Cisco AON, "new" internet, fraud prevention, S&M, and more...

Cisco's AON still MIA, but expected to appear next week, according to Loosely Coupled, which also says the offerings (previously known as AONS) will be closely watched. What is it? In a nutshell, AON allows the network routers to understand the contents and context of inter-application XML traffic and apply security, QoS, selective routing, transformations, etc. In other words, rather than blindly passing on opaque traffic, it peeks at the actual data and optimizes the routing accordingly. Of course, there's a lot more to it than that; HighTechMagazine describes a demo that integrated an incoming (VoIP) call from a customer with their SAP records. Cisco has been tight-lipped about AON up until now, being careful just to tease us with anonymous promises of managing "data from wireless and RFID devices."

What is this "new internet" thing? Socialtext CEO Ross Mayfield explains and links to a discussion lead by Kevin Werbach, a professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Much of this was long ago predicted by the Cluetrain gang, of course.

Preventing fraud with BI analytics plays on Curt Monash's mind. As Bruce Schneier points out, phishers succeed because banks don't seek out transaction fraud. Perhaps banks should start applying these lessons to combat phishing? Curt also sees a pattern of analytics replacing AI. It seems that Business Intelligence can be applied to some surprising areas. There's even an open source BI project now.

If you were confused by the S&M reference in Frank Hayes' post about job hunting, he's referring to the advice about how not to abbreviate "sales and marketing" in Bob Lewis's advice line.

Buffer overflow:

• Microsoft shares more details on Longhorn Server (and beyond)
• Forget Longhorn, how about giving Windows XP a try?
• Surprise! No OEM wants to sell crippled Windows XP
• Productivity with technology: imagining the possibilities
• What you can’t see can hurt you!
• Primer on Microsoft Licensing

And finally... The tale of seat 29E: a vote for SeatGuru and SeatExpert.

Richi Jennings is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk.