2, training professionals, educators and business users can create content that includes scored interactions, feedback, audio, and video. With this new version, complex branching scenarios allow users to develop specific scenarios by visually mapping out the different learning paths.
The interface and automated features in Adobe Captivate 2 allow users to develop interactive simulations and scenario-based training. Authors can develop software demonstrations and simulations complete with text descriptions, editable mouse movements and scored interactions with learner feedback.
Adobe Captivate 2 is expected to ship later this year at an estimated street price of US$599. Registered users can upgrade to Adobe Captivate 2 for an estimated street price of US$299. Volume discounts, government and education licensing are also available to eligible customers.
Packet Island announces Zero-Truck Roll VoIP lifecycle management solution
Packet Island Inc. announced availability of its PacketSmart VoIP lifecycle management solution for VoIP service providers.
Packet Island’s solution has been designed and developed to meet the scalability and ease of deployment needs of VoIP service providers targeting the SME market. The solution has been designed to eliminate the need for truck rolls and on-site technician time. The solution is based on purpose-built micro-appliances that work with a highly scalable SaaS platform called PacketSmart, hosted at a Tier-1 data centre. The 4″ x 4″ micro-appliances have two Ethernet ports that allow them to be deployed. Once a micro-appliance is deployed within an SME network, VoIP experts at the VoIP service provider’s head office can remotely perform a comprehensive multi-day VoIP network assessment on the SME network without requiring any expert technicians to be onsite. After the pre-assessment, the micro-appliance is left connected to monitor and report detailed metrics on all VoIP calls in that SME network. This way when transient network issues cause VoIP service quality degradation, the service provider can go back and look at the recorded data to determine the root cause of the problem.
Cisco introduces integrated branch office solution
Cisco Systems announced an integrated branch office solution that accelerates the performance of TCP-based applications across a wide-area network (WAN) and enables the consolidation of the branch office server, storage and backup infrastructure for simplified management.
The solution includes recently released Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS), a form of scalable branch-office networking software, providing WAN optimization, application acceleration and Wide-Area File Services (WAFS) in one solution. Cisco also introduced a network module for running WAAS software on the Cisco integrated services router (ISR). Cisco WAAS solution is also offered as a stand-alone appliance.
This branch office solution combined with Cisco Application Networking Services is designed to scale to support thousands of branch offices and up to millions of TCP connections with up to 16 gigabits per second performance in a fully scaled, load-balanced deployment. It is completely transparent to customers’ existing networks and helps enable a smooth integration with pre-established network security and WAN traffic policies.
Cisco WAAS solution includes the Cisco WAAS software and the Cisco Wide-Area Application Engine (WAE) appliance line as well as new network modules (WAE-NM) that integrate with Cisco’s 2800, 3700 and 3800 Series Integrated Services Routers. The appliance-based branch office solution is available immediately starting at US$8,500 and the network module solution will be available later this year starting at US$4,000.
