Kratos awarded contract

Kratos Defence & Security Solutions, a defence, IT and homeland security solutions provider, has been awarded a contract to provide the Department of the Navy, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) Systems Centre Charleston with various programme management and data support services, says Market Watch.

The two-year contract has a base value in year one of approximately $4.4 million, with a total ceiling value of approximately $8.9 million.

Under the terms of the contract, Kratos will provide a range of engineering, technical and management services supporting integrated architecture development, data integration/data management, management of development and production environment and training.

A costly and complex aspect of today's wireless networks can sometimes be the very component they're supposed to eliminate: cabling, says Computer World.

Emerging 802.11-based mesh networks attempt to resolve this irony by using more radio spectrum and less wire in the form of Ethernet cabling than traditional wireless LANs.

"Mesh is a reasonably important enterprise architecture going forward, because it dramatically simplifies installation," says Craig Mathias, a principal at Farpoint Group, a consulting firm in Ashland. "You take a node out of the box, plug it into the wall - end of discussion."

While Dell has done significant work in building a strong channel programme and earning the trust of its channel partners since it announced its Partner Direct channel programme at XChange '07, the company knows it still has work to do as it moves forward, says CRN.

"As the industry continues to evolve and your business continues to evolve my goal is how do I make you successful as the CIO for your customer set, and how do I streamline your business? How do I eliminate cost for you and enable you to increase your productivity?" Greg Davis, VP and GM, Americas channel group at Dell told attendees at XChange '08, in Texas.

Dell announced that in addition to its managed services and enterprise architecture certification practices, it will launch a government and public sector certification practice in the coming months.