Verizon Business is expanding its suite of UC&C Consulting Services to help enterprise customers more effectively integrate unified communications and collaboration with their business processes.
As part of this initiative, expert consultants from Verizon Business will collaborate with customers to define their objectives; assess their current infrastructure; look at where in an organization investment in these communications tools can make the biggest impact; create user profiles to pinpoint areas in which business processes can be improved; and help organizations overcome other hurdles to deployment and acceptance of these new communications tools.
CA Inc. is one of the customers that has used the Verizon Business professional consulting services, which it used both for its enterprise and contact center operations.
For more on the latest developments in unified communications and collaboration, TMC invites you to attend this week’s ITEXPO event in Miami, which includes a UC track. For specific information on what’s available, visit the track on her website
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Avaya's Plan: Migrate Nortel Customers to Aura SIP-Based UC Platform
Putting to rest any fears about what the acquisition of Nortel’s assets will mean for hundreds and thousands of users, Avaya today unveiled a roadmap that details how it will integrate the products and services from the recently acquired Nortel Enterprise Solutions unit to create a new standard for business communications.
Avaya will speak in greater during this week’s ITEXPO show in Miami, held Jan. 20-22, about its new roadmap, and what it means to customers, resellers, carriers or developers.
“We’re talking about two worlds coming together,” Lawrence Byrd, director of UC architecture for Basking Ridge, N.J.-based Avayatold TMCnet. “The roadmap is not about ‘A’ versus ‘B.’ It’s about ‘C.’ ”
For the past year, that “C” has symbolized the emergence of an open-standards, enterprise-SIP architecture. In March 2009, Avaya unveiled the first fruit of its labors –Avaya Aura – aimed at next-generation communications for enterprises.
In further building a “better Avaya Aura” -- a SIP-based communication platform that unifies complex communications networks -- Byrd told TMCnet it will not use a “rip and replace” strategy. Instead, it will fuse the best technologies from Nortel with its own presence/messaging technologies.
Avaya will speak in greater during this week’s ITEXPO show in Miami, held Jan. 20-22, about its new roadmap, and what it means to customers, resellers, carriers or developers.
“We’re talking about two worlds coming together,” Lawrence Byrd, director of UC architecture for Basking Ridge, N.J.-based Avayatold TMCnet. “The roadmap is not about ‘A’ versus ‘B.’ It’s about ‘C.’ ”
For the past year, that “C” has symbolized the emergence of an open-standards, enterprise-SIP architecture. In March 2009, Avaya unveiled the first fruit of its labors –Avaya Aura – aimed at next-generation communications for enterprises.
In further building a “better Avaya Aura” -- a SIP-based communication platform that unifies complex communications networks -- Byrd told TMCnet it will not use a “rip and replace” strategy. Instead, it will fuse the best technologies from Nortel with its own presence/messaging technologies.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Unified Communications Comes of Channel Age
One of the historic problems with unified communications is how disjointed this set of technologies has really been. Most customers are really still unsure what it means to unify their communications and the various components of unified communications solution don’t always work so seamless together.
But at the same time, interest in increasing the productivity of the existing workforce through the better use of IT is on the rise. The question is how can solution providers best leverage unified communications to meet the needs of customers while simultaneously advancing their own business goals? The answer to that question is to start thinking more like a carrier that is delivering set of services that have been customized for a specific customer.
But at the same time, interest in increasing the productivity of the existing workforce through the better use of IT is on the rise. The question is how can solution providers best leverage unified communications to meet the needs of customers while simultaneously advancing their own business goals? The answer to that question is to start thinking more like a carrier that is delivering set of services that have been customized for a specific customer.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications
Unified communications offers the ability to improve how individuals, groups and companies interact and perform tasks. Enterprise planners and managers should review how this emerging generation of communication software and systems can improve their business operations and processes.
Unified communications (UC) offers the ability to significantly improve how individuals, groups and companies interact and perform. UC also enables multiple communication channels to be coordinated. In some cases, separate servers may be consolidated, but, more frequently, UC adds functionality to existing communication applications. Key technologies include Internet Protocol (IP)-PBX, voice over IP (VoIP), presence, e-mail, audioconferencing and Web conferencing, videoconferencing, voice mail, unified messaging (UM), instant messaging (IM), and various forms of mobility. Another key capability of UC is that it offers a method to integrate communication functions directly with business applications; Gartner calls this capability "communication-enabled business process" (CEBP).
Unified communications (UC) offers the ability to significantly improve how individuals, groups and companies interact and perform. UC also enables multiple communication channels to be coordinated. In some cases, separate servers may be consolidated, but, more frequently, UC adds functionality to existing communication applications. Key technologies include Internet Protocol (IP)-PBX, voice over IP (VoIP), presence, e-mail, audioconferencing and Web conferencing, videoconferencing, voice mail, unified messaging (UM), instant messaging (IM), and various forms of mobility. Another key capability of UC is that it offers a method to integrate communication functions directly with business applications; Gartner calls this capability "communication-enabled business process" (CEBP).
Users spurn traditional calls for Skype
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Users wanting to call home from abroad are increasingly turning to Skype's Internet telephony service to the detriment of international carriers, new data showed.
"Skype is now the largest provider of cross border communications in the world, by far," said Stephan Beckert, analyst at research firm TeleGeography on Tuesday.
Skype's technology allows consumers to make practically free long-distance calls over the Internet on fixed lines. It is mostly used on desktops but Skype has made the move into mobile too and it now comes pre-installed on some cellphones.
According to the firm's data, over the past 25 years, international call volume from telephones have grown at a compounded annual rate of 15 percent.
In the past two years this growth has however slowed to only 8 percent, rising from 376 billion minutes in 2008 to an estimated 406 billion minutes last year.
"Skype is now the largest provider of cross border communications in the world, by far," said Stephan Beckert, analyst at research firm TeleGeography on Tuesday.
Skype's technology allows consumers to make practically free long-distance calls over the Internet on fixed lines. It is mostly used on desktops but Skype has made the move into mobile too and it now comes pre-installed on some cellphones.
According to the firm's data, over the past 25 years, international call volume from telephones have grown at a compounded annual rate of 15 percent.
In the past two years this growth has however slowed to only 8 percent, rising from 376 billion minutes in 2008 to an estimated 406 billion minutes last year.
Securing SIP Trunks
Security plays an important role for your networks and secure SIP trunk is one of these important jobs. SIP trunking provides organizations with a cost-effective, reliable method of connecting the internal network and telephony systems with external VoIP and traditional phone systems over the IP network. SIP tunking is quickly replacing traditional PRI and analog circuits for enterprise communications. Typically, SIP trunking involves an IP PBX, however Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 introduced the ability to do direct SIP trunking to the OCS 2007 environment and eliminate the IP PBX. Microsoft only provides direct SIP trunking with two VoIP providers, but Evangelyze Communications developed SmartSIP which lets organizations leverage their existing telephony hardware and employ direct SIP trunking with virtually any VoIP provider.
SIP trunking has many business benefits, but also introduces some additional security concerns. Internal security policies and controls will most likely differ from the security policies and controls of the SIP trunk provider. Connecting with the SIP trunk provider may involve opening ports though the firewall or NAT device, modifying the IP PBX (if present), changing private IP addressing or numbering plans, or other changes to the unified communications infrastructure. The organization must also maintain control over signaling and media secuity as well as call-routing policies.
SIP trunking has many business benefits, but also introduces some additional security concerns. Internal security policies and controls will most likely differ from the security policies and controls of the SIP trunk provider. Connecting with the SIP trunk provider may involve opening ports though the firewall or NAT device, modifying the IP PBX (if present), changing private IP addressing or numbering plans, or other changes to the unified communications infrastructure. The organization must also maintain control over signaling and media secuity as well as call-routing policies.
SIP Trunking is Key to Accelerating Unified Communications Deployments
Companies today are undergoing a significant transformation to a more global Anywhere Enterprise™. Unified communications (UC) is a crucial
component in this evolution and organizations look to collaborate better with an extended enterprise (see Exhibit 1 on the next page). UC
has the power to help companies lower the overall cost of communications, bring worker productivity to new levels, enhance corporate green
initiatives and completely redefine the way we work by becoming part of our application infrastructure.
However, the deployment of UC is not without its challenges. Too often, organizations go down the path of deploying new technology with old
technology principles in mind and UC is no different. Many of the early adopter deployments of VoIP and UC were designed exactly the same as
the old systems, severely limiting the overall value of UC, which is a highly flexible, IP-based solution.
component in this evolution and organizations look to collaborate better with an extended enterprise (see Exhibit 1 on the next page). UC
has the power to help companies lower the overall cost of communications, bring worker productivity to new levels, enhance corporate green
initiatives and completely redefine the way we work by becoming part of our application infrastructure.
However, the deployment of UC is not without its challenges. Too often, organizations go down the path of deploying new technology with old
technology principles in mind and UC is no different. Many of the early adopter deployments of VoIP and UC were designed exactly the same as
the old systems, severely limiting the overall value of UC, which is a highly flexible, IP-based solution.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
SIP vs XMPP or SIP and XMPP?
History
SIP was invented to provide rendezvous for session establishment and negotiation on the Internet. XMPP (or Jabber) was invented to do structured data exchange such as synchronous or active presence and text communication among group of people. XMPP evolved from instant messaging and presence, whereas SIP evolved from Internet voice/video communication. Later, XMPP added support for session negotiation using the Jingle extension, and SIP community added extensions such as SIMPLE to support instant messaging and presence.
Technically comparing SIP and XMPP is like comparing apples and oranges because the core protocols serve different purposes: session randevous/establishment vs structured data exchange. On the other hand, because of the extensions invented in both the protocol worlds, SIMPLE and Jingle, they now have overlapping functions, and can be compared. When one compares SIP vs XMPP, actually the comparison is SIP/SIMPLE vs XMPP for IM and presence and/or SIP/SDP vs XMPP/Jingle for session negotiation. Even though the goals of the two sets of protocols are converging, there are fundamental architectural differences that I will enumerate in this article. There are other articles on SIP vs XMPP [1, 2, 3].
SIP was invented to provide rendezvous for session establishment and negotiation on the Internet. XMPP (or Jabber) was invented to do structured data exchange such as synchronous or active presence and text communication among group of people. XMPP evolved from instant messaging and presence, whereas SIP evolved from Internet voice/video communication. Later, XMPP added support for session negotiation using the Jingle extension, and SIP community added extensions such as SIMPLE to support instant messaging and presence.
Technically comparing SIP and XMPP is like comparing apples and oranges because the core protocols serve different purposes: session randevous/establishment vs structured data exchange. On the other hand, because of the extensions invented in both the protocol worlds, SIMPLE and Jingle, they now have overlapping functions, and can be compared. When one compares SIP vs XMPP, actually the comparison is SIP/SIMPLE vs XMPP for IM and presence and/or SIP/SDP vs XMPP/Jingle for session negotiation. Even though the goals of the two sets of protocols are converging, there are fundamental architectural differences that I will enumerate in this article. There are other articles on SIP vs XMPP [1, 2, 3].
SIP in the view point of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo
In our last post, we discussed how GTalk2VoIP brings SIP capability to your instant messengers. Continuing our discussion with Ruslan Zalata, co-founder or GTalk2VoIP, today we will talk about SIP strategies of Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. The interview extract follows (AS – Alok Saboo; RZ – Ruslan Zalata):
AS. GTalk2VoIP is essentially filling a gap by bringing SIP services to the ubiquitous instant messengers. Why do you think, Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo are not providing such a service themselves?
RZ: It’s about four years have passed by since we started our service. During all this time we cannot help hearing that Google, MS or other Biggie “just almost ready to deploy” a SIP/VoIP service, which will definitely kill ours and make whole consumer VoIP business seamless. Perhaps one day one of the biggies will finally come up with such a killer service, yet there are some obstacles I believe different to each company, preventing them from starting a killer VoIP service. Here are my personal thoughts:
AS. GTalk2VoIP is essentially filling a gap by bringing SIP services to the ubiquitous instant messengers. Why do you think, Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo are not providing such a service themselves?
RZ: It’s about four years have passed by since we started our service. During all this time we cannot help hearing that Google, MS or other Biggie “just almost ready to deploy” a SIP/VoIP service, which will definitely kill ours and make whole consumer VoIP business seamless. Perhaps one day one of the biggies will finally come up with such a killer service, yet there are some obstacles I believe different to each company, preventing them from starting a killer VoIP service. Here are my personal thoughts:
VoIP 2010: Simplification through Integration
In addition to the product trends the communications industry has experienced over the past year – all of which will be on display in the exhibit hall and topics of conference sessions atITEXPO ( News - Alert) East in Miami – there has been a significant shift towards integration of products and services between vendors as they seek to provide more complete solution sets for their resellers and end users.
The idea is to provide them the very luxury today’s communications solutions are designed to provide for end users – the ability to focus on their core businesses, in this case, selling product. Naturally, they are able to leverage the latest feature and product enhancements, from mobility to HD and more, but by providing a pre-integrated set of solutions, driven by the adoption of common standards, like SIP, the vendor community effectively simplifies the entire sales process, benefitting the entire value chain.
The idea is to provide them the very luxury today’s communications solutions are designed to provide for end users – the ability to focus on their core businesses, in this case, selling product. Naturally, they are able to leverage the latest feature and product enhancements, from mobility to HD and more, but by providing a pre-integrated set of solutions, driven by the adoption of common standards, like SIP, the vendor community effectively simplifies the entire sales process, benefitting the entire value chain.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Top Communications Trends in 2010
As a result of economic conditions in 2009, many companies also sought speedy deployment of converged communications in search of faster ROI. As we move into 2010 and beyond, Avaya’s top 10 communications trends are:
1. Proactive customer communications will enjoy a resurgence in popularity.
The falling cost and increasing sophistication of contact centre communications technologies such as voice and speech recognition systems, live and virtual agents, SMS, e-mail, presence, call routing, etc will allow businesses to deploy strongly beneficial outbound contact centre applications.
2. As the lines between devices and media continue to erode, analysis of employee communications will give companies greater flexibility at all levels.
Businesses will follow privacy standards, but also will increasingly track the phone calls, instant messages and e-mails of their employees to better predict work needs and behaviors. To meet that need, the communications industry will provide greater consistency across multimodal interfaces, whether through iPhones, standard telephones or the Web.
1. Proactive customer communications will enjoy a resurgence in popularity.
The falling cost and increasing sophistication of contact centre communications technologies such as voice and speech recognition systems, live and virtual agents, SMS, e-mail, presence, call routing, etc will allow businesses to deploy strongly beneficial outbound contact centre applications.
2. As the lines between devices and media continue to erode, analysis of employee communications will give companies greater flexibility at all levels.
Businesses will follow privacy standards, but also will increasingly track the phone calls, instant messages and e-mails of their employees to better predict work needs and behaviors. To meet that need, the communications industry will provide greater consistency across multimodal interfaces, whether through iPhones, standard telephones or the Web.
SIP Trunking is Much More Than a PSTN Replacement
We have reached another tipping point in the telecommunications industry. SIP trunking is the fastest growing service in our space right now and we all have an opportunity to capitalize on this trend, but we must be smart about our approach.
SIP Trunking’s growth presents a new revenue opportunity, but only if the trunk offers services above and beyond PSTN quality voice. If a service provider simply provides VoIP connectivity, they will see their revenues erode. SIP Trunking offers service providers a tremendous opportunity to deliver valuable services to enterprises by providing new communication services in demand by the enterprise market. Enterprises are becoming more educated on SIP Trunking. Practically every large enterprise has read a case study that demonstrates how an enterprise can reduce their trunks by 30% – 40%, which is obviously a negative revenue proposition for the service provider. So service providers must develop a comprehensive managed service offering to enhance and complement their SIP Trunking service.
SIP Trunking’s growth presents a new revenue opportunity, but only if the trunk offers services above and beyond PSTN quality voice. If a service provider simply provides VoIP connectivity, they will see their revenues erode. SIP Trunking offers service providers a tremendous opportunity to deliver valuable services to enterprises by providing new communication services in demand by the enterprise market. Enterprises are becoming more educated on SIP Trunking. Practically every large enterprise has read a case study that demonstrates how an enterprise can reduce their trunks by 30% – 40%, which is obviously a negative revenue proposition for the service provider. So service providers must develop a comprehensive managed service offering to enhance and complement their SIP Trunking service.
Twitter Meets up with Unified Communications
The convergence of social networking and unified communications was on display this week at the VoiceCon conference in San Francisco.
The Siemens Enterprise Communications Group used VoiceCon as a venue to show off some forthcoming integration between the Twitter social networking service and Siemens’ OpenScape unified communications software.
With all the people using various services on the Web to interact with each other, it’s only a matter of time before these types of services become tightly integrated with unified communications software.
Siemens is encouraging developers to extend OpenScape to these services using a set of published application programming interfaces that it is making available via a cloud computing service. This “sandbox in the cloud” gives developers a way to experiment with OpenScape integration without having to purchase their own infrastructure for testing.
The Siemens Enterprise Communications Group used VoiceCon as a venue to show off some forthcoming integration between the Twitter social networking service and Siemens’ OpenScape unified communications software.
With all the people using various services on the Web to interact with each other, it’s only a matter of time before these types of services become tightly integrated with unified communications software.
Siemens is encouraging developers to extend OpenScape to these services using a set of published application programming interfaces that it is making available via a cloud computing service. This “sandbox in the cloud” gives developers a way to experiment with OpenScape integration without having to purchase their own infrastructure for testing.
Siemens unified-communications adds social networking
At San Francisco’s VoiceCon 2009, Siemens Enterprise Communications Group previewed Twitter integration with their OpenScape Unified Communications application while running in an Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) environment. Siemens also says they plan to release the SDKs to allow customers to create their own social networking and communications “mash-ups” and test them in a scalable instance of OpenScape.
“Social media tools have rapidly moved from being the preferred communication method of millennials to the standard by which enterprise workers and customers can quickly and freely connect,” said Mark Straton, senior vice president of marketing, voice and application solutions for Siemens Enterprise Communications Group, in a prepared statement.
Siemens also says they plan to integrate other social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, with all social functionality going live in Q1 2010.
Rival networking companies such as Cisco Systems have aggressively touted social network at channel partner events. Is this all a gimmick or do solutions providers actually think customers want social media blended with their unified communications applications?
“Social media tools have rapidly moved from being the preferred communication method of millennials to the standard by which enterprise workers and customers can quickly and freely connect,” said Mark Straton, senior vice president of marketing, voice and application solutions for Siemens Enterprise Communications Group, in a prepared statement.
Siemens also says they plan to integrate other social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, with all social functionality going live in Q1 2010.
Rival networking companies such as Cisco Systems have aggressively touted social network at channel partner events. Is this all a gimmick or do solutions providers actually think customers want social media blended with their unified communications applications?
Predictions: VoIP Trends in 2010
By all accounts, 2010 should be a banner year for IP Communications and VoIP in general. A recent report we wrote about saw VoIP as the 'industry of the decade' and then went on to project VoIP as the industry that will see the most growth over the next decade!
With the economy still on shaky ground VoIP will most likely continue its slow and steady growth seen at the end of the decade with companies realizing the cost savings of the technology and looking for ways to invest in upgrades. Upstart technologies like Internet voice and mobile VoIP will be at the mercy of the Net Neutrality rulings while Videoconferencing will probably continue to see growth in line with rising energy costs and the demands to make working cheaper for companies and employees.
Read more: http://www.fiercevoip.com/special-reports/predictions-voip-trends-2010#ixzz0d1J1Bpgd
With the economy still on shaky ground VoIP will most likely continue its slow and steady growth seen at the end of the decade with companies realizing the cost savings of the technology and looking for ways to invest in upgrades. Upstart technologies like Internet voice and mobile VoIP will be at the mercy of the Net Neutrality rulings while Videoconferencing will probably continue to see growth in line with rising energy costs and the demands to make working cheaper for companies and employees.
Read more: http://www.fiercevoip.com/special-reports/predictions-voip-trends-2010#ixzz0d1J1Bpgd
SIP in Unified Communications
Do you fire up your Gmail client to send an email to another Gmail user? And would that email fail to arrive if you used Outlook instead? Of course not and it's all down to the standard email protocol called SMTP. Every email client supports it so you don't have to worry what the other person is using. Likewise, HTTP delivers web content regardless of the browser being used.
This has always been the promise of SIP (the Session Initiation Protocol). Designed to establish, manage and 'tear down' communication channels between any media device, anywhere. Sound good?
SIP in Unified Communications
I'm not going to give you a definition of Unified Communications (UC) here, just hit Google and wade through all the interpretations that pop up. I do however, want to talk about how SIP 'underpins' UC.
It does this by ensuring that all elements of a business UC solution can establish connections to work together. It also allows for 'mid session' information to be passed between these elements to enhance the communications experience. A good example of this is starting up a whiteboard application with a colleague to give your existing conversation another dimension.
SIP/SIMPLE
Now UC isn't just about Instant Messaging, but I need to start somewhere.
The IETF SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions) working group focuses on the application of SIP to Instant messaging (IM) and Presence services. Invariably their work will affect any UC solution.
This has always been the promise of SIP (the Session Initiation Protocol). Designed to establish, manage and 'tear down' communication channels between any media device, anywhere. Sound good?
SIP in Unified Communications
I'm not going to give you a definition of Unified Communications (UC) here, just hit Google and wade through all the interpretations that pop up. I do however, want to talk about how SIP 'underpins' UC.
It does this by ensuring that all elements of a business UC solution can establish connections to work together. It also allows for 'mid session' information to be passed between these elements to enhance the communications experience. A good example of this is starting up a whiteboard application with a colleague to give your existing conversation another dimension.
SIP/SIMPLE
Now UC isn't just about Instant Messaging, but I need to start somewhere.
The IETF SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions) working group focuses on the application of SIP to Instant messaging (IM) and Presence services. Invariably their work will affect any UC solution.
Unified communication to grow to $30B market
Two separate studies on unified communications from Wainhouse (News - Alert) Research reveal the UC industry will grow to a healthy $30 billion market just five years.
UC service providers should see rapid growth due to the complexity of premises-based UC solutions, Wainhouse Research reported. In fact, the research hub anticipates that UC services revenues, which are far smaller than product revenues today, will eclipse those of traditional conferencing services by 2013 or 2014.
UC service providers should see rapid growth due to the complexity of premises-based UC solutions, Wainhouse Research reported. In fact, the research hub anticipates that UC services revenues, which are far smaller than product revenues today, will eclipse those of traditional conferencing services by 2013 or 2014.
Top Stories of 2009: SIP trunking and Unified Communications gain momentum
n 2009 it was hard to look through VoIP news and not bump into another announcement about a SIP or Unified Communications (UC) deal. Both items have gained momentum and are becoming the rule in the VoIP world. According to Infonetics, SIP trunking service revenue is expected to have an 89 percent compound annual growth rate from 2008 to 2013! In the same report they predict that hosted UC services would "take off," with worldwide revenue doubling over the next four years. Sounds like smart money is on these two areas of IP communications.
A key indicator of UC's coming dominance was Cisco announcement of a major push to corner the collaboration market with new products, reseller options and licensing packages for its unified communications solutions. Cisco pegged the value of the UC market at a whopping $34 billion! A study in October carried out about Frost & Sullivan--commissioned by Cisco and Verizon--found that collaboration tools like VoIP, instant messaging, and high-definition video meetings resulted in cost savings averaging four times the return on investment for firms using the IP platforms. Frost and Sullivan surveyed 3,662 decision makers in small- and medium-sized business as well as enterprises in various parts of the world, and found that 44 percent had deployed some form of unified communications already. According to an ABI Research report on Unified Communications, uptake is on a 'steeply rising curve.' ABI's report predicted that spending on UC would rise from the lowly sum of $302 million in 2008 to $4.2 billion by 2013. Just recently, Adtran also threw its hat into UC arena.
A key indicator of UC's coming dominance was Cisco announcement of a major push to corner the collaboration market with new products, reseller options and licensing packages for its unified communications solutions. Cisco pegged the value of the UC market at a whopping $34 billion! A study in October carried out about Frost & Sullivan--commissioned by Cisco and Verizon--found that collaboration tools like VoIP, instant messaging, and high-definition video meetings resulted in cost savings averaging four times the return on investment for firms using the IP platforms. Frost and Sullivan surveyed 3,662 decision makers in small- and medium-sized business as well as enterprises in various parts of the world, and found that 44 percent had deployed some form of unified communications already. According to an ABI Research report on Unified Communications, uptake is on a 'steeply rising curve.' ABI's report predicted that spending on UC would rise from the lowly sum of $302 million in 2008 to $4.2 billion by 2013. Just recently, Adtran also threw its hat into UC arena.
Google's next target: Unified communications
Unified communications has been a technology specialty of networking vendors for years, but Google Inc.'s recent forays into voice communications and collaboration could drastically upset the competitive landscape.
It's not as if Google Voice and Google Wave, which are both launching later this year, will kill related efforts by companies like Cisco Systems Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others that are heavily involved in unified communications, but Google seems to have the competition scrambling already.
Witness today's comment by Doug Dennerline, Cisco's senior vice president of collaboration software: "Google Wave validates what we've been doing for two years [with the Webex Connect collaboration offering]," Dennerline said during a webconference with reporters and analysts. "We are going to invent and reinvent. You'll see cool things from us."
Anybody who has followed the computer industry for long knows that when a vendor says another company has "validated" them, it really means, "Yes, they are clearly in our living room, and we are making sure they don't move in permanently." Dennerline was careful to imply that Cisco is up to the Google challenge and would "invent and reinvent" to stay competitive.
While Google Voice and Wave seem more focused on consumers, with tools for instant messaging, e-mail and social networking, Dennerline was quick to point out that "social networking is important to enterprises, too."
It's not as if Google Voice and Google Wave, which are both launching later this year, will kill related efforts by companies like Cisco Systems Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others that are heavily involved in unified communications, but Google seems to have the competition scrambling already.
Witness today's comment by Doug Dennerline, Cisco's senior vice president of collaboration software: "Google Wave validates what we've been doing for two years [with the Webex Connect collaboration offering]," Dennerline said during a webconference with reporters and analysts. "We are going to invent and reinvent. You'll see cool things from us."
Anybody who has followed the computer industry for long knows that when a vendor says another company has "validated" them, it really means, "Yes, they are clearly in our living room, and we are making sure they don't move in permanently." Dennerline was careful to imply that Cisco is up to the Google challenge and would "invent and reinvent" to stay competitive.
While Google Voice and Wave seem more focused on consumers, with tools for instant messaging, e-mail and social networking, Dennerline was quick to point out that "social networking is important to enterprises, too."
Google and Unified Communications
Deciphering Google's involvement in unified communications is difficult simply because the company moves so fast and has so many balls up in the air.
That said, it's clear that Google is a significant UC player, whether the definition is broad and generic or the narrow one used by the folks in the business
Investopedia and No Jitter offer, between them, three articles that together form a good backgrounder that provides context for Google and its UC initiatives. Investopedia's James Brumley starts with a nice summation of some of the relevant moves made by the firm during the past couple of years. These include pushing the development and use of the Android open source mobile operating system, the launch of Google Voice, and the acquisition of Gizmo5.
That said, it's clear that Google is a significant UC player, whether the definition is broad and generic or the narrow one used by the folks in the business
Investopedia and No Jitter offer, between them, three articles that together form a good backgrounder that provides context for Google and its UC initiatives. Investopedia's James Brumley starts with a nice summation of some of the relevant moves made by the firm during the past couple of years. These include pushing the development and use of the Android open source mobile operating system, the launch of Google Voice, and the acquisition of Gizmo5.
Google Wave: The Future of Collaboration, Unified Communications and Business Intelligence
Lars and Jens Rasmussen of Australia, the creators of Google Maps, have done it again.
Google Wave is an open platform and open set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that integrates multiple collaboration techniques into logical, flexible and powerful virtual shared conversations, or "waves." You can "jump in" at any point in a wave's existence, play back parts you missed, and determine whether everyone or only certain people receive whatever you decide to share. Waves can feed blogs with minimal coding. Web sites can be wave-enabled with relative ease. You can access and participate in waves from mobile devices. Waves enable consolidated content collaboration and discussion - no need to choose between, for example, an e-mail thread and a wiki.
Google Wave is an open platform and open set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that integrates multiple collaboration techniques into logical, flexible and powerful virtual shared conversations, or "waves." You can "jump in" at any point in a wave's existence, play back parts you missed, and determine whether everyone or only certain people receive whatever you decide to share. Waves can feed blogs with minimal coding. Web sites can be wave-enabled with relative ease. You can access and participate in waves from mobile devices. Waves enable consolidated content collaboration and discussion - no need to choose between, for example, an e-mail thread and a wiki.
How Gtalk2VoIP brings SIP capability to your instant messengers?
We talked about GTalk2VoIP earlier as wonderful solution to SIP-enable your plain vanilla instant messaging client. GTalk2VoIP is an interesting service, bringing SIP service to your instant messenger. If you have not tried GTalk2VoIP, I would strongly urge you to try the service. While the service is great, we were not sure how the folks at GTalk2VoIP manage this feat. However, I was recently able to speak with Mr. Ruslan Zalata, co-founder of GTalk2VoIP, and he was kind enough to share some insights into the service and other technical details about how GTalk2VoIP brings SIP capability to your instant messengers. The interview extract follows (AS – Alok Saboo; RZ – Ruslan Zalata):
GTalk2VoIP_logoAS: For the benefit of our readers, can you introduce yourself?
RZ: My name is Ruslan Zalata, I’m a co-founder of GTalk2VoIP, Inc., one of the developers of GTalk2VoIP service and a piece of mobile VoIP (mVoIP) software called Talkonaut.
GTalk2VoIP_logoAS: For the benefit of our readers, can you introduce yourself?
RZ: My name is Ruslan Zalata, I’m a co-founder of GTalk2VoIP, Inc., one of the developers of GTalk2VoIP service and a piece of mobile VoIP (mVoIP) software called Talkonaut.
SIP Services Offer Cost Saving Options: Communications Provider
As more companies understand the benefits that Session Initiation Protocol, or SIP, services provide, adoption of the technology is on the rise. A recent report from Infonetics Research found that SIP trunking will likely become the second most commonly deployed service this year.
While widespread adoption of SIP services is still a ways off, businesses are looking more at the communication solution simply to save costs, according to a Cincinnati, Ohio-based communications provider. As signs of an economic recovery increase, companies still have cost savings solutions at the top of their list to keep their operations functional.
While widespread adoption of SIP services is still a ways off, businesses are looking more at the communication solution simply to save costs, according to a Cincinnati, Ohio-based communications provider. As signs of an economic recovery increase, companies still have cost savings solutions at the top of their list to keep their operations functional.
Can a VoIP Solution Lead Us Into the Future?
Voice over IP is the process of an IP network to carry telephone voice signals as IP packets over the internet or other data networks. IP packets are small packets of digital bits of information which are routed through the Internet infrastructure. The bit sequence of the packet (field structure) usually is arranged to convey the destination address in addition to the data that is already being transported along with other data such as the packet originator and error protection bits.
To implement a VoIP Solution all you need is a microphone for instant free voice communication in a chat room. By uniting the traditional phone system and the advanced communication capabilities of using a single data network for all communications, it is possible to reduce overall costs of communication for end users.
To implement a VoIP Solution all you need is a microphone for instant free voice communication in a chat room. By uniting the traditional phone system and the advanced communication capabilities of using a single data network for all communications, it is possible to reduce overall costs of communication for end users.
Compare VoIP and Traditional Phone, It's Free
In a family with several children, it's not very good to compare them with each other. Oftentimes this will result to a feeling of enviousness and rivalry. They would also try to compete for their parent's attention. Comparing can be very harmful to the kid's relationship towards each other.
Comparing things can be useful if you're trying to compare a VoIP service provider. And this goes true even to different businesses offering products and services in order to attract customers; they want to compare their products/services against a competitor. Whichever provider that comes out best will get the fairer share of the market.
Comparing things can be useful if you're trying to compare a VoIP service provider. And this goes true even to different businesses offering products and services in order to attract customers; they want to compare their products/services against a competitor. Whichever provider that comes out best will get the fairer share of the market.
How An IP Phone Controls
Something that everyone ought to bear in mind of is how an IP phone works, specifically because of the multitude of benefits that you are offered by an IP phone and phone service. An IP phone works by using VoIP technologies that permits telephone calls to be made over the Net instead of through the ordinary PSTN system.
The IP phones use protocols like Session Initiation Protocol and Skinny Shopper Control Protocol, and can be merely software-based Softphones or purpose-engineered hardware devices that seem abundant additional like an normal telephone.
There are varied options when it comes to buying an IP phone for yourself, the most fashionable version being the wireless IP phone as a result of then you do not have any wiring or cable to fret regarding and it will be much easier and additional convenient for you to use. There are different sizes, designs and brands that you’ll select from, therefore opt for from a large choice and find one that’s simply right for you.
The IP phones use protocols like Session Initiation Protocol and Skinny Shopper Control Protocol, and can be merely software-based Softphones or purpose-engineered hardware devices that seem abundant additional like an normal telephone.
There are varied options when it comes to buying an IP phone for yourself, the most fashionable version being the wireless IP phone as a result of then you do not have any wiring or cable to fret regarding and it will be much easier and additional convenient for you to use. There are different sizes, designs and brands that you’ll select from, therefore opt for from a large choice and find one that’s simply right for you.
SIP Trunking 2.0 - The Service Provider Perspective
In the world of business communications, SIP Trunking was one of the strongest trends in 2009. For both businesses and hosted providers, the basic rationale is evident, particularly in a weak economy where everyone is looking for ways to cut costs. Unless you’re an incumbent telco who likes the status quo, SIP Trunking makes the value proposition of IP telephony stronger by reducing telecom costs in a few basic ways. Aside from allowing even more voice traffic to be routed off the PSTN, SIP Trunking reduces the need for costly PRIs and, in some cases, can eliminate them altogether.
VoIP 2010: Simplification through Integration
In addition to the product trends the communications industry has experienced over the past year – all of which will be on display in the exhibit hall and topics of conference sessions atITEXPO ( News - Alert) East in Miami – there has been a significant shift towards integration of products and services between vendors as they seek to provide more complete solution sets for their resellers and end users.
The idea is to provide them the very luxury today’s communications solutions are designed to provide for end users – the ability to focus on their core businesses, in this case, selling product. Naturally, they are able to leverage the latest feature and product enhancements, from mobility to HD and more, but by providing a pre-integrated set of solutions, driven by the adoption of common standards, like SIP, the vendor community effectively simplifies the entire sales process, benefitting the entire value chain.
The idea is to provide them the very luxury today’s communications solutions are designed to provide for end users – the ability to focus on their core businesses, in this case, selling product. Naturally, they are able to leverage the latest feature and product enhancements, from mobility to HD and more, but by providing a pre-integrated set of solutions, driven by the adoption of common standards, like SIP, the vendor community effectively simplifies the entire sales process, benefitting the entire value chain.
Citrix Online Now Offers Convenient Conferencing Shopping
Organizations and their managers looking for alternatives to increasingly wretched, expensive, and productivity-killing and environment-degrading business travel for their staff no longer have to spend countless hair-pulling hours shopping around for options.
Citrix Online, the Web conferencing division of Citrix Systems (News - Alert) now offers a range of audio conferencing services along with its Web conferencing suite. Business of all sizes can now experience a variety of high definition audio and Web conferencing services together. With this comprehensive offering, customers benefit from enhanced convenience, performance and affordability.
Citrix Online, the Web conferencing division of Citrix Systems (News - Alert) now offers a range of audio conferencing services along with its Web conferencing suite. Business of all sizes can now experience a variety of high definition audio and Web conferencing services together. With this comprehensive offering, customers benefit from enhanced convenience, performance and affordability.
Orange Business Services Optimizes Microsoft Unified Communications Delivery
Orange Business Services has announced the expansion of its consulting and integration services for delivering Microsoft (News - Alert) Unified Communications.
The company provides customers with consulting services whether integrated with IP telephony or as a stand-alone Microsoft solution.Orange Business Services ( News - Alert) will assess business and technical requirements for designing and implementing Microsoft-based unified communications solutions.
The Microsoft-based unified communication solutions can be integrated within the customer’s IT and real-time services such as enterprise telephony, mobility, voice, video and conferencing.
The major benefits offered by Microsoft-based unified communication solutions include greater collaboration within and outside the company, reduces voice costs, pricing, reduced travel and better workflow thereby increasing worker productivity. Orange can customize solutions according to the requirements of the client while integrating on- premise or managed and hosted data center with UC as a service or a hybrid solution.
The company provides customers with consulting services whether integrated with IP telephony or as a stand-alone Microsoft solution.Orange Business Services ( News - Alert) will assess business and technical requirements for designing and implementing Microsoft-based unified communications solutions.
The Microsoft-based unified communication solutions can be integrated within the customer’s IT and real-time services such as enterprise telephony, mobility, voice, video and conferencing.
The major benefits offered by Microsoft-based unified communication solutions include greater collaboration within and outside the company, reduces voice costs, pricing, reduced travel and better workflow thereby increasing worker productivity. Orange can customize solutions according to the requirements of the client while integrating on- premise or managed and hosted data center with UC as a service or a hybrid solution.
Avaya, Cisco Contribute to Unified Communications Market Growth in Third Quarter: Report
In the recently released Group Enterprise Telephony Quarterly Report, Dell'Oro Group reported that the Unified Communications (News - Alert) market grew in the third quarter of 2009. More than 70 percent of the reported vendors contributed to the market’s quarterly growth.
The top two Unified Communications vendors, Avaya and Cisco, have each posted double digit revenue gains over the second quarter of 2009. According to Alan Weckel, Director at Dell’ (News - Alert)Oro Group, the second half of the year is typically stronger for the Enterprise Voice market, and the third quarter of this year was no exception for the Unified Communications segment.
The top two Unified Communications vendors, Avaya and Cisco, have each posted double digit revenue gains over the second quarter of 2009. According to Alan Weckel, Director at Dell’ (News - Alert)Oro Group, the second half of the year is typically stronger for the Enterprise Voice market, and the third quarter of this year was no exception for the Unified Communications segment.
Bringing VoIP to Social Networking with IVR Technologies' Talking SIP
Social networking Web sites have become very popular in the past few years. For the most part, these sites are geared toward consumers rather than business users. And, while most let people stay in touch using text-based communications, voice capabilities to date has not been a major focus in the social networking market. But, this is changing.
In relatively recent research, The Yankee Group (News - Alert) predicted that subscribers to pure-play VoIP services will reach 6.4 million by the end of 2011 (up from about 2.8 million at year-end 2006). Meanwhile, Nielsen/Netratings estimated that use of social networking sites is experiencing almost 50 percent growth annually. Tie these two together, and it seems obvious that voice integrated with social networking is a huge market opportunity.
In relatively recent research, The Yankee Group (News - Alert) predicted that subscribers to pure-play VoIP services will reach 6.4 million by the end of 2011 (up from about 2.8 million at year-end 2006). Meanwhile, Nielsen/Netratings estimated that use of social networking sites is experiencing almost 50 percent growth annually. Tie these two together, and it seems obvious that voice integrated with social networking is a huge market opportunity.
A Look Ahead at 2010
Wireless Internet - with the increasing use of handheld smart phones, wireless Internet usage will soar and with it will come increased congestion, reliability issues and eventually usage fees. The "all you can use" wireless Internet is going to get expensive.
Apple will end exclusive arrangement with AT&T - with competition from Google Android (the operating software for the "Droid") and ever increasing network congestion and performance issues on the AT&T network (see above), Apple will be forced to finally end their exclusive relationship and expand to other carriers. At first to other GSM carriers (T-Mobile) and then CDMA carriers (like Verizon and Sprint). However, an iPhone for CDMA networks requires a different radio in the iPhone which means there will end up being two different phones and users will never be able to jump from GSM to CDMA carriers without buying a new phone.
Apple will end exclusive arrangement with AT&T - with competition from Google Android (the operating software for the "Droid") and ever increasing network congestion and performance issues on the AT&T network (see above), Apple will be forced to finally end their exclusive relationship and expand to other carriers. At first to other GSM carriers (T-Mobile) and then CDMA carriers (like Verizon and Sprint). However, an iPhone for CDMA networks requires a different radio in the iPhone which means there will end up being two different phones and users will never be able to jump from GSM to CDMA carriers without buying a new phone.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)