SearchITChannel.com's Technology Channel Talk audio and webcast downloads offer a series of conversations with and presentations by channel visionaries, experts and top executives. We'll cover a full spectrum of topics concerning networking, security, storage and systems so that you can better develop products and services, sell those offerings to customers and deploy successful solutions. Email us your requests for channel speakers and topics.

Click on the links below to download these conversations and presentations to your computer or, for when you're on the go, your favorite MP3 player.

What is a podcast?

What is a webcast?

June 26, 2007: Disaster preparedness and data recovery services

Greg Schulz, Resilient Storage Networks author
Greg Schulz, founder and senior analyst with the IT infrastructure analyst and consulting firm the StorageIO Group, offers his expertise for a podcast on disaster preparedness and data recovery. Specifically, he will discuss how to implement disaster recovery strategies, how to identify applicable threats and business risks, how to assign RTO and RPO to various business functions and applications, how to review and test DR procedures and how to minimize a disaster's impact on a business. Following the podcast, Greg also offered his insights on several frequently asked disaster recovery service questions, which we've provided in downloadable podcast files as well as printable versions in our Disaster Recovery Services Tips-to-Go.

Download the podcast: Disaster preparedness and data recovery services
Download the FAQ: Disaster Recovery Services Tips-to-Go

April 16, 2007: Three-part podcast series -- Understanding, selling and troubleshooting ITSM projects

George Spalding, Pink Elephant
George Spalding, vice president of Pink Elephant, and Adelle McIlroy, senior manager for cyber security and enterprise software for GTSI Corp., offer advice to help resellers and systems integrators start developing ITSM (IT service management) and ITIL (IT infrastructure library) offerings. Podcast 1 and 2 with McIlroy cover ITSM and ITIL basics and ITIL support services respectively. Podcast 3 with Spalding provides a Q&A on common ITSM and ITIL questions, from how to establish ITSM priorities to how long it will take for your customer to see ROI on an ITIL project.

Download podcast 1: ITSM and ITIL basics
Download podcast 2: ITIL support services
Download podcast 3: ITIL and ITSM FAQ

January 29, 2007: How to sell and integrate Microsoft Office 2007

Jonathan Hassell
Jonathan Hassell, Microsoft Windows Vista author, consultant and speaker, discusses in this podcast how to sell Microsoft Office 2007 in all its forms. It will delve into some value-added service opportunities to market alongside your Office expertise and ultimately improve your profit margins. It will also look at some alternatives to Office for customers who aren't enamored with the new edition.
Download this podcast here.

January 04, 2007: The emerging opportunity for VoIP security

Zeus Kerravala, vice president for enterprise infrastructure, Yankee Group
Zeus Kerravala manages Yankee Group's infrastructure research and consulting group. His areas of expertise involve working with customers to solve their business issues through the deployment of infrastructure technology solutions, including switching, routing, network management, voice solutions and VPNs. Kerravala has a B.S. degree in physics and mathematics from the University of Victoria (Canada), and is also certified by Citrix and NetScout.
Download this webcast here.


What is a podcast?
Podcasting is the preparation and distribution of audio (and possibly other media) files for download to digital music or multimedia players, such as the iPod. A podcast can be easily created from a digital audio file. The podcaster first saves the file as an MP3 and then uploads it to the Web site of a service provider. The MP3 file gets its own URL, which is inserted into an RSS XML document as an enclosure within an XML tag.

Once a podcast has been created, it can be registered with content aggregators, such as podcasting.net or ipodder.org, for inclusion in podcast directories. People can browse through the categories or subscribe to specific podcast RSS feeds which will download to their audio players automatically when they next connect. Although podcasts are generally audio files created for digital music players, the same technology can be used to prepare and transmit images, text, and video to any capable device.

What is a webcast?

The term "Webcasting" is used to describe the ability to use the Web to deliver live or delayed versions of sound or video broadcasts. NetTalk Live! is an example of the former. They use an Internet site to deliver a RealAudio sound version of a live radio and television program at 11 pm (CST) each Sunday night. (They call this a triplecast.)

CNet and some other Web sites use the term "Webcast" to describe delayed or preview versions of movies, music videos, or regular radio and television broadcasts as a way to promote the live broadcasts. Each sample is known as a Webisode. Viewing Webcasts requires having an appropriate video viewing application such as the NetShow, RealVideo, or VXtreme streaming video players; these can usually be downloaded from any site offering a Webcast.

These definitions were provided by our sister site Whatis.com.


This was first published in March 2007

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