Information & Communication Technologies

The aesthetically driven confidence of Nokia

Saverio Romeo — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:17:40 GMT

The story of Nokia Lumia continues in the name of aesthetics. At a London event on May 14^th, Nokia launched the next wave of its Lumia family. The emphasis was on industrial design, imaging, and photography as key features of a “beautiful device” – an expression often used during the event. It also was clear that these features - particularly imaging and photography - made the Nokia Lumia 925 (the flagship device launched at the event) strongly competitive with other smartphones in the market.

The Nokia Lumia 925, with its coloured wireless charging case, is among the top smartphones in the market today. However, as has been the case with other similar events from Nokia’s competitors, I left the cool launch events with some doubts. We have observed a number of incremental innovations during the last couple of years, mainly in terms of imaging and video. Launch by launch, new phones are released with improved functionality and higher quality. Behind all of this, there is a substantial design, programming and manufacturing effort - but are consumers aware of the meaning of these improvements in order to make informed choices?

It is like moving towards the bottom of a funnel, where everything appears the same; perhaps, it is time for some disruptive approaches to mobile devices that break the funnel and open the horizon. Wearable devices could be one route to take. Conceptualizing a device that goes beyond entertainment and communications embracing other moments and needs of our lives could be another approach. Waiting for this next generation of mobile devices, I am pleased to see Nokia facing the market with confidence, aware again of its innovation capabilities.

Aastra Bets on Hosted Communications for Future Growth

Elka Popova — Tue, 14 May 2013 21:09:54 GMT

Aastra hosted its annual Aastra Analyst Conference last week (May 8 through May 10) which provided analysts with an update on the vendor’s portfolio roadmap and strategy for the global communications market. Not surprising, its research and development (R&D) efforts are focused on mobility, video, cloud/hosted, and social media for the contact center. A lot of the more interesting developments are still under non-disclosure agreements, so I am not going to provide an in-depth overview of Aastra’s entire product portfolio. I will only provide a brief perspective on its strategy for the hosted communications market.

As I noted in my blog post based on Enterprise Connect meetings and announcements, most private branch exchange (PBX)/unified communications and collaboration (UCC) vendors have launched hosted/cloud communications solutions. Some are using multi-tenant, others—multi-instance technologies. Business models vary widely in terms of how the infrastructure is deployed and managed and how the channel is involved in services sales, implementation, and management.

Aastra has had a multi-tenant solution probably longer than most other PBX/UCC vendors, but has mostly used it for large, on-premises enterprise deployments. The Clearspan platform is based on BroadSoft technology, but Aastra has wrapped around it other infrastructure elements such as operational support systems (OSS), session border controllers (SBCs), media gateways, and endpoints that make it a turn-key solution for service providers. For many carriers, managing constantly evolving technologies by third-party vendors can be a daunting task. It is becoming even more challenging as hosted communications platforms proliferate and providers look to hedge their bets by deploying several platforms and offering different options to their customer base. By offering a turn-key solution, Aastra positions Clearspan as an appealing option for service providers looking to reduce costs and risks associated with the deployment of hosted communications solutions.

As a multi-tenant platform developed specifically for service provider networks, Clearspan offers cost-effective scalability, enabling providers to target the entire spectrum of business sizes. It also offers an advanced feature set developed over the past decade and continually enhanced by BroadSoft. Clearspan delivers PBX; audio, web, and video conferencing; fixed-mobile convergence (FMC); contact center; presence; and instant messaging (IM) functionality on desktop phones, personal computers (PC)/laptops, and mobile devices. It also natively supports session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking. As it is based on open standards it enables flexible integrations with third-party platforms and solutions (such as Microsoft Outlook and Lync and GoogleTalk).

For many years, Aastra has provided endpoints to BroadSoft’s customer base and is, therefore, able to deploy a broad range of phone terminals with the Clearspan platform. In addition to multiple desktop phone models, customers using a service based on the Clearspan platform can use video on the BluStar 8000i or access their communications capabilities (including call control, soft phone, call logs, and federated services such as GoogleTalk) on their PCs, laptops, and mobile devices using the Clearspan Communicator UC client application. For indoor mobility, customers also have a choice of SIP DECT phones.

One of the biggest challenges for service providers, however, is the deployment of an OSS that eases the service provisioning and management burden. While many BroadSoft partners start with solutions such as Loki from Leonid or Revchain, each provider’s business and operations processes require some degree of customization. Therefore, such off-the-shelf solution frameworks are configured to interface with the specific OSS/BSS within each provider’s operations environment in order to satisfy their specific business needs.

Aastra packages the Clearspan platform with its OpEasy operations, administration, maintenance and provisioning (OAM&P) tool, which enables a single sign-on as well as flexible system and endpoints provisioning. It simplifies ongoing platform management for service providers and delivers extensive reporting. Furthermore, OpEasy is used by end customers to quickly and easily provision new users and to do their own moves, adds, and changes (MACs).

Aastra delivers professional services to further facilitate implementation. In addition, Aastra can provide a fully managed service whereby the infrastructure resides at the service provider network but Aastra assumes all responsibility for managing the solution.

Aastra has seen some early success in the education vertical with specialized service provider Internet2. Internet2 delivers IT and communications services to multiple education and research organizations in the United States and globally. Aastra and Internet2 entered into a partnership a year ago and the service went live in January 2013. Since then the provider has deployed services with 5 end-customer organizations (including Texas A&M University and Tulane University), has received commitments from 4 other organizations, and is running pilots with 6 more. The majority of its customers are currently deploying hosted PBX functionality, but there is interest in deploying additional UCC capabilities in the future. Internet2 offers its customers compelling pricing and all the benefits of outsourced, cloud-based communications: flexibility, faster access to advanced capabilities, and reduced risk of technology obsolescence. Internet2 packages the Aastra hosted PBX solution with SIP trunking services from Level 3 Communications. Internet2 is very pleased with its relationship with Aastra and the demand for the hosted solution it is seeing from customer organizations.

With its turn-key solution Aastra delivers choices and thus greater value to existing and future customers. It is well positioned to defend its customer base against other vendors and service providers offering hosted/cloud communications and to also expand its reach among businesses currently deploying Centrex or other vendors’ PBXs. Clearspan can also be integrated with other platforms already deployed on the premises where hybrid environments can provide greater benefits to the customer organization.

Is a Loyal Customer a Good Customer? (You Won't Know unless You Use Customer Profitability Analytics)

Lynda Stadtmueller — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:02:07 GMT

by Lynda Stadtmueller, Program Director, Stratecast Cloud Services

There are a lot of case studies showing how analytics software can reveal something new about a business. Analytics can shed light on previously unanswered questions about customers or markets; unearth previously unseen correlations between data points; and predict future behavior or consequences based on various scenarios. In each case, the new analytics-driven insight helps business leaders make smarter, better, and more informed decisions.

Less frequently discussed, but equally valuable, are the ways in which analytics software can expose flaws in traditional ways of thinking. Analytics can not only deliver new insights but also reveal how long-held assumptions and "rules of thumb" may be hurting your business.

Here's a case in point, involving the banking industry and a type of analytics software called Customer Profitability Analytics.

Globally, the banking industry is facing a dizzying onslaught of profit-sapping market conditions and regulatory constraints. Industry consolidation remains very much a factor, with smaller banks continuing to be absorbed by larger competitors. At the same time, banks are spearheading technology-based innovations that are upending the very concept of money, including electronic bill pay, mobile and Internet banking, and cashless transactions.

Yet, despite the rapid and dramatic market shifts and the continuing strain on profitability, most banks still measure customer value the way they have for centuries— by "gut feel."

As in many service industries, there is a long held belief among bankers that a satisfied customer is a good (i.e., profitable) customer. This is especially true among smaller regional and community banks, which rely on a service-oriented approach to differentiate themselves from larger competitors. The thinking goes like this: a satisfied customer is likely to be a loyal (long-term) customer. Management theory has long held that customers are more profitable over time, as higher revenue offsets acquisition costs. Thus, the more satisfied the customer is, the more profitable it is and will become.

However, that logic has recently been challenged. In 2010, the trade publication American Banker looked at the performance of banks ranked at the top of the J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey and discovered that more than a quarter of the banks rated number one in customer satisfaction in their regions operated at a loss—in some cases, totaling millions of dollars. In contrast, the three largest banks in the U.S. ranked below average or even last in the J.D. Power survey in their regions.

So which is it? Are loyal, satisfied customers most likely to be good, profitable customers, as was long believed? Or do high levels of satisfaction doom the bank to red ink?

Okay, it’s a trick question. The answer is, banks can’t possibly know whether satisfied customers (or any other customers) are profitable, unless they use customer profitability analytics.

Customer profitability analytics is a field of analytics that utilizes sophisticated data modeling to deliver customer-level intelligence. Offered by companies including IBM, customer profitability analytics solutions enable banks to take what they know (data about customers, accounts, products, and transactions); apply costing models (activity-based and allocation); to determine a single, bank-wide view of profitability on a per-customer basis. Furthermore, by applying predictive analytics, they can derive a lifetime value for each customer; and even model likely behavior in hypothetical situations.

The results of a profitability analysis enable the bank to make smart, consistent, data-driven decisions across marketing, sales, customer care, and operations functions.

Consider these satisfaction-related examples. In each case, customer profitability analytics can dispel the guesswork and ensure the bank handles each customer according to its real value:

A senior citizen visits her local bank branch regularly to deposit checks and withdraw cash from her small savings and checking accounts. She is on a first-name basis with the tellers, who greet her warmly and offer her a cup of coffee. This is a very satisfied customer. And yet, because of her frequent use of the most expensive channel, the unlikelihood that she will purchase more services in the future, and the limits to her long-term patronage, a profitability analysis may well show this valued customer may be among the bank’s least profitable.
A college student has moved out of state, but retained his student-checking account. His paycheck is directly deposited into a checking account, from which he withdraws money via debit card or ATM. He also has a small loan, co-signed by his parents. The student has never responded to the annual customer satisfaction survey. As an out-of-stater and a student account holder, this customer is not considered to be a loyal or particularly satisfied customer, and, therefore, is not included in any retention or up-sell programs. However, a profitability analysis may show that, like many young people, this customer is very comfortable maintaining a banking relationship strictly through the Internet. He is comfortable with the bank and has no plans to look for another. Furthermore, as he moves beyond college into the workforce, he is a good candidate for a credit card; and even a mortgage, down the line.
A small business customer balks at a new requirement to provide collateral for a previously unsecured loan. The business has taken to social media to blast the bank’s “ruthless” loan practices; and has told the loan officer that he will take all his business and personal accounts to a competitor. A profitability analysis might indicate whether the threats are likely to be carried through, and also provide a basis for the bank to determine how hard it wants to work to keep the customer.

In each case, a customer profitability analytics system could have assessed the short- and long-term profitability significantly more accurately than any “rules of thumb.” The system would have ensured that each customer received appropriate treatment across all bank channels (marketing, branch, care).

In the complex and competitive global business climate, knowledge is power. That’s why businesses across all industries are starting to turn to data analytics for new insights that can help them succeed. At the same time, they will be smart to leverage the power of analytics systems, such as customer profitability analytics, to test old assumptions that may be holding them back.

KIT Digital Inc. Will Declare Chapter 11, New Company Called Piksel Launching With Former Assets and New Funding

Dan Rayburn — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:39:57 GMT

There’s been a lot of speculation about what would eventually happen with KIT Digital and finally, we now know some details on what will take place with KIT’s assets, their employees and what KIT’s new management team plans to do moving forward. Late this afternoon, KIT filed an 8-K and I had the chance to speak to KIT’s management team earlier in the day to get more details on what they have just announced. It’s a complex deal, there are a lot of moving parts and additional pieces of information aren’t being released for a few weeks, details that we need to evaluate the true value of KIT’s business going forward. These additional details will come out over time, but for now, here’s what the company is disclosing.

KIT Digital Inc., the parent holding company of the assets, ~~has filed~~ will file for chapter 11 bankruptcy. While some might see this as bad news, it was a move KIT had to make. Doing this allows KIT not to have to go back and worry about trying to restate earnings for the past three years and allows them to start fresh. KIT has also announced that three of the five largest shareholders will be buying back the core assets from KIT Digital Inc. and investing new money into what will become a new company, named Piksel. This is being done as a “backstop” transaction, which means the three major shareholders agree to purchase all the remaining, unsubscribed securities from KIT Digital Inc. and guaranteeing that all of the newly issued shares will be purchased, allowing the company to fulfill its fundraising requirements, as well as provide enough cash to cover any liabilities. The core assets being acquired come from five companies inside KIT and consist of Ioko 365, Polymedia, Multicast Media, Megahertz Broadcast Systems and Kewego.

KIT is not saying how much the top three shareholders (Prescott Group Capital Management, JEC Capital Partners, and Ratio Capital Partners) are investing in the new entity, or what percentage of shares they own, but will do so during the bankruptcy process. Current shareholders will be able to buy warrants in the new entity and invest in Piksel, but any stock they have in KIT won’t be converted to the new company. So KIT stock is now officially worth zero. One of the key details KIT is not yet disclosing is revenue for the company. Management said they will soon announce new financial details for KIT for the past six months, which we’ll then be able to use to see what value KIT’s management placed on the business and the assets they acquired. Without that, it’s hard to know what value KIT currently has, since we don’t know revenue, bookings, customer count etc. but once those details come out, a fair market value of the company can be realized.

Once of the reasons KIT’s board of directors is taking this path is because they feel that certain assets at KIT Digital are worth more than what anyone was willing to pay. They didn’t disclose what offers they had received from others, but felt all of them were too low. It’s hard to know the real value since we don’t yet know what Piksel’s focus will be, what products and services they will offer and how big the markets are they are selling into, but one has to imagine KIT was only offered pennies on the dollar for certain assets. No one is going to pay fair market value for anything from KIT when the company, technology and financials were in such disarray, so this new approach makes a lot of sense.

Over the past six months, KIT’s management team has streamlined the company, closed 17 office locations and cut their headcount from over 1,400 down to 800. While KIT’s management would not guarantee any more layoffs, they did say they aren’t announcing any layoffs with today’s news and believe the workforce they currently have in place is the right size for what they want to focus on within Piksel.

Because KIT’s independent committee, which was hired to find the best value for KIT, has agreed upon this being the best deal for the company, it also means that KIT’s former CEO won’t be able to make a bid for the company and try to influence shareholders, which he had been doing in the past. So KIT should be able to move through the chapter 11 process quickly, relaunch the new company, get their new brand into the market and put KIT Digital behind them. The company isn’t yet ready to showcase their new branding or website, but will do so in the coming weeks. When I asked if KIT’s current CEO Peter Heiland would become the new CEO of Piksel, management told me they had not yet decided who the best fit would be for the CEO role of the new company. The impression I got from them is that they want the best CEO they can get for the company and have not yet decided on who that will be.

While most shareholders won’t be happy with today’s news, they are all good steps that needed to be taken for the company to distance itself from the mess that was KIT Digital. It’s good for the company, employees, their customers and the industry and in order for KIT to move forward, they needed to get rid of the tarnished brand that is KIT Digital. Many of KIT’s former management is responsible for running the company into the ground, mishandling money and treating employees like crap, so the faster KIT’s new management got away from that mess, the better.

This is a step in the right direction for the company and it will be interesting to learn how much money the top shareholders have invested in the new entity and what they have valued it at, once those details are released. Hopefully it is onward and upward from here for Piksel.

Updated 10:14pm: While I wrote that KIT’s shares no longer have any value, due to the chapter 11 announcement, that could change once KIT gets through the chapter 11 process. Only current KIT shareholders are going to be able to invest in the new company and those who don’t want to make that investment, are probably going to be able to sell their shares to those who want to invest in Piksel. So if the revenue numbers KIT gives out end up being good, there may be interest from the secondary market to buy KIT shares. Hard to know what the value of those shares will be, until we have more info, but current KIT investors might get something for the shares they currently own.

Think Streaming Will Replace Cable TV? This Data On Streaming Quality Proves Otherwise

Dan Rayburn — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:38:36 GMT

These days, many want to suggest that cable TV offerings will be “killed” or “replaced” by content services being delivered over the Internet using content delivery networks. While that’s not reality, those who make these suggestions speak as if the quality of the content delivered online is the same as what consumers get from cable TV. However, thanks to Conviva, we have data from some of the largest streamers on the web, that shows how difficult it really is to deliver video on the Internet, with reliability. In fact, of the 22.6 billion streams Conviva monitored in 2012, 60% of them had quality issues. 60%!

The quality of online video isn’t even close to what cable TV delivers today when it comes to quality and reliability – yet many don’t want to admit this as it goes against their agenda. I like data because it proves what’s really going on in the market and when the sample size is so large, like what Conviva has shared, no rational person can argue with it. So rather than debate or speculate what may or may not work, we have the data to actually know.

In 2012, Conviva analyzed 22.6 billion streams for some of the largest content owners on the web including Netflix, ESPN, HBO, Viacom, VEVO, MLB, USA, NBC and many others. The data they share comes from content owners and syndicators who probably account for at least 75% of the video traffic on the web today, outside of Google. These content owners who use Conviva’s service add a small bit of code to their player, which allows Conviva to collect and monitor the user’s video experience, in real-time, and sends that data back to Conviva’s console. Last quarter, Conviva shared a lot of the data they collected in 2012 and here are some of the key findings:

60% of all streams experienced quality degradation. Viewer interruption from re-buffering affected 20.6% of streams, 19.5% were impacted by slow video startup and 40% were plagued by grainy or low-resolution picture quality caused by low bitrates.
In 2011 a 1% increase in buffering resulted in 3 minutes less of viewing time per view of long-form content. In 2012, that identical 1% increase led to 8 minutes lost in viewing time per view for similar content.
The start time for a video to launch is critical. If video start time exceeds 2 seconds, the number of people that abandon viewing dramatically increases—400% for long-form VOD and for live content, abandoned views increase 140%.
Viewers with a buffer-free experience watch 226% more and are four times more likely to stay and watch if video starts in 2 seconds or less
For live video streams, viewers not impacted by buffering watch 10 times longer.
By improving buffering performance and video quality, a typical long form VOD provider, (with 10 million views per month) will increase revenue by as much as $1.4 million monthly.
In 2012, 124.8 billion minutes were spent in buffering.
More than 18% of viewers requesting a live stream abandoned before the video started—more than 4 times higher than long-form VOD.

Conviva’s data shows that a staggering 60% of views were impacted by stalls, low resolution or buffering. 39.3% of streams were impacted by buffering and 4% never started. That’s over 900 million streams that never started! Ironically, for all the talk of HD, Conviva’s data showed that many consumers are watching on a screen capable of displaying high-quality (HQ) video, yet 63% are viewing below HQ resolution. And when it comes to buffering, for a live event lasting 90 minutes, Conviva’s data showed that 10.8 minutes of that content didn’t work thanks to buffering. Can you imagine turning on the TV to watch a movie and not being able to see 12% of it? Consumers would not stand for it.

So for those that want to talk to cable TV as being some sort of outdated technology that’s going to get “replaced” by streaming media based services, we have the data to prove otherwise. It’s not up for debate. Cable TV is still able to deliver a better quality user experience, nearly every time, over Internet video. You may not like the price you have to pay for cable TV, but the technology still surpasses Internet video because it works, it’s easy to use and you know what HD means. On the web, anything goes and you never know what you will get, as Conviva’s data proves.

A quick thank you to Conviva for sharing this data with the industry. If more companies showed what is really going on in the market, we’d have more realistic expectations being set, which would help the industry grow faster based on real business, not hype.

iOS Devices Beat Android When It Comes To Streaming Video Quality, But Challenges Remain

Dan Rayburn — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:37:09 GMT

Today, there is a lot of growth of video usage on mobile platforms, with tablets leading the way. Based on recent numbers, tablet penetration is growing faster than any device in recent memory jumping from 45 million U.S. adults in January 2012 to 59 million in August. With smartphone penetration exceeding 50% in the U.S. late 2012, streaming to mobile devices continues to grow.

As part of the data Conviva recently released on the quality of service metrics for streaming, when it comes to reliably delivering video to mobile, nearly half of all the streams they monitored in 2012 experienced buffering issues. A for which mobile platforms performed better, iOS devices beat Android devices in every category. The average time spent buffering per 10 minutes of content for iOS was 40.2 seconds while Android was 56.7 seconds. Average stream startup time for Android was slower than iOS (2.9 seconds versus 2.4 seconds). The percentage of Android streams that failed to start was higher than iOS (17.5% versus 13.6%).

No clear winner has emerged in the mobile platform war when measured against the three important parameters of buffering, start-up time and failed starts. Mobile has a long way to go when it comes to being a reliable platform for high-quality video consumption and a lot of that has to do with the mobile carriers. While they imply that they want consumers to use their networks to watch video on mobile device, they really don’t. It’s one of the reasons why they have caps on data usage and keep them so low.

How much video can you really consumer when you only get 2GB of data transfer a month and then have to pay $10 per GB after that? When Netflix’s average mobile video stream is delivered at 400Kbps, that means you can only consume about 11 hours of video a month before you blow through your quota. And that does not include any data transfer from surfing the web or doing other online activities, which counts toward your quota. In reality, the average person can probably consume 5-6 hours of video a month, over 3G or 4G, without going over their cap. That’s why most video consumed via tablets is done so over WiFi, not cellular connections. Mobile video still has a long, long way to go before mass adoption, at reasonable quality, for long-form content.

Frustrated with Web Conferences? See these Considerations for Effective Online Meetings

Rob Arnold — Fri, 03 May 2013 20:58:05 GMT

In my job I attend a number of Web conferences each week with different groups of people and using a variety of different conferencing platforms. Quite often valuable time is wasted as the organizer, host or presenter is disorganized or struggles to invoke the appropriate features at the right time.

According to a recent Frost & Sullivan decision-maker survey, the top reasons for delaying investments in Web conferencing are based upon commonly held perceptions that it is not a user-friendly or useful tool for many knowledge workers.

These misguided perceptions stem from lack of user familiarity with the Web conferencing tool set and user interfaces. At times, Web conferencing may prove ineffective because of the underlying complexity of the technology. However, Web conferencing providers remain steadfastly focused on delivering a user-friendly experience. Technology advancements are helping to improve the user interface and are enabling conference participants to effectively leverage a more comprehensive set of collaboration features. Many conferencing software suites today are designed to service the everyday user, with the most frequently used tools intuitively designed and positioned front and center in the user interface. Still, hosting an online meeting can be intimidating for presenters.

Many hosts and presenters are only familiar with the few Web conferencing features that they consistently employ in their online meetings. Although useful in some regards, this limited approach is not always the most effective. Presenters can add value to their meetings by incorporating a greater variety of features available with their Web conferencing platform. By accessing the tutorials, self-help tools, consulting services, or customer support available from their Web conferencing providers, hosts can learn to incorporate features that best support the objectives of their meetings.

Attached is a check list of best practices that will free presenters from technical obstacles and enable them to effectively host productive and efficient meetings. (I also have a checklist cheat sheet available by request).

I hope this is useful. Happy conferencing!

Best Practices for Effective Online Meetings

Focus on Objectives, Not on Technology:

Technology and features should not be a focal point. Rather, the platform should support the host and the intended message.
It is easy to become overwhelmed by all of the useful features available with Web conferencing platforms. A helpful approach to remain focused on the intended message is to draft a meeting script prior to any other steps being taken.
Once the script is prepared, the host should consider which features and functionalities are most appropriately aligned to support the intended objective and message.

Apply the Tools that Best Support the Message:

Once the intended message has been organized, meeting hosts should consider the specific type of meeting they plan to hold. The appropriateness and effectiveness of collaboration features will vary based on the number and demographics of participants (colleagues, partners, customers, prospects, etc.), as well as the meeting format (interactive, presentation, demonstration, training, etc).
Desktop or screen sharing features help audiences to better understand complex information. Screen sharing ensures all participants are literally on the same page and are not individually searching for documents on their desktops. A key benefit of desktop/screen sharing is that the host can pass control to others, which allows advanced features such as co-editing of documents.
File sharing enables documents to be uploaded to a Web-based content library or database which is accessible to all participants during and after the meeting. By pre-loading the documents, the presenter has the necessary files readily available for display during the meeting. File sharing eases version management and ensures that a single version is made available to all participants post-meeting. File sharing prevents presenters from displaying their entire desktops to participants, thereby eliminating privacy issues and distractions due to screen savers, pictures, and open applications on a presenter’s desktop.
Polling, Q&A, and chat can all be variously employed to engage the audience. Participants can communicate with presenters or with each other via chat. Polling and Q&A can be useful ways to organize attendee feedback and inquiries to be fielded during the meeting or in the context of post-meeting follow-up. All of these features can be turned on/off based on the host’s objectives.
Audio controls are available to help the host retain order throughout the meeting. The host can choose to mute all or un-mute specific presenters or audience members when it is appropriate for them to speak.
Integrated desktop videoconferencing is available with many Web conferencing platforms. The host should consider whether this feature will add value to the meeting, and if so, how it should be employed. Videoconferencing can promote a sense of intimacy or convey information through body language, yet viewing fidgeting participants can be a distraction. Meeting organizers may elect to enable video for only the host and other presenters, or for all participants, or for no one at all.
Hosts should consider whether they wish to record their meetings to make the material available for future use, either for documentation and compliance, or to make it available to participants who are unable to attend the live event.

Invite All of the Appropriate Participants:

Calendar and e-mail integrations and other scheduling tools should be leveraged during the planning and initiation phases of Web conferences. Calendar invitations synchronized with e-mail make it easy for participants to join.
Invitations should include meeting details such as the meeting name and a summary of the discussion topics, time, and audio and online log-on information. E-mail and calendar reminders can be set up to ensure participants join on time.

Make It Easy to Join:

Adequate preparation is only part of an effective Web conference. Factors such as content delivery and professional etiquette play key roles as well. A delayed start immediately compromises perceptions of competence and credibility. Many providers offer solutions that expedite the meeting entry process. For example, there are tools that allow participants to join by right-clicking on a link embedded in an e-mail or calendar item.
It is recommended that, if possible, multiple audio options are provided for participants–including toll and toll-free, domestic and international audio dial-in options, as well as VoIP. This will enable users to choose the most appropriate method for their environment and may help to encourage attendance.

Be Prepared:

Integrated e-mail and calendar tools allow meeting organizers to view the availability of prospective participants and select the most convenient time that will generate the largest degree of participation.
Calendar integrations also display which participants have or have not accepted the invitation. Hosts should continually monitor the accepted roster prior to the meeting to ensure top attendance and to reschedule if necessary.
Hosts should gather all content they plan to share and upload these materials to the Web conferencing content library or to their desktops prior to the start of the meeting. Pre-loading files to the content library ensures that content is easily accessible and cached, which allows them to load quickly during the meeting.
Hosts choosing to share content by attaching files to meeting invites should ensure updates to that material are kept to a minimum once distributed.

Conduct a Dry Run:

To ensure seamless execution of the Web conferencing session, hosts should conduct a trial run. During the dry run hosts should focus on the technical aspects of the session. A proper review of log-in details, audio and video quality, Internet connections, and the features that will be utilized will help to limit delays and avoidable distractions during the live event.
Today, callers have a great variety of audio dial-in options, including traditional PSTN and VoIP connections or mobile access over cellular networks. Selecting the most appropriate and reliable connection is imperative. To ensure the best audio quality, hosts and presenters should briefly test their chosen audio solution prior to the meeting’s start. If a presenter is calling internationally, it is recommended that they do so from a toll number using a land line for reliability and quality purposes.
Audio quality is one of the most important factors of a Web conference and environmental factors should be considered. Presenters should call in from quiet or private locations with good acoustics. To prevent background noise, presenters should use audio equipment such as headsets, which should be tested prior to the start of the meeting.
Meeting organizers should keep a close eye on the clock. Frequent time checks will ensure that the pace is appropriate to clearly and fully share all intended information.

Conduct the Live Event

It is recommended that hosts and presenters shut down all applications not directly related to their meetings. Pop-up notifications for incoming e-mail or instant messages, for example, are potential distractions that can be eliminated.
Meeting hosts and presenters should always log-in to their Web conferences five minutes early. This will ensure that any required automated software updates are preformed prior to the meeting’s beginning.
It is recommended that hosts allow several minutes after the meeting start time for presenters and audience members to log in and adjust their settings.
Hosts should be deliberate and clear when activating and explaining conference features that are meant to engage the audience.
Just as in the dry run, hosts should keep an eye on the clock to ensure the meeting stays on schedule.
Presenters should not attempt to read their prepared scripts or shared content verbatim. Instead they should hit the high points of background and basic information in order to allocate greater time to cover the more complex or important aspects of the content.
Hosts should allow sufficient time for Q&A and open discussion at the end, if applicable.
Before ending the session, hosts should inform meeting participants and audience members that follow-up information will be made available.

Be Sure to Follow Up:

Post-session actions extend the life cycles of effective online meetings. Functionality such as workspace and file-sharing integrations, and recording and playback solutions are evolving Web conferencing platforms into persistent collaboration tools that are used before, during, and after online meetings.
Follow-up activities can help hosts overcome poor attendance and expand their potential audiences. After their meetings, hosts can make follow-up tasks, meeting notes, and multimedia recordings available to participants via e-mail, collaborative work spaces, or content libraries. These functionalities extend the meeting life cycle, thereby increasing the value of the meeting and its content.

Smart card market getting ready for a major battle

Jean Noel Georges — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:03:53 GMT

The undisputed number one player in the smart card industry, Gemalto, recently confirmed its status higher than expected first-quarter sales. This positive trend is noticeable in all of the company’s business units (mobile, payment, security). The firm expects double-digit growth in profit in 2013. According to Gemalto, revenue growth will come from high end SIMs deployed for LTE and NFC features, but also by mobile payment development and EMV migration. From a regional perspective, sales growth will be driven by Asia Pacific and the United States.

Oberthur, the second player in terms of market share, has announced a 3-year strategic plan that it hopes will result in revenue from services and software growing from 28 per cent to 40 per cent of the total. The strategy is similar to that of Gemalto, and is based on the expected explosion of LTE and NFC technologies. After his departure from ST-Ericsson, Didier Lamouche joined Oberthur as CEO this week, replacing Xavier Drilhon. Mr Lamouche will have to accelerate the strategy in order to be ready for the market evolution.

On the other hand, Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) announced last week that it would cut 400 jobs in its European mobile security unit, including around 125 jobs in its Munich headquarter. High levels of price competition started a few years ago; the SIM market was the first to be impacted, but the payment cards sector is also affected. This competitive market has placed significant pressure on G&D business units, forcing them to optimize investments and to minimize the attached risk. The German firm appears to be preparing for the next wave of smart card competition by resizing its teams and fine tuning the overall company strategy.

The smart card industry’s leading players continue to jostle for position. Each is aiming to be perfectly positioned in each vertical, with the perfect product, the right timing and the correct team in terms of size and capability. As always, price will be a key determinant of success. We await the final winner.

Challenges for Securing Revenue across Managed and Unmanaged Networks: A Look at NAB 2013 Trends

Avni Rambhia — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 06:03:55 GMT

NAB 2013 brought home three main themes for the digital media team at Frost & Sullivan:

1) There’s a clear drive toward delivering media & entertainment solutions that control bottom line costs while growing top line revenues.

2) Market conversations are shifting toward solutions focused on monetization rather than just products focused on delivery.

3) An HEVC demo is the new must-have booth accessory.

Monetization of video is a particularly interesting challenge, since business models in the OTT and TV Everywhere space remain experimental and online revenues have yet to become significant contributors to MVPD businesses. That said, our recently released study on consumer video devices (executive summary attached below) shows that the devices industry is already in the throes of realizing the lucrative potential of ubiquitous video.

Examining segments including set-top boxes, smart phones, tablets, game consoles, smart TVs, IP streaming devices and more, we found that total unit shipments in 2012 were well past the 1 billion mark, with total revenues exceeding $350 billion. With device shipments on track to triple by 2017, operators across the globe are grappling to bring their ubiquitous video offerings to this critical new ecosystem of unmanaged devices in a scalable, secure fashion. Unmanaged is the key word here – managed set-top boxes only account for under 1/5 of all video-enabled devices shipped in 2012. At the same time, network traffic studies are consistently showing continued growth in long form content consumption on unmanaged devices.

Piracy of course is always a top of mind consideration for content owners and operators when deploying OTT/TE services. The issue gets more critical as live linear content and premium VOD content are delivered equivalently to managed and unmanaged devices in HD resolution.

It's not news to operators that, in contrast to the tightly controlled execution environment of set-top boxes, consumer owned and managed (COAM) devices are far more challenging platforms on which to secure content. Operators are cognizant of the need to support these myriad devices with compelling content offerings despite these challenges in order to minimize churn and remain competitive. The problem is, with revenues still small and business models yet unproven, operators are incurring this complexity and cost with limited upside ROI, particularly when they attempt to extend their traditional conditional access (CA) infrastructure to meet far more dynamic multi-screen needs.

In a white paper we just released, “Cardless Content Security: The Smarter choice for Hybrid Networks,” we examine how challenges like fragmentation of devices and networks and the need to deliver consistent user experiences across all screens can be more effectively overcome. We discuss industry-proven best practices in architecting security solutions for the next-generation ecosystem of multiple transmission networks and devices in a way that minimizes head-end complexity and ensures a future-proof investment.

We also look at how cardless CA and multi-rights DRM platforms are leveraging advances in software anti-tamper technology and silicon-based security measures to deliver cost-efficient, durable content security on the client side. The paper takes a close look at the VCAS solution from Verimatrix as an example of a best-in-class solution that delivers head-end simplification and scalability with robust client-side protection.

The future of the devices market and the security market are both promising to be interesting. Those at NAB couldn’t have missed the HEVC and 4K demonstrations that were running at nearly every booth. Widespread initiatives to deliver HD+ and 4K content to unmanaged devices raise a whole new set of content protection questions.

For example, screen captures of 4K content can easily yield very high quality SD content (perhaps even HD content) for recompression and subsequent piracy, and the incentive for professional hackers to pirate 4K content is thus much higher. Studios and content owners will almost certainly require stronger security standards in terms of encryption and usage enforcement for 4K content. At the same time, as we discuss in this same paper, it will also be important to rely on traitor tracing and piracy tracking technologies, such as watermarking and fingerprinting, to holistically manage this inevitable problem.

We will continue to track these developments in our research coverage of the encoding, transcoding and content protection markets. In the meanwhile, if you missed our recent webinar on our forecasted roadmap for products and services based on HEVC, you can catch the recording here.

Microsoft: Will the Empire Strike Back?

Andrew Milroy — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 01:41:36 GMT

Microsoft: Will the Empire Strike Back?

To some, the omens look bleak for Microsoft. PC shipments are in decline, and an increasing proportion of IT activity bypasses Microsoft technology entirely. Google and Apple continue to make massive inroads into, what was once, Microsoft territory, forcing Microsoft to react.

Will the trend towards consumerization and ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) combined with the move to cloud computing marginalize Microsoft and undermine the fabric of its business model? Indeed, will cloud computing destroy Microsoft’s business model and allow others such as Google and Apple to replace Microsoft within the enterprise?

The answer is no, if Microsoft can develop a coherent marketing strategy that can be understood by its clients. BYOD, cloud computing and the vulnerabilities of Google and Apple’s business models give Microsoft the opportunity to consolidate its dominance in the enterprise.

Windows 8 is an operating environment that can provide a common experience across multiple devices. It can transform tablets into devices that can be used for enterprise activities in addition to consumer activities. Windows 8 smartphones can also be easily integrated with corporate Windows environments and offer management and security features that enterprises are vigorously demanding.

Apple’s presence in the enterprise is driven organically and is not planned. This may benefit it in the short term, as it rides the consumerization trend. But, the company does not have a coherent enterprise strategy, choosing to remain focused on the consumer experience.

Google is developing an enterprise strategy with some success. However, it does continue to generate the vast majority of its revenues from advertising, not by addressing the technology needs of enterprises. It does not have a suite of products that can compete with Microsoft in the enterprise.

To the enterprise, Microsoft represents much of what is deemed to be important such as stability, long term product support, flexibility and standards. It offers upgrade paths and a wide variety of support options to name a few benefits that enterprises attribute to it.

So why is Microsoft not seeing more success? Why is Windows 8 adoption so slow? Perhaps this can be explained by Microsoft’s marketing. Microsoft’s marketing activity does not reflect the strength of its position. Its message seems disjointed and uncoordinated. For example, why did Microsoft not present the separate launches of Windows 8 and the Surface as part of the same overall strategy? Its pricing strategy is muddled. It should aim to make Office 365 ubiquitous in the enterprise and then focus on pricing. So far, it has managed to upset a lot of customers with its Office 365 pricing and made alternatives more attractive.

Microsoft will not beat Apple, Google or Samsung on their territories, by launching devices to compete with them. Its advantage over these firms will be enhanced by leveraging its strength in the enterprise market. In other words, it will succeed by practicing the inverse of consumerization. Until the mid 1990s, mobile phones were primarily used as enterprise devices. They moved from the enterprise, into the consumer market. Similarly, PCs were first popularized in the enterprise and thereafter became commonly used by consumers. Consumerization is a blip in the technology adoption timeline. Are Apple’s recent challenges an indication that it is struggling to manage a slowdown in the trend towards consumerization?

Microsoft can galavanise a shift away from consumerization by promoting the benefits of Windows 8 as an operating environment that can be used on any device. The Surface should be primarily targeted at the enterprise not at the consumer. Once established within the enterprise, workers will also use it for consumer activities and its popularity as a consumer device will grow. Microsoft can create a new market for an operating environment that straddles both enterprise and consumer domains.

If Microsoft cannot wait to strengthen its hand in the consumer market, it could use its vast resources to make some acquisitions of firms that are pioneering new ways of consuming content. For example, acquiring Spotify or Netflix would instantly position Microsoft as a leader in the consumer market.

Microsoft is in a very strong position. It needs to capitalize on this strength in order to re-enforce its position. It must consolidate its enterprise position by focusing on the needs of this huge market. It can then attack the consumer market. It has some great products. It needs to market them more effectively. It needs to be seen by enterprise IT buyers as the IT supplier that can offer one unified, secure, and manageable experience across any device and that these devices can be used for both work and play. To date, it has failed to do this. With a revamped marketing strategy, the Microsoft empire can strike back.

Cutting Through The Hype Of HEVC (H.265)

Dan Rayburn — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:26:15 GMT

While the next-generation video compression technology, HEVC, is a hot topic, far too many people are getting caught up in non real-world use cases, like 4K, or think HEVC is going to be adopted in short order. In reality, the mainstream market is not yet ready for HEVC, it’s still a few years away, and there isn’t an ROI to be achieved from being an early adopter of HEVC. (See my post from January on this topic: HEVC (H.265) Adoption Is At Least Five Years Away For Consumer Content Services)

While HEVC probably will serve as the successor to MPEG-4, many myths surround the technology and the rate at which it will be deployed. Yesterday, my co-worker at Frost & Sullivan, digital media Industry Manager Avni Rambhia, lead a webinar discussing the current state of HEVC products and technology, and its strategic implications in the short, mid and long term for a variety of businesses. Here were some of the key takeaways:

Myth 1: UltraHD Is An Immediate Driver for HEVC

Higher-end profiles of HEVC are still under development
True 4K source material is still hard to find (VOD or live)
1 or 2 flagship UltraHD channels can be fit into today’s IPTV, cable and DTH systems. A codec overhaul is neither necessary nor economical
4K TV sets are still in a nascent market stage
Real time encoders and power-efficient decoders for 4K resolution are still a few years away
HDMI 2.0 is needed for the higher frame rates (40-100 fps) that many consider a fundamental aspect of 4K – this is still a year or two away
When HD is the new SD and UltraHD seeks to become the new HD, HEVC will be an enabler. Until then, this combination is interesting but not critical.

Reality: In the M&E space, bandwidth-limited OTT and VOD in SD and HD resolution, likely in conjunction with MPEG-DASH, is the most important short term application for HEVC.

Myth 2: MSOs Should Upgrade from MPEG-2 to HEVC

AVC technology is mature enough for immediate adoption, and prices have fallen considerably across the board – making this technology far more affordable than it has been in the past
Encoders and decoders for HEVC are significantly more expensive than AVC products. Moreover, mature, reliable and scalable compression and transmission solutions are several years away
It will be some years before commercial HEVC encoders can deliver compression gains that justify disruptive investments in the technology. Until then, cutting-edge AVC encoders and technologies like switched digital video offer more cost-effective ways for better bandwidth utilization
Today’s software-based AVC encoders can be upgraded in the field to support HEVC when the time is right, so investment is protected.

Reality: Service providers should begin to trial and test HEVC products now in preparation for potential rollout in the 2016-2018 timeframe, but AVC does offer immediate benefits in the meanwhile.

Myth 3: Many HEVC Products Will Hit The Market in 2013

Devil is in the details – while first-generation products are indeed being debuted in 2013, unit sales are small, content availability is minimal, revenues are uncertain, and consumer uptake remains very small
Many vendors, particularly vendors of encoder and decoder cores, are deeply invested in HEVC products and are either releasing or close to releasing first-generation cores in 2013. Certainly, since there are no ASIC or open source implementations of HEVC encoders and decoders as yet, companies have a significant opportunity to demonstrate expertise and breakthrough innovation in a market that is otherwise plagued by commoditization.
However, the end to end ecosystem is yet to fall into place for any application

Reality: Serious pilots and feasibility tests are underway, but serious, large-scale deployments are not.

Reality: Applications like video conferencing and wireless OTT will be among the first to leverage HEVC, but even those will not see mainstream adoption before late 2014.

Conclusion: Key Take-Aways and Recommendations

HEVC is a promising technology, but will take at least 6-8 years to mature – just as AVC is only now hitting its stride, nearly a decade after the standard was finalized
Large footprints of legacy MPEG-2 and AVC equipment and limited maturity of HEVC products will hinder short term uptake
Encoder and decoder vendors (hardware and software) are in the thick of the battle to innovate and deliver real time, power-efficient solutions to the market
Vendors of other components in the end to end value chain need to be innovating now to incorporate HEVC into their product roadmaps
Service providers, on the other hand, need to carefully evaluate all options available to them for optimizing bandwidth, and develop an ROI-centric strategy to adopt and deploy HEVC.

We’ve done a lot of work at Frost & Sullivan on the topic of HEVC and in addition to three reports Avni Rambhia has already publish, we’ve done a lot of private research on HEVC for clients. If you’re looking to get more details on HEVC technology, get copies of our reports, or need any custom research on the HEVC market, please feel free to reach out to me for more details.

The Media Calls Aereo "Disruptive" To Cable TV Because They Care About Headlines, Not Business Metrics

Dan Rayburn — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:25:20 GMT

I don’t know what it is about Aereo’s streaming service that makes so many members of the media herald it as such a big “disruptor” to cable TV, but it seems a week doesn’t go by with yet another blog post praising Aereo as a cable TV “killer”, without any actual metrics or data to back it up. Last night I was reading a post on Gigaom about Aereo’s streaming service and like many in the media, the author implies that Aereo is impacting the current cable TV business – yet provides no data of any kind to prove the point. The post called Aereo’s court ruling from yesterday as the “biggest blow yet to the existing TV business,” which in reality, is simple not the case.

In the past Gigaom has called Aereo, “one of the most disruptive forces in television today.” Really? Disruptive? Based on what metric? Just because a company gets sued by the broadcasters doesn’t make their service/business “disruptive”. Aereo has done nothing to show they can compete in this market, with any large number of subscribers, yet the media still wants to hype it. And Gigaom’s not the only one guilty of that.

It’s clear that talking or blogging about cable TV is a touchy subject with many because as a general rule, people don’t like how much they spend on cable TV each month. No one can blame them as no one likes to spend money, but talking about how much your cable bill is is like talking about taxes. No one likes paying them, but the vast majority of people pay their taxes and also continue to pay for cable TV each month. In the U.S. alone, there are more than 100 million households that pay for monthly cable/satellite TV programming. And while reports predict that number could drop to around 96 million by 2017, losing 1% of your market per year is no threat. Especially since we’ve seen these numbers predicted before and they’ve never been right. But touchy subject or not, the media has a responsibility to compare video content distribution services fairly, accurately and from a real apples-to-apples standpoint, which rarely happens when they talk about Aereo.

Whenever I write about Aereo, people always comment that we know Aereo is “disruptive” simply due to the fact that they are being sued by the major broadcasters. But the point they are missing is that the broadcasters aren’t suing Aereo because they are scared of the company, they are scared of the idea and precedent it could set. Aereo doesn’t have the means to disrupt cable TV, but in the hands of some like Amazon, it could cause a threat. I’m not saying Amazon is getting into that business, but if Aereo gets away with it, what happens if someone like an Amazon, who actually has the means and resources to disrupt markets, takes Aereo’s idea and runs with it? Companies don’t threaten the traditional cable TV business, ideas do. For years we heard that Netflix was going to disrupt cable TV, yet years later we know that didn’t happen. In reality, most services never replace one another, it’s simply a complement to it, just as we have seen with Netflix.

I’ve been very vocal that Aereo’s business model is dead because the fact is, not a large enough percentage of cable TV subscribers want a limited service like Aereo’s. Some argue that to date, Aereo’s only been available in the NYC market and is just now being rolled out to multiple cities, so we have to wait to see what the demand is, but that’s not a valid argument. NYC has one of the most dense population of potential consumers around, yet the service has so few users Aereo won’t even go on record to say how many. They won’t talk adoption rates, the number of hours of video being consumed or any kind of user metrics. Rolling the service out to additional cities only means they will burn through more money which will keep them from having a profitable business on a service that averages $10 a month. They only way to have any chance at making such a low-cost service work, and turn into a profitable business, is to sign up subscribers in huge volume, like Netflix has done. But Aereo won’t be able to do that, because as Netflix has taught us, consumers want choice, a large catalog of content, wide device support, and high-quality video. Aereo doesn’t have any of those.

The argument people will come back to me with is that this all takes time, the technology and Aereo’s service is new, streaming media users are now a younger generation and I have to “give it a few years” to work out. The problem is, every five years these people say the same thing, “give it a few years”. As an industry, many have been talking about streaming media services disrupting cable TV since 2000 and to date, it hasn’t happened. Cable TV providers make more profits now than ever before. And even with all the new devices and the changing landscape of how content is consumed, these cable/satellite providers have found a way to continue to still make a lot of money. That’s not going to change. Whether they charge more for Internet only or charge consumers more for dropping the TV portion of their bill, the MSOs are in control. Say all you want about Aereo, Netflix, YouTube or anyone else, but they are not taking any large share of revenue away from the pay TV providers.

When multicasting was first deployed, people were sure it was going to replace cable TV as the main distribution medium for video. Then when the Apple TV streaming box came out, Apple’s hardware and iTunes was supposedly going to kill cable. When Netflix got big, we heard that was going to create a lot of cord cutters. Then it was the non-existent all-in-one Apple TV that we have been hearing about for years, that was going to disrupt the cable TV business. Now, supposedly Aereo is challenging the MSOs. Every time something new comes out, the media proclaims one thing will kill off the other when usually it’s a complement to it, not a replacement for it. It’s one of the biggest reasons why members of the media don’t use numbers when they talk about these services/platforms/devices. We see services compared every day to one another, yet 99% of the time, the author never says how many are sold, used, adopted or consumed when compared to the service it’s supposedly going to kill off. It easier for them to create panic and foster the idea of disruption, when in fact, the adoption numbers prove otherwise.

Also, post after post comes out talking about Aereo’s service, but in most cases, you can tell these writers haven’t even tried the service out for themselves. Few have, but most haven’t. Why don’t they mention how few channels Aereo has? How few devices they are on? The lack of Android support? The limit on the video quality? Or how when you turn on your TV it works, but many times, Aereo doesn’t. Where are the details? Where are the adoption numbers? The metrics? Why is this industry ok with comparing one service to another without looking at the real, tangible data that every business has, which dictates what the adoption really is and how the business is doing? For many, it’s easier to write something more vague, generic and imply disruption because they think it’s a good story to read. In reality, the good story is one that exposes the weakness of any product or service that is supposed to be a disruptor so that you can see if there are any faults in the service or technology. Because if there isn’t, then that’s the story. Then you have something real. But without that, it’s all fluff.

It’s really easy to say service A is better than service B, anyone can do that. But when the person saying it doesn’t use the service, doesn’t know how it really works and doesn’t know the weakness of the service, it’s not a valid argument. So all we keep hearing many in the media say is that Aereo will or is “disrupting” cable TV. Based on what metrics? Content choice? No. Video quality? No. Device support? No. Revenue generation? No. Profitability? No. Look at the service for what it is today, not what some think/hope/predict it can or should be years from now.

The biggest disruptor to cable TV isn’t Aereo, Netflix or some other content service. The biggest disruptor to cable TV is themselves and the content owners who continue to raise their content licensing rates to the MSOs. At some point, cable TV operators will lose subscribers if they continue to raise rates every year like clockwork. And if they don’t learn and don’t realize that consumers are only willing to pay so much, then they will lose subscribers over time. And while streaming media content services like Aereo, Netflix, Amazon or others would pick up new users as a result, they aren’t the ones who have caused the disruption, their businesses would grow as a byproduct of the cable TV companies being too greedy.

This industry already has too much hype in it, expectations are being set wrong and far too many bloggers are writing about products and services they have never even used. In the past, I’ve written about how Aereo’s service has worked for me, but I will have a full, in-depth review online in the next few days, after having used the service for the past four months.

And for those who are going to write in the comments section that I am wrong because they have cut the cord, that’s great it worked for you, but you are the minority, not the majority.

The Incredible Shrinking IT Department

Andrew Milroy — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 02:39:53 GMT

IT departments are set to become smaller. In addition, the role of IT will transform into that of an integrator of services, a driver of innovation and a manager of systems and processes.

These changes are being driven by the widespread use of cloud computing and the increased prevalence of ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD).

New cloud computing implementations typically use IT resources much more efficiently and effectively than was the case before. Indeed, this model of computing leads to much greater sharing of IT resources, not just within enterprises, but also among enterprises.

Cloud computing offers greater automation of IT activities, such as service provisioning, updates and upgrades. It also reduces the amount of time required to provision new IT resources dramatically, and engenders self service.

Soon, most employees can be expected to procure and manage the devices that they use at work. This also removes a huge amount of work from IT departments.

For these reasons, demand for IT professionals is unlikely to grow, In fact, IT departments will inevitably become smaller.

By how much will IT departments shrink? Indeed, how will the role of the CIO and the IT department change over time?

It is hard to tell how much IT departments will shrink. However, there is evidence of IT departments shrinking as a proportion of the organization being served. At a recent CIO event in Perth, Australia, Vito Forte, CIO of mining firm Fortescue, explained that his company is currently growing at a very fast rate. But, there are no plans to grow the IT department. Other CIOs have made similar comments.

More importantly, the move to cloud computing and BYOD will transform the role of the CIO and IT departments. Traditional IT tasks such as software support, upgrades, and procurement will not be required to the same extent as in on premise IT deployments. Nevertheless, the use of cloud services and BYOD present new challenges. Presently, cloud computing resources are often adopted by business units without any involvement of IT departments. The same applies to BYOD. Some IT departments have resisted these changes and sought to prohibit these activities. This is an unsustainable approach. The IT department of the future will act as a provider of cloud services and an enabler of BYOD. It will focus to a much greater extent on ensuring compliance to company policy and legislation.

Many analysts argue that IT departments will act as brokers of cloud services to their internal customers. This offers limited business value. As app stores are built up internally, this approach will likely accelerate the reduction in the size of IT departments. It will also inhibit the transformation of the IT function into a role that offers significant business value.

Instead, forward thinking IT departments can be expected to position themselves as service integrators within the organization. In other words, they will focus on procuring and integrating cloud services that can add value to specific business activities. They will then seek to ensure that these services are implemented successfully. Once implemented, the transformed business function will manage the systems and processes that the new technology underpins.

While managing systems and processes, the new function will drive innovation within the organization by continually introducing new ways of enhancing business processes using the latest services that are provided from the cloud. The forward thinking CIO’s role will, in many cases, change to Chief Innovation Officer.

IT departments that do not embrace the changes taking place around them, will find themselves becoming less relevant to the organization.

In summary, the IT department will inevitably shrink as a proportion of the overall organization that it serves. But, for forward thinking IT departments, the role will change to that of a service integrator, innovator, and manager of systems and processes. Its value to the business can increase substantially.

2013 Predictions: The Consolidation of IT

Andrew Milroy — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 06:34:37 GMT

It’s that time of year again. The time of year where the world’s IT commentators offer their predictions for the following year. For the past few years, predictions have focused very much on cloud computing, ‘big data’ (a misnomer if ever I have heard one), mobility, social, and consumerization.

All of these technology trends are now having a profound effect on business. I expect that in 2013, these terms will be used less often as cloud/big data/mobility/social/consumerization fatigue kicks in.

2013 will bring us closer to 'the end of corporate IT', a process that has being going on for some time. Indeed, Nicolas Carr wrote about 'the end of corporate IT' in 2005. Cloud computing, social media, analytics and social media are accelerating this trend.

2013 itself, will witness the consolidation of IT, as IT departments shrink and convergence kicks in across the industry. By 2020, will IT departments exist? Will IT be fully embedded into business activities? Will IT have become a utility?

Here are my three predictions for 2013.

#1 IT departments will shrink

The use of cloud services will reduce the need for many traditional IT activities. Cloud services drive automation, self service, and self provisioning to the extent that the need for support services provided by IT departments will decline dramatically.

Consumerization and the use of devices chosen by the employee rather than the employer (BYOD) will also eliminate procurement tasks, traditionally performed by IT departments.

Business and consumer services are increasingly being delivered by apps from mobile devices. The development of basic apps will become a standard skill among the next generation of workers in much the same way as using mobile technology, and office productivity software are standard skills for today’s employees. In other words, a growing number of IT activities will become embedded in non-IT roles.

The complexity of technical tasks being performed by workers, without IT support, is growing while the skills needed to perform complex tasks are less difficult to acquire. This means that ordinary workers will soon be generating outcomes that were once the domain of IT staff. For example, a typical marketing manager will soon be able to develop a basic ‘Amazon style’ store for their company with little or no technical support.

CIOs and their teams will increasingly focus on enabling the use of technology across the organization. Their focus will be on ensuring that when employees use technology, they comply with policies and regulations. They will also seek to add business value by working with other employees and stakeholders to integrate new services and processes into their businesses. Furthermore, today’s developers and technical professionals will be forced to focus on ways that their skills can be used to foster innovation within diverse business activities.

#2 The IT industry consolidates rapidly as convergence occurs

A clear trend has emerged over the past several years whereby, IT firms seek to control and manage the complete user experience. Apple is the best example of this approach. But, others such as Oracle, Cisco and most recently Microsoft, which once focused on specific solution areas, are also becoming more vertically integrated, and offering end to end solutions to their customers. Some call this convergence. Who would have expected Cisco and Oracle to enter the server market a few years ago? Indeed, who would have expected Microsoft to sell hardware products just a year ago?

Infrastructure software and hardware products have become commodities. Growth in these markets will come largely from acquisitions. A growing number of independent IT vendors will struggle to survive as it becomes extremely difficult to differentiate their offerings. Today’s large IT vendors can be expected to acquire remaining point solution vendors that provide differentiated offerings.

There will also be fewer remaining large IT vendors, as they compete with each other for a greater share of shrinking markets for their traditional products and services. The market will be dominated by a handful of technology titans by 2014. These enormous firms will engineer the ability to enter new industries. They will ‘shape shift’ in the manner of some of their more successful and newer competitors. In addition to convergence within the IT industry, convergence between the IT industry and other industries will become more common.

Smart cities, smart grids and telehealth are examples of areas where convergence between IT and other industries will occur more frequently.

Examples of technology firms competing outside their industry include, Apple in the music industry, Google in the financial services industry and Microsoft in the gaming industry.

As technology firms seek growth outside their industry, non-technology firms will increasingly offer industry-specific cloud services. ADP is a very early example this trend. It is an HR services firm that has been offering HR-related cloud services for many years. Financial services firms, governments, retailers and many others are already beginning to offer their own cloud services without significant levels of support from IT firms. As mentioned earlier, IT is becoming embedded into everyday business activities.

Technology is destroying the traditional boundaries between industries. Some of the world’s most successful firms such as Amazon, Google and Apple recognize this. These firms use their brands, their customer relationships and their ‘state of the art’ technology to seamlessly move from one industry to another, terrorizing incumbents in the process.

#3 Apple’s relative decline becomes apparent

Apple has been a pioneer in the IT industry. The company’s phenomenal success has been driven by its focus on user experience and its lack of respect for industry boundaries. It will continue to grow, without a doubt, but the loss of its leadership position in the smartphone market will spread to the tablet market.

In recent months, the company has made a few notable errors. Dropping Google Maps and forcing its customers to use an inferior Apple version is a tipping point for Apple. This is the point at which the company ceased to focus on offering the user the best possible experience. It knowingly forced an inferior experience on its customers so as it could challenge the success of Google Maps.

When Apple launched the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010, there was a lot of marketing hype around these launches. Arguably, this hype was justified, given that these new products offered customers a new and refreshing user experience. However, the hype surrounding more recent launches has in no way been matched by reality. This damages Apple’s reputation among its loyal followers, who expect significant enhancements, or the use of breakthrough technology, with each Apple launch.

Samsung has already surpassed Apple as the world’s leading manufacturer of smartphones and Google’s Android ecosystem has many more users than Apple’s ecosystem. Apple continues to dominate the tablet market but, with increasing competition, this dominance will not last for much longer.

Apple will no doubt learn from these mistakes, and will continue to flourish for the foreseeable future. But, the errors that it has made have allowed competitors to take market share from Apple at a faster rate than most commentators predicted a year ago.

This brings us to one of the big questions in the IT industry today. Will Microsoft be successful in the world of mobility in 2013? The company has recently launched its own tablet as well as a completely new operating system, Windows 8. Windows 8 promises to offer a common user interface across devices, from traditional PCs to tablets to smartphones. It can allow the corporate user of Microsoft software to seamlessly transition between devices. This is potentially a major breakthrough that could put Microsoft in a very strong position. The company is clearly beginning to shift its focus back onto the overall user experience.

Microsoft has the opportunity to regain some of its previous success, if it remains sufficiently focused on its customers, and does not allow internal disputes to slow its decision making. If these initiatives had taken place one year ago, Microsoft would stand an even better chance of success in the mobile world.

By 2020, the technology firms that remain will be those that can successfully cross industry boundaries while remaining focused on customer experience. This means that technology firms will need to target their offerings to non IT buyers (i.e. not the IT department) In the technology industry, Apple, Amazon and Google have done this. Who else will demonstrate this capability in 2013?

The Normalization of IT Skills

Andrew Milroy — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 03:30:56 GMT

IT skills shortages have been an issue of concern for businesses and governments for more than twenty years. This will change over the next few years as IT skill levels increase, and become embedded into business activities.

In recent years, IT vendors have worked very closely with businesses and governments to ensure that training investments are made, which are centered around their products. Cisco’s Networking Academy is a great example of this. Cisco has partnered very closely with educational institutions and governments, around the world, to promote training around its products. This has created a situation in which people trained in IT networking feel comfortable working with Cisco products. More importantly, it has helped to address the shortfall in IT networking professionals.

However, as IT products become more standardized, cloud computing becomes mainstream, and software takes over from hardware in many areas, demand for IT skills will fall. Cloud computing typically involves the automaton of processes that were once relatively labor intensive. It also engenders the provision of services where users can configure software much more easily than was the case in the past. For example, a user can configure an ‘Amazon style’ storefront very easily for their ecommerce needs. Only a few years ago, the setting up of such a storefront was a highly complex activity that required specialized technical skills.

The skill levels required to carry out tasks that were once considered to be highly complex are falling. Simultaneously, the IT skill levels of the typical white collar worker are increasing. This is leading to less need for IT skills and for a need for ordinary workers to steadily improve their IT skills.

Thirty years ago, the individuals that worked with technology tended to possess comparatively high IT skills levels. Anybody that sought to work with technology required a significant amount of training and most ordinary workers did not touch computers. To many, computers were perceived to be devices with which only scientists worked.

Fifteen to twenty years ago, IT became democratized. PCs were found on the desks of most white collar workers. They became essential tools for carrying out tasks at work. It was soon assumed that ordinary workers would be able to operate PCs and undertake basic tasks with the programs that they were using.

Today, technology is much more embedded in the activities of the ordinary worker. The IT skill level of today’s ordinary worker is much higher than before and the technology tasks that they perform would have been considered to be highly complex in previous years. Assuming that this trend continues, we can assume that ordinary workers will be undertaking even more complex tasks in the years ahead.

In a few years’ time, we can expect ordinary workers to be procuring and managing their technology devices. Additionally, they will be leveraging cloud services to support their activities at work. This will increasingly be done without support from an IT organization.

Obviously, younger workers will come to the workplace with a higher level of IT skills than most of their older colleagues. However, these skills will need to be enhanced throughout their working lives. Older workers have had experience of acquiring new technical skills and will need to continue this until the end of their careers. Organizations will need to ensure that IT training is available to staff throughout their careers.

In summary, IT will become embedded in business activities. The IT skill levels of ordinary workers will continue to rise as IT becomes critical to their day to day activities. Skills that are seen as specialist today or ‘the preserve of the millennial generation’ will be normal in the next few years. This, of course, will have a profound impact on both buyers and sellers of IT products and services.

IT Services Marketing in Asia: Understanding the Confucian Business Culture

Andrew Milroy — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 03:24:53 GMT

In the IT services business, the propensity to purchase services is often different to what might logically be expected. This is particularly obvious in the extremely diverse Asia Pacific region.

For example, organizations in the Philippines, a relatively immature economy with lower labour costs, are more likely to purchase services than organizations in Korea, a mature economy with relatively high labour costs. Why is this? Nobody knows for sure but it appears that the propensity of organizations in a country to purchase services is heavily influenced by 3 cultural and economic variables as follows:

#1 The cost of labour. In mature economies, the cost of employing people with technical skills is often significantly higher than the cost of buying access to skills from a third party. Hence, the countries in the world with the highest propensity to purchase IT services are those with high labour costs. In the Asia Pacific region, the best example of such a country is Australia.

#2 The influence of the Anglo Saxon business culture. Buying IT services from third parties is most widespread in countries that are often described as Anglo Saxon, led by the United States and the United Kingdom. The business culture in these countries has, over the last 25 years, focused on outsourcing ‘non core’ activities. A common belief in the Anglo Saxon business culture is that sourcing services externally can drive down costs, give organizations access to ‘best of breed’ services and offer greater flexibility.

#3 The influence of the Confucian business culture. In the Confucian business culture, which exists in most of Eastern Asia, service is widely perceived to be something that is free. Services are considered to be critical to the differentiation of products. The loss of control associated with sourcing services from third parties is thought to remove a key differentiator from corporate control. Furthermore, paying for such services is anathema to many organizations in East Asia.

Organizations that wish to understand how to sell services into countries in the Asia Pacific region must consider these variables carefully as they develop their marketing strategies. This is particularly important for organizations that generate the bulk of their business from parts of the world that are heavily influenced by the Anglo Saxon business culture.

In a country where the cost of labour is low, the influence of the Anglo Saxon business culture is low and the influence of the Confucian business culture is high, such as Vietnam, the challenges of effectively marketing IT services are profound.

Conversely, in a country where the cost of labour is high, the influence of Anglo Saxon business culture is high and the influence of Confucian business culture is low, such as Australia, the propensity to purchase IT services is extremely high.

A lot of American and European firms are particularly interested in countries in which the cost of labour is high, the influence of the Confucian business culture is high and there is also some Anglo Saxon influence seeping into the business culture. Perhaps the best example of such a country is South Korea. South Korea is Asia’s fourth largest economy and offers significant opportunities to foreign firms. However, selling services in South Korea is proving to be a highly vexing challenge to many US-based IT firms which have the Anglo Saxon business culture in their DNA.

So how should a US-based IT firm, market its services offerings in South Korea? Firstly it must recognize that South Korean customers will expect services to be free, and will show little willingness to pay for them. Thus it makes sense to describe services offerings as products. Perhaps, services offerings could be descried as ‘value enhancement products’. Maybe, if service is bundled with a product, the combined offering could be described as a ‘premium or platinum product’.

Basically, services marketers must consider the Confucian influence on buying behaviour in South Korea and act accordingly. How does the convergence of Anglo Saxon business culture, Confucian business culture and the cost of labour, impact the propensity to buy IT services in China, India and Japan?

Cloud and Mobile Technology Set to End Innovation 'Drought'

Andrew Milroy — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 03:18:35 GMT

It is often stated by senior management figures within large enterprises, that innovation is a key area of focus for them. Despite this focus, the past 50 or 60 years has witnessed a distinct lack of breakthrough innovations. Indeed, there has been an innovation 'drought'.

Innovations made between the late nineteenth century and about 1950 are the ones that are having the most profound impact on our lives today. To be specific, I am referring to innovations and discoveries such as the internal combustion engine, the jet engine, the electric light bulb, the television, the telephone, the radio, modern computing and antibiotics. For a London, Paris or New York City resident who travelled in time from 1910 to 1960, the future would be completely unrecognisable. For a resident of one of these cities who travelled in time from 1960 to 2010, there would be few surprises. In fact, the 1960 time traveller may be disappointed that people were not flying to work, using their own personal jet packs.

Since the 1960s, we have seen some major innovations and discoveries but less than in earlier years. Why has innovation slowed down? Well, there are many views on this matter. Some say that it because of too much regulation. Others say the opposite. My view is that there are several key reasons for this change.

Firstly, as wages increased in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there was greater focus on finding innovations that could replace labour. This wage growth, in developed economies, slowed dramatically in the 1970s. In mature economies, real wages have not grown significantly since the 1970s. Firms have focussed, to a greater extent, on increasing shareholder value by controlling real wages as opposed to engendering innovation.

A second reason is that firms are also focussing on extracting the largest possible amount of value from existing assets. Since the 1970s, a popular way of doing this is by entering new markets around the globe. So, innovations made in Western countries and deployed in the 1950s and 1960s have been sold into emerging economies in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, greatly enriching large multinational organizations, but shifting emphasis away from innovation.

Another key point is that new innovations may impede the ability of large enterprises to maximize the value they get from existing assets. For example, is it in the interests of pharmaceutical firms to develop more effective treatments for cancer, which may affect their ability to fully profit from existing treatments? Is it in the interests of a plastics manufacturer to support research into 3D printing?

Today, breakthroughs in IT are creating enormous opportunities for innovation. We have seen rapid incremental innovation in the IT industry itself. But, new technology has yet to be deployed in a manner that fosters significant innovation across different industries. This is set to change. In any industry, from the automotive industry to, discrete manufacturing to healthcare, the combination of high speed networks, cloud computing and mobile technologies are driving change and, yes, innovation.

I’d love to write about the impact of these technologies on all industries. To make my point, I will focus on examples in the automotive industry, discrete manufacturing and healthcare.

In the automotive industry, GM and others spent years trying to develop autonomous (self driving) cars. By taking advantage of recent IT developments, Google demonstrated how the convergence of IT and the automotive industry leads to innovation. In August 2012, Google announced that a fleet of autonomous vehicles had completed half a million kilometres of accident free test runs. Autonomous cars are expected to become common over the next 10 years. Further innovation around transportation is inevitable and IT is enabling this.

In the manufacturing sector, 3D printing allows designs and techniques to be sourced from the cloud by any device, in any location. This could potentially drive a new industrial revolution and move the world away from mass manufacturing towards the customization of products in locations that are close to the source of demand. Will people make their own goods, to their own specifications, from home? The potential is enormous.

In the healthcare sector, high speed networks and cloud computing can potentially enable care to be delivered to patients in any location. We can expect care to increasingly be given in the patient’s location. At the same time, a decreasing proportion of care will be given in hospitals. Technology can totally change the dynamics of healthcare provision. As these dynamics change, the opportunities for radical new innovation will be immense.

In summary, the last 50 years have witnessed a slowdown in innovation. However, as IT becomes embedded into industries and high speed networks and cloud computing become commonplace, we can expect to enjoy a sustained period of rapid change and innovation.

ICT: 10 Years Ago and 10 Years Ahead

Andrew Milroy — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 03:13:06 GMT

In June this year, Frost & Sullivan will hold its 2013 APAC ICT awards banquet. This is the tenth such banquet. Frost & Sullivan’s Asia Pacific ‘Best Practices’ program has been running since 2003.

This anniversary is a great opportunity for us to reflect on some of the developments in the ICT business over the past 10 years, and to predict some changes over the next 10 years.

Frost & Sullivan’s ‘Best Practices’ program uses research to identify firms that demonstrate outstanding performance in particular sectors. Increasingly, companies that are identified as offering best practices in their sector, are demonstrating innovation and the ability to drive markets through this innovation.

Making predictions around technology developments is, and always has been, a profoundly challenging task. However, we do believe that some powerful trends, that are currently gaining momentum, will strongly influence our technology experience in 2023.

If we go back to 2003, the ‘IPification’ of everything was not yet envisaged. We did not expect telephones to cease to exist. We did not expect voice communications to become just one function that we can use on our preferred devices. We didn’t expect to be carrying powerful IP enabled computing devices in our pockets and handbags. We did not expect to see IP enabled devices being embedded in cars, in consumer good, and in buildings.

The ‘IPification’ of everything is forcing the convergence of ICT, as we know it today, with a whole host of industry specific processes. For example, we are starting to witness manufacturing automation processes converge with IT as IP enabled technology is built into manufacturing activities. This process is creating huge opportunities for innovation as organizations experiment with and test IP enabled technology.

So, against this background, what is our vision for 2023? We will focus on aspects of technology change that will be noticeable to ordinary people and are transformative.

# 1 Today’s PC centred model of computing will no longer exist. It was the standard model of computing in 2003 and is currently changing very rapidly. In 2023, we will inhabit a world where businesses and consumers will access IT resources, and conduct the bulk of their interactions from non PC devices. These devices will include home entertainment units (usually described as TVs or games consoles today), in vehicle consoles, wearable devices such as watches, in addition to a range of tablet and smart phone devices.

#2 The focus of the CIO will transform from a focus on the management and optimization of IT assets to a focus on using technology to underpin innovation within the enterprise. In 2003, the CIO was measured on his/her ability to support enterprise goals within an agreed budget. Today, in 2013, the CIO is increasingly involved in enabling change within the organization. In 2023, the CIO will proactively focus on using technology to drive innovation within the enterprise. The IT department that we know today will cease to exist.

#3 Leading technology firms will change. New firms will emerge that benefit from this change. One thing is for sure. The companies that dominate today’s technology markets and those which dominated in 2003 are unlikely to remain dominant throughout this technology upheaval. Apple and Facebook will wield a lot less influence in 2023 than they do today. Amazon and Google have better odds.

#4 Self service will spread widely across business and other human activity. In 2003, technology driven self service activities were in their infancy. By 2023, supermarkets with check outs will look very old fashioned as self service becomes the typical supermarket experience. Similarly, the entire airline experience will be self service. Printing your own boarding passes and luggage tags will soon be normal. By 2023, the customer will expect a self service experience when dealing with organizations. Apps will take over as the primary form of interaction for customers.

#5 IP technology will be embedded across all industries. For example, this change will lead to IP enabled automation across manufacturing activities. In 2003, automation in manufacturing was typically a proprietary activity, and was not integrated with other forms of computing. By 2023, the development of IP enabled automation, together with the development of 3D printing, will allow manufacturing to move closer to the source of demand. As labour becomes a smaller and smaller proportion of manufacturing costs and customization becomes critical, the benefits associated with offshore manufacturing will become negligible. Expect to see an upsurge in manufacturing activity in North America and Western Europe over the next 10 years.

#6 In 2023, companies will typically have agile, cloud-based IT infrastructures. Combined with the ability to analyse and intelligently use vast amounts of data, this IT infrastructure will make it easier for firms to move into new industries. In 2003, enterprises were usually working with a mix of legacy proprietary technology and distributed systems that restricted their agility. In 2013, we are witnessing a rapid transition towards agile, cloud based IT infrastructures. In 2023, we can expect to see more companies use their agile IT infrastructures, their brands and huge amounts of data to enter new industries. For example, both Google and Amazon are already doing this, in the financial services industry as well as many others. Expect to see the re-emergence of the conglomerate. In 2023, companies will differentiate themselves by the way they use technology, the way the use data, and the way they use their brands.

Frost & Sullivan’s research reveals that successful technology firms are factoring these powerful trends into their strategies. We expect that companies which demonstrate best practices in key ICT sectors to continue to perform excellently. Furthermore, we expect them to play a role in shaping and influencing these exciting trends.

Is Cloud UCC Ready for Prime Time?

Elka Popova — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:12:20 GMT

It’s been a week since I came back from Enterprise Connect in Orlando and I finally found the time to sit down and share my thoughts on some of the key announcements made at the event. Better late than never, right?

I may be biased because of my personal interest in cloud/hosted communications, but it seemed that there was a lot of buzz around cloud (déjà vu?) at Enterprise Connect. More specifically, quite a few announcements focused on cloud unified communications and collaboration (UCC). I am using the term cloud UCC loosely to refer to a broad spectrum of new offerings including hosted IP PBX, contact center, video and more—some delivered as standalone applications, others as more comprehensive UCC suites. In addition to the Enterprise Connect announcements, there were some other cloud UCC launches earlier this year, which made me wonder if cloud UCC may finally be ripe for prime time.

Hosted voice and cloud UCC have been around for awhile. BroadSoft and Metaswitch platforms as well as home-grown (i.e., service provider-developed) solutions have powered cloud UCC services for over a decade. But what’s exciting today is the entry of PBX and carrier platform vendors into the cloud UCC space—either as the providers of multi-tenant/multi-instance platforms deployed by partners or as service providers themselves.

I talked about this trend in a blog post last year. Here follows a brief account of some more recent developments.

At Enterprise Connect, Avaya announced cloud video, UCC, and contact center solutions designed for service provider partners. I discussed the Avaya cloud solutions quite extensively in a previous blog post. In short, Avaya's new Avaya Cloud Enablement for Unified Communications and Customer Experience Management is a multi-tenant service provider platform based on the Avaya Aura technology. A particularly interesting aspect of the new Avaya cloud UCC offering is the utility pricing for service providers—instead of purchasing perpetual licenses, partners pay only for the seats they actually deploy with end-user organizations.

Also at Enterprise Connect, Alcatel-Lucent announced a service provider version of its OpenTouch UC suite and featured its first cloud UCC partner (though long-time solution reseller)—ICON Voice Networks. Similar to Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent is offering its cloud UCC solution under a utility pricing model to its partners. The rich feature set of the OpenTouch suite enables ICON to deliver cloud voice, messaging, presence, conferencing, video, mobility, and contact center capabilities to its customers.

Again at Enterprise Connect, Mitel introduced Sprint as a new partner for its cloud UCC solutions. Mitel was one of the first UCC developers to deliver a variety of cloud solutions, hosted both by its own LEC NetSolutions and other partners. Sprint, which has already invested in other cloud UCC platforms, is going to be reselling Mitel’s cloud portfolio through a white-label arrangement. As a long-time Mitel partner and reseller of Mitel’s premises-based solutions Sprint is leveraging its Mitel technology expertise to address increasing customer demand to deploy Mitel’s UCC stack in the cloud.

Cisco did not make any major cloud announcements at the event, but held several “whisper sessions” with the analysts to discuss its cloud UCC roadmap. Since most details are under NDA, I can only say that Cisco remains committed to the cloud space. Cisco has publicly shared that it has signed up about 40 HCS service provider partners globally, 27 of which have commercially available cloud UCC offerings today. Cisco continues to enhance and aggressively promote both its partner-hosted HCS and its Cisco-hosted WebEx cloud offerings. Recent enhancements include HCS support for Cisco Customer Care and Cisco Telepresence, as well as enhanced mobility with native mobility features such as single-number reach and clientless, network-based fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) options.

I also managed to catch up with NEC, which announced a cloud UCC solution a couple of months ago. NEC is offering its complete UCC stack—telephony, messaging, presence, conferencing, mobility, and contact center through a cloud model. NEC is hosting the platforms in CenturyLink data centers and is reaching customers through its established dealer network. Similar to Toshiba (which announced its cloud offering last year) and some of Mitel's deployment options, but unlike Avaya and Cisco, NEC has chosen to maintain ownership and control of its platform and to leverage its large reseller channel to market and deploy the solution and manage customer relationships.

I also connected with GENBAND, which launched a series of cloud offerings a few weeks ago. It is offering service providers a choice to either deploy the cloud UCC platform on their network or to resell a cloud UCC service hosted by GENBAND. The GENBAND-hosted NUViA platform allows providers to quickly launch a cloud UCC service without the risk and cost of deploying and managing a carrier-grade UCC platform on their own network. At Enterprise Connect, GENBAND announced its first NUViA partner—Arrow S3—which will be offering HD voice, video, multimedia messaging, mobility, conferencing, web collaboration, desktop clients, and fixed mobile convergence as a service to small, medium, and large enterprise customers. Arrow S3 will market the GENBAND cloud service under the SynapS3 ucCLOUD brand. GENBAND has some early deployments under way with other partners as well.

The utility pricing model is an appealing alternative for service providers. BroadSoft has addressed this opportunity with its BroadCloud offering, which allows partners to deliver voice, video, messaging, and other services without the costly investment in service provider infrastructure. A couple of service providers are delivering hosted voice and UCC services today using BroadSoft's utility pricing model.

BroadSoft's newly launched UC-One IMS offering focuses on mobile operators. It leverages BroadSoft's UC-One platform to enable mobile carriers to deliver a comprehensive suite of UCC applications along with fixed-mobile convergence for 2G, 3G, and 4G mobile networks services to their business customers. This offering creates new revenue opportunities for mobile operators and enables businesses to consolidate their carrier relationships. Due to various regional market differences, this solution is likely to be more effective in Europe than in North America.

My conversations with service providers AT&T and Level 3 had a slightly different flavor. AT&T announced a SIP trunking offering for Office 365 with Lync online. With AT&T’s SIP trunking capability, which connects Lync Online with the PSTN, Lync Online can be used as a relatively complete UCC solution by a customer organization.

At present, Level 3 is offering hosted UCC services in Europe and Latin America, but is focusing on SIP trunking in North America. Level 3 reported 100 percent growth rate in its SIP trunking service and intentions to launch a cloud UCC offering based on Lync.

Speaking of Lync, there seems to be a lot of interest among service providers to offer hosted services based on Lync. However, both Lync Online and the Hosters Pack lack many of the key features of Lync Enterprise. Furthermore, Lync Online does not provide PSTN connectivity. Some providers are using Lync vDedicated or re-engineered versions of Lync Enterprise to deliver cloud UCC services today. Future Lync versions are expected to provide a more compelling cloud UCC alternative and pose a bigger threat to existing market participants.

Sadly, Siemens Enterprise Communications does not have much to share in the cloud UCC area today in spite of being one of the early market entrants with its OpenScape Cloud solution a couple of years ago. Once Siemens revamps its cloud UCC offering (not so much the technology, but the business model), we will have a pretty full gamut of UCC developers delivering their own cloud platforms and/or services. For most of them, cloud UCC is currently a defense move. In a few years, that may be their only offense alternative.

The cloud UCC market will be very interesting to watch going forward. So far, it has grown steadily at about 30 to 40 percent annually, but there has been no major inflection point. Could these new platforms and delivery models spur more explosive growth? I guess we will find out …

I am in the process of wrapping up my North American hosted IP telephony and UC services market study. I will make some market growth projections and will also provide a deeper analysis of the emerging solutions and business models.

The Normalization of IT Skills

Jinu Mathew — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 04:55:13 GMT

IT skills shortages have been an issue of concern for businesses and governments for more than twenty years. This will change over the next few years as IT skill levels increase and become embedded into business activities.

In recent years, IT vendors have worked very closely with businesses and governments to ensure that training investments are made which are centered around their products. Cisco's Networking Academy is a great example of this. Cisco has partnered very closely with educational institutions and governments, around the world, to promote training around its products. This has created a situation in which people trained in IT networking feel comfortable working with Cisco products. More importantly, it has helped to address the shortfall in IT networking professionals.

However, as IT products become more standardized, cloud computing becomes mainstream, and software takes over from hardware in many areas, demand for IT skills will fall. Cloud computing typically involves the automaton of processes that were once relatively labor intensive. It also engenders the provision of services where users can configure software much more easily than was the case in the past. For example, a user can configure an 'Amazon style' storefront very easily for their ecommerce needs. Only a few years ago, the setting up of such a storefront was a highly complex activity that required specialized technical skills.

Thirty years ago, the individuals that worked with technology tended to possess comparatively high technical skills levels. Anybody that sought to work with technology required a significant amount of training and most ordinary workers did not touch computers. To many, computers were perceived to be devices with which only scientists worked.

Today, technology is even more embedded in the activities of the ordinary worker. The IT skill level of today's ordinary worker is much higher than before and the technology tasks that they perform would have been considered to be complex in previous years. Assuming that this trend continues, we can assume that ordinary workers will be undertaking even more complex tasks in the years ahead.

In a few years' time we can expect ordinary workers to be procuring and managing their technology devices. Additionally, they will be leveraging cloud services to support their activities at work. This will increasingly be done without support from an IT organization.

In summary, IT will become embedded in business activities. The IT skill levels of ordinary workers will continue to rise as IT becomes critical to their day to day activities. Skills that are seen as specialist today or 'the preserve of the millennial generation' will be normal in the next few years. This, of course, will have a profound impact on both buyers and sellers of IT products and services.

This article is authored by Andrew Milroy, Vice President, ICT Practice, Asia Pacific, Frost & Sullivan

2013: The Consolidation of IT

Jinu Mathew — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 04:52:05 GMT

It's that time of year again. The time of year where the world's IT commentators offer their predictions for the following year. For the past few years, predictions have focused very much on cloud computing, 'big data' (a misnomer if ever I have heard one), mobility, social, and consumerization.

All of these technology trends are now having a profound effect on business. I expect that in 2013, these terms will be used less often as cloud/big data/mobility/social/consumerization fatigue kicks in.

Here are my three predictions for 2013.

#1 IT departments will shrink

The use of cloud services will reduce the need for many traditional IT activities. Cloud services drive automation, self service, and self provisioning to the extent that the need for support services provided by IT departments will decline dramatically.

Consumerization and the use of devices chosen by the employee rather than the employer (BYOD) will also eliminate procurement tasks, traditionally performed by IT departments.

Business and consumer services are increasingly being delivered by apps from mobile devices. The development of basic apps will become a standard skill among the next generation of workers in much the same way as using mobile technology, and office productivity software are standard skills for today's employees.

Indeed, the complexity of technical tasks being performed by workers, without IT support, is growing while the skills needed to perform complex tasks are less difficult to acquire. This means that ordinary workers will soon be generating outcomes that were once the domain of IT staff. For example, a typical marketing manager will soon be able to develop a basic 'Amazon style' store for their company with little or no technical support.

However, the role of IT will change. CIOs and their teams will increasingly focus on enabling the use of technology across the organization. Their focus will be on ensuring that when employees use technology, they comply with policies and regulations. They will also seek to add business value by working with other employees and stakeholders to integrate new services and processes into their businesses. Furthermore, today's developers and technical professionals will be forced to focus on ways that their skills can be used to foster innovation within diverse business activities.

#2 The IT industry consolidates rapidly as convergence occurs

A clear trend has emerged over the past several years whereby, IT firms seek to control and manage the complete user experience. Apple is the best example of this approach. But, others such as Oracle, Cisco and most recently Microsoft, which once focused on specific solution areas, are also becoming more vertically integrated, and offering end to end solutions to their customers. Some call this convergence. Who would have expected Cisco and Oracle to enter the server market a few years ago? Indeed, who would have expected Microsoft to sell hardware products just a year ago?

Infrastructure software and hardware products have become commodities. Growth in these markets will come largely from acquisitions. A growing number of independent IT vendors will struggle to survive as it becomes extremely difficult to differentiate their offerings. Today's large IT vendors can be expected to acquire remaining point solution vendors that provide differentiated offerings.

There will also be fewer remaining large IT vendors, as they compete with each other for a greater share of shrinking markets for their traditional products and services. The market will be dominated by a handful of technology titans by 2014. These enormous firms will engineer the ability to enter new industries. In other words, they will 'shape shift' in the manner of some of their more successful and newer competitors. In addition to convergence within the IT industry, convergence between the IT industry and other industries will become more common.

Examples of technology firms competing outside their industry include, Apple in the music industry, Google in the financial services industry and Microsoft in the gaming industry.

As technology firms seek growth outside their industry, non-technology firms will increasingly offer industry-specific cloud services. ADP is a very early example this trend. It is an HR services firm that has been offering HR-related cloud services for many years. Financial services firms, governments, retailers and many others are already beginning to offer their own cloud services without significant levels of support from IT firms.

Technology is destroying the traditional boundaries between industries. Some of the world's most successful firms such as Amazon, Google and Apple recognize this. These firms use their brands, their customer relationships and their 'state of the art' technology to seamlessly move from one industry to another, terrorizing incumbents in the process.

#3 Apple's relative decline becomes apparent

Apple has been a pioneer in the IT industry. The company's phenomenal success has been driven by its focus on user experience and its lack of respect for industry boundaries.

It will continue to grow, without a doubt, but the loss of its leadership position in the smartphone market will spread to the tablet market.

In recent months, the company has made a few notable errors.

Dropping Google Maps and forcing its customers to use an inferior Apple version is a tipping point for Apple. This is the point at which the company ceased to focus on offering the user the best possible experience. It knowingly forced an inferior experience on its customers so as it could challenge the success of Google Maps.

When Apple launched the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010, there was a lot of marketing hype around these launches. Arguably, this hype was justified, given that these new products offered customers a new and refreshing user experience. However, the hype surrounding more recent launches has in no way been matched by reality. This damages Apple's reputation among its loyal followers, who expect significant enhancements, or the use of breakthrough technology, with each Apple launch.

Samsung has already surpassed Apple as the world's leading manufacturer of smartphones and Google's Android ecosystem has many more users than Apple's ecosystem. Apple continues to dominate the tablet market but, with increasing competition, this dominance will not last for much longer.

The most difficult prediction to make is whether or not Microsoft will be successful in the world of mobility. The company has recently launched its own tablet as well as a completely new operating system, Windows 8. Windows 8 promises to offer a common user interface across devices, from traditional PCs to tablets to smartphones. It can allow the corporate user of Microsoft software to seamlessly transition between devices. This is potentially a major breakthrough that could put Microsoft in a very strong position. The company is clearly beginning to shift its focus back onto the overall user experience, just as its old nemesis, Apple, seems to be doing the opposite.

Microsoft has the opportunity to regain some of its previous success, if it remains sufficiently focused on its customers, and does not allow internal disputes to slow its decision making. If these initiatives had taken place one year ago, Microsoft would stand an even better chance of success in the mobile world.

This article is authored by Andrew Milroy, Vice President, ICT Practice, Asia Pacific, Frost & Sullivan

Cloud Computing and the Road to Disruption

Jinu Mathew — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 04:44:19 GMT

When the subject of cloud computing is raised, there is often a healthy suspicion from IT buyers that cloud is a marketing term which is used as a new way of selling complex, unproven solutions to them. This is not surprising, considering the history of the IT business. There is an alarmingly high incidence of IT projects failing to meet expectations and running massively over budget.

Cloud commentators, myself included, tend to focus on the transformative and disruptive impact of cloud computing. We tend to talk a lot about Apple, Amazon and Google and how they have completely disrupted the media and music industries, using cloud technologies. This makes a lot of sense when engaging with executives from these industries. However, executives in other industries have yet to see a profound disruptive impact caused by cloud computing and few of them truly believe that their industries will be impacted in the same ways as businesses that involve the trading of digital content. This is a huge mistake on their part.

Within most enterprises in mature markets, cloud computing is still at an early stage of adoption. Technology infrastructures within these enterprises are characterized by the increasing use of virtualization and ad hoc public cloud use. This public cloud use is usually driven by business units and not IT departments. For these enterprises cloud services augment their existing non cloud-based technologies.

There is increasing evidence to suggest that this is the first stage of cloud computing adoption and that most of these organizations will soon shift sizeable workloads onto cloud platforms. In this phase, cloud use permeates throughout the organization, supported and enabled by IT departments. IT departments may initially seek to block the ad hoc use of cloud services by business units. But, over time, as senior executives become exposed to cloud services that offer them benefits, IT departments are usually forced to find ways of enabling the use of cloud services across the enterprise. As this happens, IT departments typically develop policies and procedures relating to the use of cloud services within the organization. These policies and procedures enable the spread of cloud services more extensively. Extensive use of cloud-based technologies, in many cases, creates more complexity for enterprises as they need to find ways of integrating these technologies with their legacy investments.

The third phase of cloud computing is characterized by cloud-based technology becoming the norm and business agility being realized. In this phase, cloud technology has worked its way through the organization. It underpins innovation and is used to differentiate one organization from another. It can be termed the innovation phase. For example, in this stage, organizations discover that cloud technologies can automate more processes and engender more self service. A great example is the low cost airline business. Low cost airlines such as Jetstar are constrained by assets in small airports. They have limited space to manage the check-in process. Their business model also drives them to 'sweat their assets' as much as possible so they seek to maximize the use of their aircraft by limiting the amount of time that they are idle. Jetstar aims to be a 100% self service airline as soon as possible and pioneered self service check-in. Self service check-in enables the airline to optimize limited space in smaller airports and hence to maximize the use of its aircraft. It is cloud-based technology that enables this. Cloud-based technology can enable the airline to handle increases and decreases in demand seamlessly. It can eliminate queues. It also allows the airline to provision new products and services such as insurance products or gourmet meals much more easily than would be the case with traditional IT implementations. Progressive organizations across industries are using cloud-based technology to transform the ways they engage with their customers. This is leading to significant innovation.

The fourth phase of adoption is characterized by cloud technology disrupting industries. As mentioned earlier, this has already occurred in the media and music industries. How will it disrupt other industries? It is clear that the agility which cloud computing offers can significantly lower barriers to entry across industries. Legacy infrastructures and inflexible processes paralyze organizations and make them unable to innovate and create new opportunities. Google, Amazon and Apple each show a healthy disrespect for the boundaries between industries. Each one of these companies continues to cause disruption in other industries. Recently, Google entered the credit card market. It can use its brand, scale, customer relationships and agile technology to do this. Some in the financial services industry are aware of this threat and already see Google as a potential competitor. Indeed, the technology used by Google makes it increasingly easy for non financial services firms such as retailers to enter the financial services industry. The financial services industry is ripe for disruption. Expect to see some financial services firms enter the 'innovation phase' soon. This will act as a precursor to disruption in that industry. Other industries including healthcare, education, utilities and retail will also be disrupted by technology over the next few years.

In summary, most enterprises are at a phase where cloud computing is being added to their existing technologies. This is the beginning of a process that will inevitably lead to significant disruption in most industries. Executives across industries should take note.

This article is authored by Andrew Milroy, Vice President, ICT Practice, Asia Pacific, Frost & Sullivan

How Telecom Vendors Can Stay Relevant in a Changing Communications World

Melanie Turek — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 16:09:26 GMT

In what has become a fun annual event, I participated in the Locknote session at Enterprise Connect this week, and while several key topics were discussed, my favorite question was “Who are the winners and losers?” Everyone answered it a little differently, of course, but in my view, the clear winner at EC and going forward are the end users—you and me and every other employee who today has a range of options for communications and collaboration, whether they are brought in by the employee or delivered to him by his IT department.

But that sets up a couple of potential “losers.” The first is the IT/telecom department, which is fighting a battle against diminishing budgets and resources while at the same time trying to fend off the tide of BYOT (bring your own technology). If this organization can change, learning to take advantage of consumer-driven devices and apps where appropriate, and finding good enterprise-grade substitutes where necessary—and looking for ways to inject communications into business processes, working with line of business managers and end users—it will not just survive but thrive.

The second potential “losers” are the traditional telephony vendors, who need to change not just their products but also their skill sets in order to stay relevant in the new world. They face the challenge of learning about business processes and embracing change in both how they sell and how they service their products. Everyone agrees that if you want IT buyers and line-of-business managers to pay good money for a UC solution, you have to show them where the value lies—and it’s not just in enabling better communications and collaboration; it’s mostly in enabling better business processes.

And yet, Frost & Sullivan research shows that the vast majority of organizations have not implemented communications-enabled business processes (CEBP), and do not feel that UC deployments are well aligned with their business needs. Why the disconnect?

After all, it’s not like business relevancy is a new idea; analysts and vendors have been talking about the importance and value of integrating advanced communications with business processes for years. Heck, some people even define “unified communications” as CEBP. The difficulty has always been assumed to be that business processes are hard to identify, vary from company to company, and are not any telephony vendor’s core competency.

The last point is valid; most of the UC vendors’ professional services offerings are around technology implementation, not business processes or change management. But business processes themselves, while difficult to understand in the abstract, are actually very well defined in almost every mid- to large-size enterprise in the world, thanks to SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, and a host of other vertical and horizontal business applications that companies have been running for years to improve and enable how they get work done.

UC vendors looking to help their customers inject communications into their businesses for better results—streamlined decision making, improved service and support, shorter cycle and supply-chain times, and so on—should start with the leading business applications already installed on most customer sites. They don’t need to become experts on developing new business processes themselves, and they don’t need to introduce customization into the mix. They just need to look at what’s already out there—well defined and, at this point, well tested—and identify those places where adding voice, conferencing, video or social communications can improve the process.

Perhaps more importantly, however, both IT and telephony vendors face one more daunting challenge, and this one will be much harder to face: The pace of change is happening so quickly in their industry, it’s hard to understand how they will be able to keep up. We all know that large companies take a long time to make even small changes, let alone wholesale course corrections. And this was OK until recently, because change happened incrementally, and at the behest of the IT department. Vendors were often two-to-three years ahead of their customers with new products and services (consider, for instance, how long it has taken to transition from TDM to IP), but that wasn’t a bad thing: when those customers were ready to change, their vendors were ready to supply them with the necessary technology.

Today, the entire game has changed. In a software-centric, user-driven world, change happens constantly. New app revs come out weekly, if not daily, depending on how many apps you run. New devices are available in cycles measured by months, not years. And consumers who are willing to pay for the new technology for their personal use because they see benefit in having the “latest and greatest” expect their companies to do the same thing.

So the biggest challenge for IT and their vendors is how to become increasingly agile, with the ability to roll out new software and hardware and even change tack completely on a dime. Will they be able to keep pace with consumer speed? Probably not, and that’s OK. But what isn’t OK is maintaining the status quo.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Provides a Further Boost to the Mobile Payments Industry

Jean Noel Georges — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:29:58 GMT

Samsung revealed the new Galaxy S4 during a commercial show that followed Apple’s ‘grand unveiling’ style. Continued growth of the smartphone industry will be driven by innovation at both hardware and software levels – the S4 represents a step forward in both areas.

The Korean manufacturer concentrated its strategy on new applications and embedded services. In addition to the inclusion of innovations such as eye-tracking technology, it is important to mention that – for the first time - Visa and Samsung have partnered to provide an NFC payment application. Indeed, the Galaxy S4 will include a Visa payment applet (PayWave) preloaded on an embedded secure-element. The concept is to use the mobile device as a payment terminal by interacting with existing Visa readers that support NFC features. According to Visa, approximately 13 million payment transactions are made globally each month using contactless technologies spanning both NFC and contactless bank cards.

This is another positive signal for the payment industry, and specifically for the NFC market. Such partnerships will help to accelerate technology penetration by providing clear market direction. The reputation of these brands, coupled with the size of Samsung in the mobile space, will help to provide fresh impetus.

Galaxy S4 with S Health and S Band - A Further Step Towards a More Holistic and Life-centric Experience of Mobile Devices

Saverio Romeo — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:06:04 GMT

The Samsung Galaxy S4 comes with an updated version of the S Health app, a built-in pedometer to track steps; and is able to measure ambient temperature and humidity. The app also delivers food nutrition information. Additionally, Samsung has announced the S Band, a new accessory keeping track of your daily calories burnt and recording steps when the user does not carry the phone with him. Other two accessories include a Heart Rate Monitor, enabling the S4 to monitor vital data and a Body Scale.

With all this, the Galaxy S4 goes well beyond communications and entertainment, transforming the mobile device into a health monitoring tool and empowering users to take care of their health. The mobile device also becomes an intelligent tool that helps us in our daily activities. Health is one such activity, but we will increasingly see dedicated applications, wearable accessories, and sensor-based (and wearable) devices for banking, engagement with public administration, transport and ticketing. The mobile device becomes the interface between humans and machines, humans and objects, humans and organizations. We will certainly see mobile device manufacturers increasingly move towards that path.

Although we have already seen similar health tracking peripherals used with other smart phones, the popularity of the Samsung Galaxy means that it will have the chance to reach the masses and represent a landmark in spreading of mobile health.

It is not the first time that Samsung has demonstrated its intention to play a key role in solutions for healthcare. With its latest acquisitions of medical equipment companies such as Medison, Nexus and NeuroLogica and addition of new growth business - Health & Medical Equipment, it seems that the company’s dedication to mobile health will be pursued.

Cloud UC with an Avaya Flavor

Elka Popova — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 02:41:57 GMT

Today, March 18th, 2013, at Enterprise Connect, Avaya introduced several new offerings as part of its Avaya Collaborative Cloud portfolio. The announcements included cloud video conferencing, a managed private contact center solution, and a cloud unified communications (UC) and customer experience solution. In this article I’d like to provide my perspective on the cloud UC offering.

Last year, at Enterprise Connect again, Avaya presented its broader vision for Avaya Collaborative Cloud and launched its AvayaLive Connect offering. Since then, we have been waiting for Avaya to make a strong(er) statement in the cloud UC space.

I talked about AvayaLive Connect in this blog post, so I will not discuss it in much detail here. In short, it is a public cloud solution targeted at very small businesses of up to 20 users. The solution is available for purchase through a Web portal. At the back end, the solution is powered by the former Nortel SCS technology. AvayaLive Connect features basic PBX functionality, voice conferencing, voice/unified messaging, video, mobility, presence, and instant messaging (IM)/chat. It supports PC, Apple Mac, iOS and Android devices.

The new Avaya cloud UC solution is labeled Avaya Cloud Enablement for Unified Communications and Customer Experience Management. At the foundation are multi-tenant versions of the Avaya Aura platforms. Key UC capabilities include:

SIP-based voice (PBX functionality through Avaya Communication Manager and Session Manager)
UC application (audio, video, web conferencing, mobility, etc.)
Presence
Unified messaging
Video
Desktop and mobile clients and devices: Flare, ADVD, One-X Portfolio, Avaya phones

The contact center solution includes:

SIP voice and multichannel capabilities (Elite & Elite MC)
Reporting (through CMS)
Self-service (Experience Portal)
Workforce optimization
Avaya one-X Agent
Avaya 96xx phones

With the new cloud UC solution, Avaya is joining an already crowded, though rapidly growing space. In addition to platforms provided by the traditional hosted IP PBX vendors such as BroadSoft and Metaswitch and home-grown solutions such as those of 8x8, Thinking Phone Networks and others, cloud UC solutions are now available from a slew of PBX vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Microsoft, Mitel, NEC, ShoreTel, Siemens Enterprise Communications, and Toshiba. While the value proposition of hosted/cloud UC is similar across platforms and service provider offerings (e.g., flexibility, reduced CAPEX, faster access to advanced functionality, and ability to outsource UC management from a skilled third party), architectures and business models vary.

An in-depth analysis of the various offerings is available through Frost & Sullivan proprietary research. Here follows a brief summary of the key differentiators of the new Avaya cloud UC offering:

Multi-tenant UC: Similar to BroadSoft and Metaswitch, but unlike Cisco or Mitel, Avaya chose a multi-tenant rather than a multi-instance architecture. The main difference is in how the hardware and software are partitioned for service delivery. In a multi-tenant architecture, both the hardware and software are shared across multiple end-user organizations, which is relatively easier and more cost-effective for service providers to deploy, provision to end users, upgrade, and manage. In a multi-instance architecture, the hardware is shared through virtualization technology, but each customer receives a separate instance of the software, which typically appeals to businesses with greater security and customization demands.

Software technology: The cloud UC solution uses the same Aura Communication Manager and Session Manager technology that forms the foundation of Avaya’s premises-based solutions. This reduces training costs for partners, internal IT staff, and end users already familiar with the Avaya software stack. It also reduces switching costs for customers that might move to cloud and then choose to go back to a premises-based infrastructure. Furthermore, it provides customers with the same rich PBX functionality of Avaya premises-based solutions (unlike some other multi-tenant platforms which only provide a much more simplified feature set). Finally, open standards and APIs for custom applications and third-party integration enable providers and customers to further enhance and customize their cloud deployments.

Features and functionality: Avaya delivers an extensive set of UC functionality on the cloud platform including PBX, messaging, conferencing, presence, video, and mobility. Most hosted IP PBX/UC platforms deliver a broad set of capabilities, but few support a full UC stack at this stage. The contact center capabilities also represent a very important differentiator in the hosted/ cloud UC space. Many of the hosted UC offerings either fully lack or support only rudimentary contact center capabilities. SMBs do not typically have formal contact centers but need some key contact center functionality (call queuing, intelligent call routing, analytics, etc.) to provide competitive customer service. The ability to outsource the UC and customer care functionality from the same provider using the same vendor technology is a key benefit to such businesses and thus a compelling value proposition for the service providers.

Devices and soft clients: One of the biggest challenges in the hosted space over the past decade has been the limited number of desktop phones supported by the traditional multi-tenant platforms. Avaya’s cloud UC offering supports all Avaya desktop phones, which provides existing Avaya customers with investment protection and both new and existing Avaya customers with a large selection of devices to choose from. Furthermore, the solution is available with the full Avaya one-X portfolio of soft clients.

Business model: Avaya is delivering its cloud UC solution only through partners, which helps avoid conflicts of interest. The utility pricing for service providers is a strong differentiator and another very compelling value proposition for partners. Most platform vendors charge one-time license fees and offer volume discounts which forces providers to make large investments upfront. Avaya’s model, which charges providers only for capacity used on a monthly basis, provides partners with greater flexibility and a more predictable return on investment (ROI). Avaya is also providing extensive support through professional and managed services which is critical for both service providers and end-user organizations at this early stage of cloud adoption.

What does this new offering mean for the market?

Avaya: Avaya can now leverage partners offering hosted/cloud services to keep businesses looking to outsource their communications capabilities in the Avaya fold. Avaya cloud UC also provides a competitive alternative to cloud solutions launched by other PBX vendors. Furthermore, cloud UC may enable Avaya to penetrate smaller businesses that would have otherwise chosen a different PBX vendor or opted for hosted services from non-Avaya partners.

Avaya partners: A cloud/hosted solution is a source of recurring revenue. For Avaya partners already familiar with Avaya technology, Avaya cloud UC is a relatively easy transition and a means to retain existing customers and attract new ones. Utility pricing to service providers (versus one-time license purchases) reduces risks and improves the ROI for partners looking to test a novel technology and/or business model.

End-user organizations: Businesses with existing Avaya investments can migrate to cloud-only or hybrid environments without the need for extensive IT staff and end-user re-training. They can also retain existing phones, which reduces switching costs and protects existing investments. Non-Avaya customers, especially SMBs that may find Avaya premises-based solutions out of reach due to limited CAPEX budgets can now deploy Avaya technology in a more flexible, on-demand model.

Competitors: Almost all UC developers have launched or are looking to launch cloud solutions as both an offense and a defense strategy. The Avaya offering poses a competitive threat and levels the playing field across the premises-based and cloud UC markets.

The cloud UC space is evolving rapidly and presenting both opportunities and challenges to communications technology vendors and UC developers. But from a customer point of view, while new solutions and business models are causing some confusion and hesitation, the availability of a broader array of UC alternatives, including one with an Avaya flavor, is a net gain.

Sifting Through for M2M Gems

Yiru Zhong — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:21:18 GMT

In January 2013, Telefonica Digital revealed an improved version of its Machine-to-Machine (M2M) connectivity platform, “Smart M2M Platform”. This builds on previous iterations of an M2M connectivity platform developed internally, and incorporates expertise from Jasper Wireless. Enterprise customers seeking machine connectivity have a wider selection of M2M telecoms service providers with their own versions of M2M connectivity platforms than five years ago. The state of play in the M2M connectivity market prompts three main observations and implications:

Observation: M2M connectivity is becoming a commodity. While the connectivity platform is a cornerstone of an M2M telecoms service provider’s offering, there is currently little tangible differentiation among them. An enterprise customer can work with Telefonica, Vodafone Global Enterprises, Deutsche Telekom, Orange Business Services or Swisscom and still have the same features of managing remote and roaming machine communications.

Implication: The key to establishing market leadership here is for M2M telecoms service providers to enable M2M connections as cost efficiently as possible. We foresee a stronger push towards cloud-based services to reduce cost-related adoption barriers for enterprise customers. We also expect a race among M2M telecoms service providers to establish market leadership in capturing a larger share of M2M revenues.

Observation: M2M connectivity platform providers are at a crossroads. Today, Jasper Wireless is a leading player, with many global telecoms companies as customers, followed by Ericsson’s with a handful of clients. Several specialist providers with a regional or vertical focus are also evident, while white label solutions are available from IT vendors. Coupled with the fact that many M2M telecoms service providers opt to build their own M2M connectivity platforms to retain control of their product roadmap and differentiation factors, this organisational structure is not sustainable in the long run.

Implication: There will be merger and acquisition activities in this space, be it to gain new customers or extend solution scope. How this will look in the next five to ten years will depend on the resulting M2M applications landscape as a connected society becomes more intelligent. We expect to see differentiation of M2M connectivity platforms in terms of ability to enable M2M service providers to capture a larger proportion of M2M revenue.

Observation: Higher revenue potential lies in unlocking enterprises’ and customers’ value in areas including productivity, efficiency and convenience. M2M telecoms service providers have made progress – with varying levels of success – in specific industries such as automotives, utilities and healthcare.

Implication: The quest for higher revenue will continue, and will adopt different routes to an eventual smart community scenario in the coming decades. Enabling vertical applications while still allowing similar building blocks for horizontal elements such as security, devices and data is a challenge for all M2M players. We expect to see innovative approaches in the coming years, particularly around leveraging progress in M2M to support new areas of development such as the Internet of Things (IoT) to Smart Communities.

Market Needs And Expectations Are Changing Rapidly; Will These Changes Affect The Relevance Of Smart Cards?

Jean Noel Georges — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:01:27 GMT

Smart card technology is mature, and has been deployed successfully across all verticals that require strong security and identification features. With the explosion of mobility, the need for simple solutions to deal with identification should be seen as a minimum requirement and not a value added service. This is particularly true with new mobility needs. By using the appropriate security levels, all services should be easily accessible. Smart card technologies should evolve to be seen as services, and no longer as a single device.

The role of Digital Identification is fundamental in the development of all services that run on mobile devices, including smart phones and tablets. I doubt that the smart card form factor (mostly ID-1 or ID-000) will continue as such. Although the plastic card is still used for standard payments and perfect to be inserted in a traditional wallet, times have changed and consumers are no longer reluctant to use a mobile device for payment or identification.

The world is digital and the smart card is becoming a device - or, even better, a service - for digital identification. Traditional smart card manufacturers have already adopted this change and are communicating in this way. These changes, in my view, mean the end of the traditional term ‘smart cards’ and the start of the new era of ‘digital identification’.

Roku Announces New Roku 3 Player, New User Interface, Still Best Streamer In The Market

Dan Rayburn — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:28:45 GMT

Popular streaming device maker Roku has announced a new $99 streaming box, named the Roku 3, based on a faster chip, better WiFi support, as well as a newly redesigned user interface, which will also roll out to some older Roku boxes. I had a chance to get some hands-on time with the Roku 3 last week and was impressed with this upgrade since channels load faster, video starts up with less buffering and WiFi has been improved, with dual-band support. Add in the new UI, the ability to listen to audio via some Roku branded purple headphones included in the box, plus the number of content channels available and the Roku is still the best streamer in the market. Roku expects to sell their 5 millionth box to date by then end of this month.

The new Roku 3 is a little smaller than the Roku 2 with but rounded corners and has built-in ethernet, HDMI, USB, MicroSD slotand support for dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n and 1080p video. The Roku 3 also has a very cool new feature with a built-in headphone jack in the remote, which lets you plug in headphones for private listening. In addition, after a long wait, Roku has finally revamped their user interface (video of it here) and made using, searching and navigating all the content channels much faster and easier to use. For those that were hoping for an official YouTube channel, I’m afraid it’s still not available. But read my other post entitled, “A9 Chip Inside The Roku 3 May Finally Allow For An Official YouTube Channel“, to learn more about why I think a YouTube channel may be coming soon.

The Roku 3 is based on a new processor and sports a dual-core A9 chip, a big improvement over the legacy ARM11 chips in the older Roku 2. The Arm 11 chip has never been powerful nor a very efficient processor and the dual-core A9 chip is exactly the opposite and is up to 5x faster than the ARM11. One thing I noticed during my hands-on time with the new Roku 3 is that apps and video open and play much faster over the Roku 2, by a noticeable difference. Part of that may be to the amount of memory in the new Roku 3, which allows for the caching of content, but Roku won’t comment on how exactly they setup the video to buffer, saying it’s a secret.

In addition to the new chip, the Roku 3 can now take advantage of dual-band WiFI routers. This is a big improvement over the Roku 2 models as many users complained of WiFi connectivity issues with their Roku models. I had issues with the Roku 2 models where in some cases, the WiFi signal would be very weak when every other device sitting next to the Roku would be strong. It’s always hard to pinpoint the exact problem when it comes to WiFi issues as many factors affect the signal strength and reach of one’s WiFi signal in their home, but the new Roku 3 should eliminate most WiFi coverage issues for anyone with a dual-band router setup.

The Roku 3 ships with the same motion controlled remote as the Roku 2 XS except for the addition of the new headphone jack in the remote which lets you listen to your content with a pair of headphones. The Roku 3 ships with purple headphones, complete with different sized interchangeable rubber earpieces and audio is sent from the Roku 3 to the remote using WiFi, thanks to a WiFi chip inside the remote. This is really a very nice option that can be used by those who want to watch content without bothering others around them or for those who don’t hear well and might have to use subtitles. This is one of the nicest features of the new Roku 3 and one that is extremely practical, considering many consumers have to contend with background noise while trying to watch their favorite shows or movies.

Fans of the most current Roku models will be happy to know that the new and improved user interface that comes with the Roku 3 will also roll out to many older Roku models as well, specifically the Roku LT, Roku HD (model 2500R), Roku 2 HD, Roku 2 XD, Roku 2 XS and the Roku Streaming Stick. Roku didn’t give me an exact date of when the updates would be available but did say “sometime in April”. The new user interface is nice, very clean, easy to navigate and retains the simple and straight-forward approach users have always loved about the Roku. Many times when a new UI is released, it can be sluggish and buggy but the new UI I got to use on the Roku 3 was very fast, much faster than the current UI on the Roku 2 models. I haven’t had the chance to test the new UI to see how is works on older Roku boxes, but I expect it will perform well. In addition to the new navigation, Roku also has a new search function which lets you search amongst all content channels and returns results for both subscription and PPV services. It’s a universal search option with predictable results that reminds me of the look and feel to the search function when using TiVo.

Roku isn’t announcing any new format or codec support for content being played back via USB and those looking for a streamer that can act as a media hub to playback all kinds of various formats should look to other boxes in the market made for that purpose. Roku’s not going after that market but rather those consumers who want a quick and easy way to stream content from the widest selection of content. If Roku can get an official YouTube channel on their Roku 3 boxes going forward, many will upgrade. Roku would then be the only $99 box in the market to have YouTube, Netflix, Hulu Plus, MLB.TV, NBA, NHL, EPIX, HBO Go, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu and UFC. The Xbox 360 has all of these channels, plus ESPN, but costs twice what the Roku does and is really targeting a different market and type of user.

Roku already had the best content available and with a new user interface, faster loading channels, increased WiFi performance and quicker video playback, the new Roku 3 is easily the best $99 streamer in the market. While Roku isn’t currently offering any kind of upgrade option the company did tell me that from time to time, existing customers will receive different offers to upgrade from older Roku models. The Roku 3 comes with a 90-day warranty, is available and shipping from the Roku.com website today and will be available via Amazon.com and retail stores in April.

Amazon Has A Shot At Disrupting Akamai And The Dynamic Site Acceleration Market

Dan Rayburn — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:28:00 GMT

Nine months ago, Amazon launched their new dynamic content delivery service in beta and two weeks ago, I posted details on how their product is coming along and outlined new features they have added since launch. Every since Amazon announced their new service, people keep asking me if Amazon will disrupt Akamai’s DSA business and drive pricing down in the market as a whole. While Amazon still has a long way to go before that has the possibility of happening, make no mistake, they are gunning for Akamai, even though they won’t call out Akamai by name.

Today, Akamai is still the undisputed king of the dynamic site acceleration industry and to date, no one has even come close to taking a large percentage of their web optimization business or knocked them from the top spot. But over the past four or five years, market dynamics have changed. Companies no longer have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to enter this market, services are getting cheaper to deploy and scale and the old rules of how to build out web acceleration services has drastically changed. Cotendo proved this better than anyone else. In under three years, Cotendo was able to disrupt Akamai’s dynamic site acceleration margins so much, Akamai was forced to acquired them, even though Cotendo wasn’t doing that much in revenue and had only raised about $40M in funding.

While Cotendo drove pricing down in the market and pressured Akamai, the one thing Cotendo didn’t do was generate a lot of revenue. Services can only scale and grow so much when you have $40M in funding, but it was still enough to impact the market as a whole and get Akamai’s attention. Cotendo’s service didn’t have the scale or functionality of Akamai’s service, yet it was still able to be a disruptor. In Amazon case, they have the opportunity to not only impact Akamai’s margins for their services, but also generate a lot of revenue on top of it. Amazon has more resources than Cotendo, more money, more R&D, more marketing reach, a well known brand and a built-in customer base that is projected by Analysts to do at least $2B in revenue this year from their web services division, AWS.

That’s not to say Amazon is ready to disrupt Akamai tomorrow, they won’t. But don’t be fooled by Amazon’s approach, which may appear slow to some. Amazon has a very methodical way of rolling out products and services to the market and it typically takes them about 18-24 months before a product goes from beta to a full-fledged offering with a lot of the features and functionality of their competitors. Look at their CDN product, CloudFront, which went from a bare-bones beta product to one that could compete, by my estimate, for 75% of the commodity CDN market, in 18 months. CloudFront is estimated to have generated more than $100M in revenue last year and Amazon continues to build out additional services to support their CDN, announcing their video transcoding service last month.

From purely a features standpoint, Akamai’s dynamic content delivery service still trumps Amazon’s, by a wide margin. But that’s not going to last for too long and little by little, Amazon is already starting to close the gap. Amazon’s working on rolling out a lot more functionality and while they will never be able to compete for 100% of Akamai’s DSA business, they will continue to get stronger and go after more of the business that doesn’t require a ton of professional services. Amazon will never compete for 100% of the market, but they don’t need to. All they have to do is continue to roll out features, add an SLA, lower pricing and prove their dynamic content acceleration services performs well and can scale, with reliability. Of course building all of that out to scale doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s not as hard as some vendors make it out to be and Amazon has the resources to make it happen and more importantly, has multiple lines of businesses to generate revenue from. Amazon can be patient and grow the business over time.

I don’t expect Amazon to disrupt the market in the next one or two quarters, but come Q4 of this year and into Q1 of 2014, I expect we’ll see signs that Amazon is starting to have a major impact on the dynamic content acceleration market and Akamai in particular. This is an interesting time for Akamai right now. For the first time in Akamai’s history, that I can remember, they have a growing competitor they can’t acquire. Akamai’s competitive strategy has always been to simply acquire anyone who impacts their business and remove them from the market, but they can’t do that with Amazon. And unlike two years ago when Cotendo was really the only competitor to Akamai for dynamic content acceleration services, Akamai now faces competition from more than just Amazon. Small startups like Yottaa want to be the next thorn in Akamai’s side and more established players like EdgeCast and Level 3 are making moves to get into the market, or expand their focus.

The good news from all of this is that customers will have more options in the market for dynamic content acceleration services, at different price points, in different regions of the world, for small and large deployments. As a result, these services will become mainstream, demand will increase and prices will decline. Customers will become educated as to the business benefits and learn there is more than one way to deliver content on the web with scale and performance. For Akamai, this will cause a negative impact on their margins if Amazon can disrupt their business the way Cotendo did, but on a larger scale.

Keep in mind though that as dynamic site acceleration pricing declines in the market, it won’t be at the rate video content delivery pricing declined. Unlike delivering video on the web, performance measured in fractions of a second does matter when it comes to delivering dynamic content. For video, customers aren’t willing to pay a premium to have their video start-up half a second faster on one CDN over another. Half a second does not impact a video based business. But half a second of performance difference in the dynamic site acceleration market can mean the loss of revenue for a customer. So the good news it that customers will be willing to pay for different levels of DSA performance, which will help to keep prices from falling as quickly as they did for video.

Amazon does not charge any premium for dynamic content delivery, something Akamai has done for a long time. Amazon customers who have been previously reluctant to adopt dynamic content acceleration services due to the cost, will now be able to simply buy it as an add-on, without worrying about any type of premium pricing. It’s hard to compare Akamai and Amazon’s pricing side-by-side for dynamic content services, because there is still a wide gap in performance, and they both charge a bit differently, but it’s a safe bet to say that Amazon’s price is anywhere between 50-75% cheaper than Akamai’s. That’s a really big difference and will continue to be more of an apples-to-apples comparison, once Amazon’s dynamic content delivery service becomes closer to Akamai’s in functionality.

The bottom line is that Amazon still has to prove themselves in the market. They are still the new kid on the block and Akamai has first mover status and a proven business, but Amazon has a lot more advantages in the long run. Akamai may be at the top right now, but Amazon’s following their tried and true method of methodically rolling out more products and services. To think they won’t be able to disrupt the market, at some point in the near future, which would impact Akamai, would be foolish. It will happen, the question is how quickly and to what degree.

The Video CDN Business Is Flawed, YouTube Subsidizes Video Bandwidth On The Net

Dan Rayburn — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:26:32 GMT

While many want to imply and insist that video delivered over the internet is going to one day rival or surpass cable TV as the main broadcast medium, which is an incorrect notion on its own, most are missing the bigger picture and ignoring the business side of the discussion. They want to argue about network capacity, improved compression algorithms, server deployments and other technology pieces without realizing or even acknowledging that the business model of delivering video does not work. Delivering video over the web, even at scale, isn’t profitable, unless you’re YouTube and you can afford to subsidize the bandwidth of nearly the entire Internet.

Even at scale, you can’t make money from delivering video on the web. It’s a flawed business because unlike traditional broadcast TV and radio models, with video on the web, each new viewer you get costs you money. You don’t have a fixed cost when it comes to delivering video and the cost to a CDN always rises. Just ask any content delivery network why they are diversifying their revenue away from video and focusing on high-margin value add services. They can’t make money from video only content, and that’s not going to change any time soon.

Last year, Limelight Networks cut their capex from about $40M in 2011 to about $25M in 2012 as the company decided they could no longer spend money to build out scale for video customers they don’t make money from. And last month, Akamai, the largest service based CDN, said on their earnings call that they will be, “winding down some contracts with a few media accounts in the first quarter that are not of long-term economic value.” They also said that moving forward they would, “refuse to pursue deals that we deem to be unprofitable or of little strategic value”, pertaining to their media and entertainment CDN business. This is Akamai’s way of saying these contracts didn’t have margins that were good enough to make it worth their time.

Delivering video on the web isn’t profitable. No CDN today is profitable, based solely on delivering high volume, low priced bits on the web. The only reason there is so much web based video to begin with is the fact that Google subsidizes it. And while some will argue that the price of bandwidth will always decline, it’s not declining at the rate it used to. Between 2009-2012 the industry witnessed the slowest rate of decline in CDN pricing ever (www.cdnpricing.com). On average, pricing was only down 20%, versus previous years dating back to 2000, when CDN pricing would drop at least 45% every year. Today, CDNs can’t afford to give it away, their costs are always rising and no one can debate or argue about their lack of profitability.

Many are quick to point out that online video advertising is growing and that’s going to allow content owners to monetize their content and as a result, make more money and be able to pay for more video delivery services. That would be the case if video delivery pricing fell at 30-40% each year, but it’s only falling at about half that. It’s one of the reasons that all of the projections made years ago of just how big the online video ad market would be are completely off. None of those numbers came true and part of that is due to CDN prices not falling as fast as some thought, which has had a direct impact on the growth of the online video advertising market.

Broadcast TV networks were built to distribute video and the Internet was built to distribute everything but video. Large objects weren’t even around when guys like Akamai started building their CDN and even fifteen years later, the Internet is still not capable of delivering TV quality video to the number of subscribers cable/satellite have, at the same quality. When a webcast does take place, for everyone who says they got the stream, there are always others who had problems. Just look at the recent webcasts of the Super Bowl, launch of the iPad Mini, Red Bull Stratos or the recent PlayStation 4 press event. They all had problems, for a large portion of viewers.

Every time I write about the topic of cable versus Internet video distribution, some always want to argue about technology. But no one can argue about the business model of delivering video on the net, which to date, has never been a profitable business for any CDN, at scale. In 2000, I remember many in the industry saying that in five years, everyone would watch all video online, cable TV would be dead and the Internet would give you the ability to watch anything, anytime, on any device. Remember Quest’s “ride the light” commercial? That was thirteen years ago yet still, many continue to preach that Internet video will displace cable TV.

Some might argue that Netflix has already proven this model as they currently have more subscribers than a lot of MSO’s, but comparing a service that costs $9 a month to a service that costs $50+ a month isn’t exactly fair. Not to mention, Netflix’s quality isn’t even close to what you get via cable from an HD channel and they have less choice. Also, no one seems to mention that Netflix is being forced to change their CDN strategy and move away from using service based content delivery networks due to the fact that the CDNs don’t want Netflix’s video delivery business anymore. Sure, they love using the Netflix name as a customer, but they all make slim margins on Netflix’s traffic and the capex required to support Netflix is huge. In Q4 of 2010, Level 3 disclosed they spent at least $14M in capex to add capacity to their network, just for Netflix. Level 3 is the one CDN who actually owns their network and has a lower cost of delivering video, so for them, the Netflix business makes sense. Three years ago all the major CDNs were fighting over Netflix’s video business but today, they no longer see it as a smart use of their network capacity or resources. What does that tell you about the business of delivering video on the web, even at scale?

And even with the business CDNs already have today, many still struggle to deliver it with good quality. Conviva measured the video quality of 22.6B video streams in 2012 and found that roughly 60% of all streams experienced quality degradation. Viewer interruption from re-buffering affected 20.6% of streams, 19.5% were impacted by slow video startup and 40% were plagued by grainy or low-resolution picture quality caused by low bitrates. And these streams are the ones that matter as they come from content owners like ESPN, HBO Go, Turner, Disney, Vevo and others who actually have content consumers want to watch and a way to monetize them. 4% of all streams Conviva measured never started. When was the last time you turned on the TV and your video signal didn’t work 4% of the time? Video delivered over the web simply isn’t reliable, for large audiences, at good quality and things like multicasting, better codecs, more fiber etc. isn’t going to change that.

The reality is that without Google subsidizing a large portion of the Internet’s bandwidth, thanks to YouTube, we’d have far less video on the web today. But even by YouTube’s own data, they monetize less than 25% of all their video streams every day. So they are paying to deliver billions of streams each month that no one can make money from. Does this sound like a business model that makes sense or better yet, one that will allow streaming media technology to displace cable TV as the broadcast medium that the majority of people will use to get their video? No chance. Those who suggest that cable TV will be replaced by video being delivered over the web can debate and argue all day about the technical details, but you can’t argue with nearly sixteen years of CDN data which proves that it’s a not a business companies can make money from. If there is not a profitable business model behind any technology, it can only go so far.

I’m not down on the CDN market, it’s still a very important part of the video ecosystem and many vendors will still be in the industry for years to come. But video delivery is not the portion of their business they will make money from and it’s not the product that will grow their top line. Profitability is now the measure of a CDN’s success and not the number of video streams they deliver.

Latin America Becoming The Next Hot Spot for OTT and Streaming Media Services

Dan Rayburn — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:29:22 GMT

While many vendors talk about Europe and Asia as the regions of the world they are expanding into, Latin America is going to quickly become the next go to hot spot. In specific countries like Brazil and others, online video consumption has increased significantly in recent years. Just take a look at some of these recent stats:

Video market in Brazil is one of largest worldwide – viewing audience of 43 million people monthly and penetration of 82.2% among internet users (Dec/12);
Internet is the #2 in advertising spending;
Brazil ranks as the 5th largest internet market globally.
Brazilians spent $12.2 billion in online retail sales in 2012 – and will spend over $25 billion by 2017.
Brazil will host the two most important sport events, World Cup and Olympics, receiving over $30 billion on investment from the Brazilian government.
Local Government will invest $ 9 billion in broadband in the next 4 years.
Latin Americans spend 56% more time on social networking sites than the worldwide average.
People in Latin America spent $3.62 billions in digital ads in 2012 – 112% increase in just four years.
In 2013, Latin America will be #2 in the world in digital ad spend.

While not every country in Latin America has a large population capable of getting a 2-3Mbps video stream, many do, and they have huge populations with large Internet penetration rates:

Argentina: As of March 2010 the country had a 64% Internet penetration rate with 26.6M users with an average broadband speed of 3.33Mbps.
Brazil: As of Dec. 2009 the country had a 37.8% Internet penetration rate with 75M users with an average broadband speed of 4.46Mbps.
Chile: At the end of 2009 the country had a 50% Internet penetration rate with 10M users with an average broadband speed of 6.62Mbps.
Colombia: In mid 2010 the country had a 48% Internet penetration rate with 21M users with an average broadband speed of 4.32Mbps.
Mexico: In 2010 the country had a 27% Internet penetration rate with 30.6M users with an average broadband speed of 3.54Mbps.
Peru: As of June 2010 the country had a 27% Internet penetration rate with 8.8M users with an average broadband speed of 4.62Mbps.

For all of Latin America combined, we’re looking at a population of roughly 600M with more than one-third of them online, with a combined average broadband speed of more than 3 Mbps.

Investments in companies involved in providing video services in the Latin American market are also starting to pick up, the latest being Brazilian premium video ad network Samba Ads, who announced last week that they have raised $500k in seed funding and Level 3′s purchase of Global Crossing at the end of 2011. We have also seen more content services launched in Latin America in the past few quarters with Deezer rolling out in 35 countries, Netflix launching in 43 countries and OTT offerings like Total Movie continuing to expand. I’m also seeing new tradeshows and conferences popping up in countries like Brazil and Columbia with Sportel Rio being a good business venue for high-level sports and new media vendors and Andina Link, which is Latin America’s premier trade fair for the broadband and cable television industry.

While you may not hear much about the Latin American market for streaming media services yet, you will soon. Over-the-top video has launched in several Latin American countries (with at least a dozen countries poised to follow), offered by no less than six digital media operators. We see it as being such a large opportunity for vendors that we hosted a whole panel on the topic at last year’s Streaming Media East show, with speakers from Telefonica, Total Movie, Bazuca and DLA. You can check out a video of that session here.

EU Decision To Support 5G Mobile Technology Vital For Smarter Future In Europe

Saverio Romeo — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:42:13 GMT

Europe looks beyond 4G with the aim of becoming the leading technological region and where the future of mobile communications will be shaped. European Commission Vice President, Neelie Kroes yesterday announced a €50 million investment in 5G with the intent to implement 5G technology in Europe by 2020. If this is added to an existing effort of almost €700 in 4G and beyond 4G technologies during the period 2007-2013, the European Commission's intent of creating technology leadership in mobile communications is clear and sound.

This last announcement can also be seen as a response to the recent disappointing EU budget decision which cut investments on super-fast broadband and other cutting-edge ICT-based solutions for Europeans.

Neelie Kroes' announcement shows her effort to push through the argument that information and communications technologies are essential and indispensable building blocks for the future of Europe and its citizens. They will help developing smart infrastructures for the communities we live in, intelligent services for citizens and enhancing the participation of citizens in the decision making process at every level, from municipality level to the European Union. And finally, but not least, it will promote innovation and jobs.

Moving Towards Smart Communities In Europe - What Is The Role Of The Mobile Industry?

Saverio Romeo — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:15:18 GMT

Developing smart cities and making local communities more efficient, sustainable and vibrant is a political priority in Europe. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and especially the mobile sector, play a pivotal role in building Europe’s smart future.

The role of the mobile industry is fundamental in the development of smart communities. Mobile broadband is an essential building block of our ‘always on’ status. Mobile devices are our interface with the reality and the spaces we live and work in. Mobile computing enables us to book theatre tickets, check our bank account, ask for birth certificates, pay for transport, measure our blood pressure, and many more similar activities.

In the following days of the Mobile World Congress, we will see many new ideas starting from major improvements in the smartphone and tablet space. We will look at the new Blackberry Z10 and HTC ONE as well as the launches from Huawei, Sony, Samsung, ZTE and Nokia. There will be also a new arrival for mobile devices – the Firefox OS by Mozilla. These offerings are at the cutting edge of mobile technologies and are increasingly designed around the idea that mobile phones are not just for communication and entertainment, but are intelligent tools for our work and life engagement. The Barcelona Congress will reveal even more in terms of applications and solutions in domains of payment, transport, healthcare and energy.

The mobile industry, almost unconsciously, is becoming a fundamental enabler of smart communities.

Lync Conference 2013 - One Analyst's Key Takeaways Spelled Out

Rob Arnold — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:13:30 GMT

This week Microsoft held Lync Conference 2013, its first ever conference dedicated to Lync. It was a forum for Microsoft to showcase Lync successes to date and to lay out some future initiatives.

Already a lot has been Tweeted and blogged about the event. Because my 18-month old daughter has me thinking from new perspectives, I decided to blog my takeaways in a different format.

"M" is for mobile. Mobility took a prominent place from the start, with Skype President Tony Bates espousing Microsoft’s mobile UC advancements during his opening keynote and Lync Engineering VP Derek Burney working a number of impressive mobility demos into the kickoff keynote session. Derek showed off the new Lync Mobile 2013 client delivering a variety of UC features to a range of iOS, Android and Windows smartphones and tablets. You can find a nice overview here by Matt Landis. It is clear that Microsoft faces similar challenges as its competitors in providing consistent feature support across different mobile OSes and devices. In a feature comparison across devices, it is also clear that Microsoft still trails in some aspects, such as consistent support for content sharing, multi-party video and the Lync 2013 mobile client not expected for release until sometime in Q2. In any case, the Lync Mobile 2013 client is a vast improvement over its 2010 predecessor.

"I" is for interoperability and integration. Among the biggest announcements at the event are plans to federate Lync and Skype. The first phase will be IM/presence and voice federation due in June for premises-based Lync deployments. In a tool set that looks similar to that in today’s Skype client, Lync administrators and users will be able to customize their permissions and controls to allow/disallow connection with Skype users. On-net calls between Lync and Skype clients will be free, just as Skype-to-Skype calls are today. At the back-end, customers can connect their Lync systems to the Skype network via SIP, with pricing yet to be finalized. Federated video and collaboration features (i.e., content sharing, etc.) are slated for availability sometime in the next 18 months. Many customers and partners seemed very enthused about the use cases for Lync-Skype integration such as B2B, B2C and interaction with other external parties. Still, most of the questions I heard pertained to the security, governance and compliance concerns that have long surrounded Skype. Microsoft spokespeople were armed with responses, but in my opinion the story needs a lot more shoring up.

"C" is for conferencing. Lync Conferencing is getting a makeover to better support structured meetings. In what appears to finally be the merging of LiveMeeting functions with Lync’s strong ad-hoc conferencing capabilities, the latter is receiving a plethora of scheduling, meeting management, host control, attendee participation and other features that have been missing. This all bodes well for continued Lync growth, as the conferencing applications have proven popular due to ease of use and tight integration with other Microsoft products. My initial investigation does not suggest any improvements to Lync Conferencing scalability in the immediate future, leaving it to partners and competitors to address customer requirements for large scale web events and meetings..

"R" is for Room System. OK, the official name is Lync Room System (LRS). Four Microsoft partners have signed on to develop room-based video conferencing endpoints that will integrate natively with Lync. LRS was a main talking point from a multi-media apps perspective. By the end of this year SMART, Crestron, LifeSize and Polycom all plan to introduce multi-screen room systems. All will support content sharing, touch screens, white board, and HD video conferencing with continuous presence as well as the Microsoft flavor of SVC that was announced at the conference.

With LRS, Microsoft is appealing to customers that want tighter integration of video conferencing and content collaboration solutions with UC and IT infrastructure. The value prop is fairly strong, however Frost & Sullivan research finds that the market for software based clients and executive systems has outpaced growth in the high-end room systems endpoint segment for several years.

"O" is for Online. Lync Online is expected to support many of the enhancements with the premises version of Lync Server 2013. Availability of new functionality will come in phases. O is also for Office, as the emphasis on Lync integration with Microsoft Office desktop productivity apps continues. In my opinion, the undertones of business process enhancement enabled through such integrations are understated by Microsoft. And O is for Outlook, as Lync Conferencing and other Microsoft UCC apps will benefit from strengthened integration with the Outlook Web Access (OWA) interface that appears to be will improve lightweight and remote access to a richer set of functionality.

"S" is for social and SharePoint. Lync Conference 2013 was squarely centered upon UCC. However, it was surprising to me that so little fanfare was given to the social realm in which Microsoft has so heavily invested in recent years. I listened to many conference attendees inquire about end-to-end Microsoft UCC, which encompasses content management and social integrated with UC. Perhaps it was not exactly the right forum for Microsoft to emphasize its social capabilities but I still think an opportunity was missed, especially as IBM, Jive, Cisco and others continue to pound away at the value propositions of integrating social with both the enterprise IT and UC stacks.

"O" is for Office 365 (O365). There were a number of breakouts sessions about cloud-based solutions – including O365 integrations with CPE-based Microsoft components (Lync, Exchange, etc) as well as the myriad Online and associated hybrid cloud options. Most of these sessions were well attended, so interest among customers and partners is obviously high. Q&A segments often centered upon issues with Active Directory sync and federation across domains as well as ensuring security, compliance and control. I did learn that there are significant impacts to scalability for certain applications in cloud and hybrid configurations. Combined with GRC concerns, customers and partners have plenty of homework to do. Finally, we learned at the conference that Enterprise Voice will be offered as a component of O365 will be available sometime in the next 18 months. Details are forthcoming, but it will be very interesting to see how this plays out, especially against the backdrop of Skype integration with O365.

"F" is for five million. That is the number of total Lync Enterprise Voice user licenses Microsoft reports it has sold. At the end of 2011 the number was 3 million (including Lync Plus and grandfathered OCS R2 users), putting Microsoft’s 2012 efforts at 2 million clients. This lines up with Frost & Sullivan estimates.

Microsoft faces an interesting paradox here. On one hand, it positions Lync with Enterprise Voice as a PBX replacement. Therefore, the company must show traction that provides an apples-to-apples comparison with the way PBX vendors report their success (such as line licenses and end point sales). On the other hand Microsoft wants to move past the PBX era to make call control a cog of the greater UCC wheel. As such, several Microsoft executives stated they are looking into reporting total voice minutes over Lync networks as a measure of their success. A key issue here is that about 60% of voice traffic is inter-company (according to general Frost & Sullivan estimates), which is the main use case and need for the PBXs that Lync is trying to replace.

"T" is for TechNet. TechNet has historically been an excellent resource for Microsoft product information—from high-level vision to technical minutia. However, Lync Server 2013 for premises deployment has been available since December, and Lync 2013 Online will reportedly be available at the end of this month. To the dismay of many customers and partners at the conference, there is a dearth of useful Lync 2013 information currently available on TechNet to help them plan now. "T" is also for telephony. There were some details about an enhanced telephony feature set in Lync 2013, such as group call pickup and Response Group improvements. However, in-depth details on most advancements to the much scrutinized Lync Enterprise Voice feature set were not provided and are not yet posted to TechNet.

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With Lync 2013 Microsoft has upped its ante in the UCC market, specifically in terms of Lync mobility, conferencing, and video, and by providing a more concrete roadmap for Lync-Skype integration.

So there you have my ABCs of Lync Conference 2013, an event well worth attending. Please tell me what you think about Lync 2013.

When You Take Your Cloud Journey, Don't Leave SAP Behind

Jinu Mathew — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:06:26 GMT

By Lynda Stadtmueller, Program Director, Cloud Computing, Stratecast

In these early days of cloud computing, many enterprises are being very cautious about the workloads that they migrate to the new business model. They generally target peripheral workloads and applications: those that are neither mission-critical nor proprietary; those that interface with a limited number of applications or databases; those that are Web-enabled; and the next and newest application.

Left off the list are some of their most labor-intensive and high-cost legacy systems, such as SAP.

This creates a paradox. IT departments are turning to cloud solutions as a way to become more nimble and cost-efficient. Yet they are not applying those solutions to the most cumbersome workloads, those that would presumably yield the greatest benefits.

Which raises the question: if your solution doesn't tackle your biggest problem, how good a solution is it?

IT leaders can't be blamed for their caution. In most enterprises, SAP is a highly complex and customized system, touching multiple workloads, databases, departments, and employees. It is the engine that keeps the business running, so any disruption could be catastrophic. SAP is not the kind of system one willingly exposes to risk.

And the way most providers structure their cloud services, migrating SAP could indeed represent a risk. Mass market cloud providers often address only the infrastructure layer. Their technicians have no expertise in any particular system or application, nor are their cloud configurations designed to support any specific application software - especially not a complex system like SAP. This leaves the enterprise to assume full responsibility for assessing, virtualizing, migrating, and managing the SAP environment, all without disrupting business operations. Instead of assuming that risk, many IT leaders simply leave SAP behind when they set off on their cloud journeys.

But it doesn't have to be that way. SAP can be migrated and managed safely in a cloud environment, yielding all the expected benefits. It just takes the right cloud service and the right cloud partner. That's where IBM SmartCloud for SAP comes in.

IBM SmartCloud for SAP offers a low-risk way for businesses to virtualize and deploy SAP workloads in the IBM cloud. In implementing IBM SmartCloud for SAP, enterprises can minimize the burden associated with SAP maintenance, thus maximizing value and improving total cost of ownership.

Specifically, IBM SmartCloud for SAP introduces the following cloud attributes into the SAP environment:

Virtualization - Virtualization maximizes flexibility of the SAP environment, enabling SAP workloads to be moved among environments. It also enables quick deployment and scaling of resources as needed, thus reducing costs associated with deployment.
Standardization - IBM's solution reduces the complexity of the SAP environment by standardizing common service components and processes. Enterprises can configure their customized SAP solutions using the comprehensive IBM service catalog of SAP-supported functionality.
Automation - By automating functions that are usually done manually, enterprises can reduce errors; reduce time spent coding, testing and fixing the code; and deliver a more consistent result more quickly and at a lower cost. To this end, IBM is building tools to automate the most common SAP activities.
Lifecycle Management - IBM's managed services offers a global delivery framework with distributed architecture, enabling enterprises to deploy SAP applications quickly and consistently on a global scale. IBM and its certified partners can provide full lifecycle support for an SAP project, from initial blueprinting of SAP to development, migration and running and managing the production landscape
Tailored Levels of Support - Businesses can choose the level of SAP management and support that best serves their needs. In addition to Full Service Landscape delivery, a fully managed option, IBM can also provide support for development and demo systems.
SAP Service Level Agreements - While most cloud providers limit SLAs to infrastructure availability, IBM SmartCloud for SAP offers performance and availability SLAs at the application layer. This provides enterprises with the assurance they need that their SAP workloads will continually operate at optimal levels.

Enterprises have several reasons to trust their critical SAP workloads to IBM:

Experience in managing SAP workloads - IBM SmartCloud for SAP is not a new and untried service; it is built on existing IBM managed services that run SAP in a shared virtualized environment. In extending its SAP managed services to the cloud, IBM is able to leverage its knowledge, expertise, and processes in the cloud environment.
Long relationship with SAP - The technology relationship between IBM and SAP spans forty years. In addition to being a longtime SAP-certified provider of hosting services, IBM is a globally certified SAP partner for SAP cloud services. This gives enterprises the assurance that IBM's cloud solutions are designed and tested to support the complexities of SAP workloads.
Global expertise in SAP - IBM's team of global experts can provide consulting and migration services that ensure that clients are supported during every step of their move to the cloud. The company points out that its dedicated SAP practice includes thousands of SAP experts in 80 countries, with an average of nine years of hands-on SAP experience.

An enterprise's cloud journey is a strategy for transformation and optimization of business processes, enabling the business to succeed in a competitive global market. Don't leave your valuable SAP workloads behind.

Amazon Adds More Functionality To Their Dynamic Content Delivery Platform, Lowers Pricing

Dan Rayburn — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:23:57 GMT

Last May, at the Content Delivery Summit event I organize each year, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced support for dynamic content delivery, also referred to in the industry as dynamic site acceleration (DSA). (video presentation here). Since the launch, Amazon has been pretty quiet on what they have been working on so I spent some time with the company to get an update on where their support for dynamic content stands. For those not familiar with DSA technology in general, dynamic site acceleration is a suite of technologies and products that deals with optimizing dynamically served content across a network. Traditional DSA services often include TCP optimization, route optimization, connection management, on-the-fly compression, SSL offload and pre-fetching functionality amongst other technologies.

Amazon is targeting customers with their dynamic content delivery service for two distinct applications: content that changes frequently, e.g. sports scores, weather updates, stock quotes, etc., but may be cached for short periods of time, and content that represents the interactive or personalized portion of a website, created on-the-fly for each user and generally cannot be cached. To coincide with their new dynamic content delivery product, Amazon’s CDN CloudFront launched several new features to support their DSA offering.

These features include configurable minimum time-to-live (TTL), query string caching, support for multiple origins, and URL based cache behaviors. With configurable minimum TTLs, dynamic content can either be cached at the edge for very short periods of time or not cached at all. With query string caching, customers can cache dynamic web pages, such as search results pages, product pages, etc., at the edge for any amount of time. With support for multiple origins, customers can point at different origins for different types of content on a single website – e.g. Amazon S3 for static objects, Amazon EC2 for dynamic content, and a custom origin for third-party content. In addition to these new features, all previous Amazon CloudFront features (e.g. private content, invalidations, default root object, etc.) are also available for Amazon CloudFront accelerated dynamic websites.

Since May, Amazon’s been busy improving their dynamic content offering and CloudFront has added a number of new features to enhance the dynamic delivery. These features include:

Cookie support. Just like query strings, cookies are also used by customers to return dynamically generated content. With Amazon CloudFront, customers can now configure cookies to be part of the cache key so that the origin can personalize web pages for each viewer based on specific actions – e.g., response to a web form or after the viewer has logged in. See: http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2012/09/amazon-cloudfront-cookies-and-more.html.
Front-End-Optimization. AWS partnered with Strangeloop Networks to offer front-end-optimization (FEO) for dynamic websites. A joint customer already using this solution is Outrigger.com, as referenced in the AWS blog: http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2012/11/cloudfront-strangeloop-greatly-reduced-page-load-for-outriggercom.html.
Lower Pricing. On February 1, 2013 AWS lowered the price of data transfer from AWS Regions to Amazon CloudFront edge locations for “origin fetches”, in some cases by as much as 83%. This includes data transferred from Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3 to any Amazon CloudFront edge location.
New edge locations. Since May 2012, AWS added 9 new Amazon CloudFront edge locations, including new markets – Madrid, Spain and Sydney, Australia – to help improve performance for all Amazon CloudFront customers around the globe.

While Amazon has been busy improving their dynamic content offering, they still have a long way to go before it has a lot of the functionality Akamai’s DSA offering has, including support for commerce customers. But as with all of Amazon’s Web Services, it usually takes the company 18-24 months before their service competes for a large percentage of the market. One of the biggest reasons companies have taken note of Amazon’s new dynamic content delivery service is the fact that Amazon doesn’t charge a premium for their service, something most other vendors do. Amazon’s dynamic content pricing is the exact same price as their CloudFront CDN pricing. There are also no platform fees, setup fees, overage charges, and many customers find that they don’t need to use expensive professional services to configure dynamic applications, further decreasing the cost of using CloudFront for dynamic content delivery.

Since launching eight months ago, Amazon says thousands of customers have adopted Amazon CloudFront’s dynamic content delivery features. The company won’t discuss the breakdown of their customers, but I know that for now, they are mostly small customers who don’t pay a lot each month. But these customers represent a variety of use cases, including news portals, sporting websites, local/weather applications, targeted advertising systems, as well as social and gaming applications. For many of these customers, accelerating their entire website (including the dynamic portions of their site) was cost prohibitive in the past because they weren’t large enough to use a service from someone like Akamai. But with its cost-effective pricing model for dynamic content delivery, Amazon CloudFront is helping democratize this market for small customers and it’s only a matter of time before they start targeting and attracting much larger customers.

Just as AWS has done in the past, they plan to continue to rapidly add new functionality to their existing dynamic content delivery capabilities based on customer feedback and further additions to the service will be rolled out later this year. This includes performance improvements as well as adding new features and more edge locations around the globe.

Many have been quick to imply that Amazon’s dynamic content delivery service is too bare-bones to be able to compete for business from large media and enterprise customers looking for DSA services, but that’s a dangerous assumption to make. When Amazon’s CDN product CloudFront launched, it was in a beta stage for about 18 months with little functionality and many suggested it would never compete for the large RFPs in the market. But 18 months after launch, Amazon rolled out tons of additional product functionality to CloudFront, added in an SLA, lowered pricing multiple times and by my estimates (as well as their competitors), did more than $100M in revenue last year. So while Amazon still has some ways to go with the product, they’ve entered the market quickly and have the skills and resources to compete for the long-term.

Amazon’s dynamic content service will be no different. Sure it’s missing a lot of the functionality that Akamai and others offer today, but give it time. Amazon is in no hurry and can roll out more features and functionality in a steady and systematic way. Amazon’s not trying to dominate the market in the short-term, they are setting up the foundation to compete for a large portion of the market over time and they have all the resources to be able to accomplish it. So while many may write them off today, they won’t in the future.

What impact Amazon could have on DSA pricing in the market and how that could affect someone like Akamai, who dominates the industry with DSA and web optimization services, is still unknown. I’ll have more thoughts on that topic in another post. But one thing I would not do is bet against Amazon or not take them seriously as that would be a mistake. They have the resources and skills to impact any market they enter, including the web acceleration industry.

Radware Acquires Web Optimization Company Strangeloop Networks

Dan Rayburn — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:22:26 GMT

On February 7th, privately held Strangeloops Networks, which focuses on web optimization, announced they had been acquired by Radware (RDRW). Terms of the deal were not announced but multiple industry folks say Strangeloop was valued at under $20M.

Strangeloop is one of the leading companies offering a front-end optimization service in the market and was working with Amazon to give AWS customers the ability to make their sites perform faster by using FEO. Strangeloop has also been working with Level 3 for some time and the joint Level 3/Strangeloop solution was one of the main reasons Akamai was forced to go out and buy Blaze, an FEO competitor to Strangeloop. I haven’t had the chance to catch up with the Strangeloop folks but Radware says they will use Strangeloop’s technology to target e-commerce and enterprise customers. On paper it’s a good fit for Radware as the company already focuses on web acceleration technologies, specifically application delivery and application security solutions for virtual and cloud data centers

FEO might sound similar to another subject I have written about lately, dynamic site acceleration (DSA), but it’s very different. DSA’s focus is to bring network resources closer to the user by pre-fetching or caching files. FEO makes the content itself faster. DSA makes page resources download faster. FEO reduces the number of page resources required to download a given page and makes the browser process the page faster. Companies offering FEO technology have been really hot as of late with four FEO vendors all recently being acquired. Strangeloop is now owned by Radware, Blaze got bought by Akamai, Limelight acquired AcceloWeb and Riverbed acquired Aptimize. Another up and coming small player in the FEO and web acceleration space is Yottaa.

If you want to learn more about FEO technology and why it is so important to CDNs, read my post entitled “Why Web Applications And Mobile Browsing Are Making The Front-end A Major Performance Bottleneck“.

HTC ONE: The Next Step To A Joyful Smartphone Experience, But Look Beyond Entertainment

Saverio Romeo — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:43:34 GMT

A comment on HTC having launched its new phone, HTC ONE, at a press event held in German Gymnasium in the revamped King's Cross London area on Tuesday, 19 February 2013

The new smartphone touches the main areas of highly entertaining mobile experience: content, user interface, mobile video and photography, music, sound, TV, and industrial design. And as the history of HTC proves, innovation is at the core of all this.

The launch was not disappointing but I also think that this is a time for HTC to go bravely beyond entertainment. It should put the same innovation spirit showed in the past and also today and create a device that touches our daily lives more radically. Therefore consumers should expect not just entertainment and communication, but a device touching our work, our health, our house and our relation with public institutions; a mobile device designed around all our daily activities and around the possibilities that mobile technology have to improve our lives.

Is ICASAÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s headache for LTE spectrum allocation finished?

Mervin Miemoukanda — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 10:34:30 GMT

Some months ago, ICASA has decided to postpone licensing of high demand spectrum, making it difficult for the existing telecom operators to deploy their LTE networks.

With declining voice service revenues, network service operators, particularly the incumbents, Vodacom, MTN and Cell C have been re-positioning themselves as end-to-end solution providers.

Arguably, the ICASA’s decision can be interpreted as being in line with the ruling party’s overhaul of the ICT policy in the country. In fact, the ANC has recently released its blueprint ICT strategy, which aims to ensure the universal access to broadband and other technologies in South Africa.

The question one has to pose how the postponement of LTE licensing could have a detrimental effect on operators’ future growth?

One is tempted to say, this delay will not have a detrimental effect on telcos’ plans for the deployment of LTE technologies. The reasoning is justified by the fact that most telcos are in the process of deploying LTE-ready networks and backhaul infrastructure. Most telcos in South Africa are still relying upon Telkom’s backhaul infrastructure. This acts as a somewhat restraint to the deployment of LTE technologies. For example, Vodacom and MTN are busy rolling out their extensive fiber optic and microwave networks across the country.

Most analysts along with existing incumbent mobile operators will argue that the delay will hamper broadband market growth in South Africa as most of them have already been trialling LTE technologies in the country. Besides, there are too many uncertainties about the timeframes for the issuances of LTE licenses in the country.

Currently, ICASA has set stringent requirements for the allocation of LTE spectrum, allowing only companies with 30% to 50% black ownership to bid. These requirements, de facto prevents incumbent mobile operators from bidding, thereby deterring market development. Only incumbent mobile operators have the financial muscle to deploy LTE networks with nationwide coverage.

One has to understand that the issuance of LTE spectrum is critical to the future of the telecom market as well as the wider South African economy. South African consumers and companies deserve to enjoy innovative services such as telematics and e-health.

To date, LTE is the best technology to support these bandwidth-hungry services. Therefore, the lack of clear strategy by ICASA on how LTE will benefit the South African economy leaves a lot to be desired.

Although South Africa is the powerhouse of Africa, South Africa is lagging behind some of its counterparts in sub Saharan Africa in terms of LTE deployments. This is quite weird as South Africans mainly think they are ahead of their African counterparts in terms of ICT development.

This has proven untrue in the case of LTE deployment as Kenya has spearheaded the deployments of LTE on the continent. Instead of auctioning the LTE spectrum, the Kenyan regulator has joined hands with telecom operators to build a nationwide LTE network. The eyes of the world are on Kenya as the Kenyan regulator has been implementing the first LTE network-sharing model in the world.

Does the freeze of the allocation of LTE spectrum signal that South Africa would replicate the Kenyan model? At first sight, it looks like the ANC-led government is exploring all the avenues to boost rural broadband. The ANC’s ICT policy document clearly states that the ruling party envisages merging Sentech and Broadband Infraco to build a wholesale and open-access broadband network.

What is then the practicability of the famous Kenyan model? The Kenyan regulator, CCK has somehow correctly identified that private-public partnership is the right response to achieving LTE nationwide coverage in a short time. That said, the question one could pose is: will their unique approach, which focuses on retail competition work? How this model can be replicated in other countries on the continent? Over the past 5 years, network-sharing agreements are in the rise in most countries on the continent. Kenyan telcos are already used to infrastructure-sharing deals, so one is tempted to say that the LTE network-sharing model will work in Kenya. Without being pessimistic, it will be a big headache for the planned joint-venture managers to monitor the network performance and please all the stakeholders. Let’s wait and see how it will evolve.

I truly believe that ICASA will keep on excluding existing incumbent telecom operators for LTE spectrum assignment as these service providers are likely not to deploy their LTE networks in rural areas as it is the case for their 3G networks. Therefore, the South African government (ICASA) will attempt to build an LTE network across the country via the merger of Sentech and Broadband Infraco. The newly-formed company will have the mandate to act as a LTE network wholesaler. Sentech is already sitting on a big chunk of sought-after 2.6 GHz, so the newly-established company can already utilise this spectrum to deploy LTE networks in urban areas.

The current ICASA’s LTE policy is not good for South Africa’s telecom market because it is of critical importance that any regulatory policy relating to high demand spectrum strikes the right balance between achieving higher coverage in rural areas and ensuring future investment in broadband networks.

Furthermore, ICASA should push for digital migration before 2015 as the 800MHz spectrum will be used for rural deployments. If nothing is done to speed up digital migration, ICASA will not achieve its ultimate goal of ensuring that broadband services are available anywhere in the country.

Is ICASAâ€™s headache for LTE spectrum allocation finished?

Mervin Miemoukanda — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 10:33:56 GMT

Some months ago, ICASA has decided to postpone licensing of high demand spectrum, making it difficult for the existing telecom operators to deploy their LTE networks.

With declining voice service revenues, network service operators, particularly the incumbents, Vodacom, MTN and Cell C have been re-positioning themselves as end-to-end solution providers.

The question one has to pose how the postponement of LTE licensing could have a detrimental effect on operators’ future growth?

Social Media Analytics: Big Data, Big Voices, and Big Brother?

Michael Brandenburg — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:17:54 GMT

In my research around the convergence of social media and Big Data techniques that defines social media analytics, I initially deemed this notion of social media data mining both “amazing and frightening”.

The amount and types of actionable information that could be divined from social media are actually quite staggering and can serve more than just enterprise marketing or social media departments. Actionable information can work its way throughout the organization to provide real value. However, the prospect of Big Data turning into Big Brother was a lingering thought throughout my conversations with certain vendors that are at the cutting edge of this new business intelligence opportunity.

My nagging feeling that we are being watched on social media actually went away for two reasons. First and foremost, those that I spoke with who are involved in this nascent market are highly cognizant of the very thin line between insightful and creepy, and take it as a responsibility to maintain that line.

The second reason, as it turns out, has more to do with my own perceptions of social media. It is easy to forget that when posting to Twitter or a public blog, we are broadcasting our sentiment - the Internet equivalent of shouting your message through a bullhorn in the town square. While other forms of electronic communication, like email, represent whispers to a small audience, social media is meant for shouting and sharing information.

In that sense, social media analytics is ultimately an automated way for organizations to listen and filter through all of the shouting. Given the public context of social media, the onus is not on organizations to decide whether they should listen. Rather, the onus is on users to decide whether they truly want their voice to be heard.

(Read more about social media data mining here: "Big Data and Social Media: The Perfect Storm")

Who is Doing What in UC Server Virtualization: Cutting through the Hype

Rob Arnold — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:17:42 GMT

The virtualization hype-cycle in enterprise UCC markets is nearing a climax.

In the realm of UCC, the use of virtualization technologies aims to reduce the costs associated with hardware and to unlock operational efficiencies enabled by the centralized command, control and resource optimization of cloud computing.

From a high-level, server virtualization involves the use of hypervisors to create an abstraction layer between the server environment’s hardware and software resources. The hypervisor essentially allows multiple virtual servers, or virtual machines, to co-reside on the same physical hardware in order to share physical resources such as power, footprint, memory, CPU, and network interfaces.

Virtualization technologies are well established in enterprise datacenters to support IT infrastructure and business applications. The use of server virtualization to support UC applications components has also become more widespread. Enterprises have become comfortable with implementing their UC management, monitoring, reporting, directory, IM and presence, and other non-real time and near-real time components in virtual server environments.

However, the ability to reliably support real-time communications media such as voice call control, and audio and video conferencing in virtual server environments has only become available in the last two or three years—and many enterprises have a high level of interest in taking this next step in network transformation.

In order to capitalize on potential opportunities and to remain competitive many UCC developers are now offering their real-time software applications for deployment in virtual server environments. With such a broad selection, it has already become difficult to cut through the marketing hype to determine what is available from the different vendors. Because of this I launched a research project to get beyond the hype and find out who is really doing what.

Findings

All UCC vendors in the top 2 tiers have launched initiatives to virtualize their real-time applications software. VMware reigns as the most popular virtual infrastructure qualified by UCC vendors. However there are distinct differences in configuration options.

Most vendors have launched solutions for SMB, mid-market and service provider infrastructure that leverage a single software stream.
- SMB offerings tend to be turn-key, with UCC apps and virtual components pre-installed on industry standard hardware provided by the UCC vendor. The turn-key approach intends to placate traditional SMB customer and channel requirements for simplicity and lower cost.
- Mid-market solutions tend to be comparatively more flexible and robust. Several leading vendors offer both turn-key options as well as the opportunity for customers or partners to source the hardware and virtual infrastructure. Best efforts are made to toe the line between simplicity in terms of use and operation while still supporting more sophisticated features.
- Virtual enterprise UCC offerings are in fact solutions, not products. You’ll find few turn-key options available. These are highly scalable and certain UCC vendors also position their enterprise offerings for deployment by partners seeking infrastructure as the basis of cloud UCC services.
With a few notable exceptions most vendors support co-residency at capacities similar to their proprietary hardware or dedicated appliance offerings.
Most vendors have already enabled call control, voicemail/ unified messaging and IM/presence to be deployed in co-resident configurations.
Support for full-feature enterprise contact center, audio and web conferencing, and especially video conferencing, varies widely among different vendors.
VMware HA is commonly supported among UCC vendors. VMware FT support is uncommon. UCC vendors are recommending customers employ multiple business continuity measures including both VMware capabilities and the UCC system options.

Conclusions

UCC is predicated upon the concept of convergence – the convergence of voice, video and data networks, the convergence of fixed and mobile capabilities, and the convergence of communications/collaboration apps with business software and processes. UCC server virtualization is the next logical step in truly bringing disparate IT and communications networks together.

That is not to say that the market is anywhere near finished in this area; there will always be more work to do.

It is, however, my opinion that virtualization of UCC software is the way forward. It begins to address specific concerns stemming from hardware headaches and inefficient operational support that have long constrained more widespread UCC adoption among organizations of all sizes.

My full report, including profiles of top UCC vendors, is in production now and should be published to Frost.com soon.

In the meantime, or after reading my report, please feel free to contact me with any constructive comments and/or questions.

City as a Customer

Jinu Mathew — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 03:30:49 GMT

Written by Archana Vidyasekar and Akshay Gakhar

Understanding the Macro to Micro Impact of the Urbanisation Mega Trend and Identifying the Inherent Business Opportunities in Tomorrow's Cities

By 2025, the world urban population will reach 4.6 billion and account for 58% of total population. This means that 6 out of 10 people will live in urban areas by 2025. In developed regions, the growth of urban population will be unprecedented with urban population accounting for 81% of total population by 2025. This rapid rate of urbanisation is not surprising given the aggressive industrialisation the world has seen supported by emerging transport and freight corridors, better trade ties and relaxed government migration policies. This mass exodus to urban areas is transforming cities into enormous economic communities representing huge business and investment opportunities for companies and corporations.

Understanding the flow of urban population, the spatial patterns and identifying the future urban centres is a key exercise that businesses must undertake in an effort to ready themselves for the challenges that will arise as a result of urbanisation. Urbanisation could mean sustainable business practices to ensure ample supply of energy and water in the future against increasing demand, or investment in research & development to identify new material for smart buildings. It could also mean realignment and convergence of businesses' supply chains to make logistics less cumbersome and more agile in urban areas. Opportunities for new products and solutions in FMCG, real-estate, retail and construction industryare also huge and multiple. The implications of urbanisation, therefore, are varied and numerous and cities are in the centre of this key phenomenon.

Provided below are key trends in the evolution of the cities describing the growth of mega cities and other types of cities that will evolve with planned investment, infrastructure and technology development.

The Growth of Mega Cities

As 58% of the world population will be living in urban environments by 2025, there is a large drive for the expansion of cities around the world to become Mega Cities. Mega Cities are large metropolises which have a population of 8 million and above and have a GDP of $250 Billion or more. Currently there are 12 mega cities, however by 2025 this number is set to increase to 35. With Asia contributing to nearly two thirds of the global population in 2025, there is a massive push towards the expansion of their cities due to an increase in urbanisation. As a result Asia will have 18 mega cities which accounts for 50% of all the mega cities in the world. China alone will account for 72% of the mega cities in Asia. By 2025, mega cities will contribute an enormous $30 trillion to the global economy and will have a combined population of 541.6 Million people. The top 10 mega cities alone are going to contribute 13% of the global GDP.

In response to the mega growth in the cities, there are various types of cities that are being developed or planned with a specific focus on technological innovation, environmental efficiency, connectivity, safety and economic growth.

Types of Future Cities

Smart Cities: Smart is the New Green

Green concepts will be replaced by 'Smart' concepts in the future, creating smart cities that are built on Smart Technology, Smart Healthcare, Smart Governance, Smart Healthcare, Smart Energy, Smart Buildings, and Smart Mobility.

Smart Technology will connect the home, office, mobile phone and car on a single wireless IT platform and include adoption of smart grid system, smart home solutions, high speed broadband connection, and roll out of 4G technology. Smart Governance will introduce a host of e-government solutions, green policies and public transport management to the citizens delivered through the IT and mobile platforms. Smart Healthcare will includes energy efficient healthcare system, integrated security solutions in the healthcare units, intelligent healthcare infrastructure, connected home health service and healthcare data governance. Smart Energy will offer a cohesive solution to power management which through a network of technologies and digital solutions will offer improved management of power. Availability of Smart Energy will augment development of Smart Buildings which are green, energy efficient, and intelligent buildings with advanced automated infrastructure.

Smart Cities will also offer Smart Mobility that will allow people and goods to move in the most optimum and sustainable manner with convenient and safe multi-modal transport, electric mobility and infrastructure, reduced congestion and environmental cost, and efficient management of traffic. By 2025, there will be 26 such smart cities that will feature the aforementioned aspects. More than 50% of smart cities will be from Europe and North America. Copenhagen in Denmark will become the first carbon neutral city in the world by 2025 and is set to become the first eco-metropolis of the world.

Sustainable Cities: Aiming for Long-Term Self-Reliance and Sustenance

Sustainable Cities are those cities that have been built on eco-friendly, sustainable initiatives that cut across some or all levels of infrastructure, housing, transport system, and healthcare. By 2025, there will be around 92 sustainable cities globally and Europe will be home to 50% of them. These cities aim to be developed to reduce carbon emissions drastically and aim for a low carbon economy. An example of a sustainable city would be the Sino-Singapore Tiangin eco city which aims to see up to 90% of green mobility and use 20% of recycled energy by 2020.

Billionaire Cities: The Wealth Clusters

Billionaire cities are cities that house the biggest billionaires in the world. They are vital in building investment opportunities due to the large number of multinational corporations they are home too. As a result, billionaires operate out of these cities since they are hubs for investment and economic growth within a country. Moscow has the highest combined wealth of billionaires whereas New York Metropolitan Area has the highest number of billionaires in the world. However with Asian countries experiencing tremendous economic growth there has been a large growth in business activity and the amount of billionaires there. Especially cities like Hong Kong, Mumbai, Beijing, Tokyo and Taipei are experiencing an increase in the amount of billionaires and their net worth. Majority of the youngest billionaires in the world are based in the San Francisco bay area which can be explained due to the great success of technology companies such as Facebook, Google and Apple which are based in California.

Connected Cities: The Fastest Cities of the Future

As connection to the internet has become a day to day necessity and also a human right in a few countries, penetration of internet users is increasing drastically. The concept of a connected city relies heavily on internet connectivity being the backbone of the city, allowing the citizens to be connected to each other, the city and its services and the entire world. By 2020 there will be 10 connected cities with a broadband penetration rate of 100%. They are expected to have connection speeds of more than1Gbps and 3 of the 10 are expected to have speeds of more than 500Gbps. An example is Seoul in South Korea which is set to be the world's first fully connected free Wi-Fi city by 2025.

The future global map, therefore, will be full of new urban territories, comprising of various types of cities representing a range of opportunities depending on need, infrastructure and resources. Cities are no longer just generic target markets which exhibit the same characteristics as most urban areas. They have unique needs and demands and require the same positioning and attention that businesses would offer potential customers!

City as a Customer: Cities and not Countries will Drive Wealth in the Future

Cities are not only set to become dominant contributors of their country's economy, but also the global economy itself. The sheer economic scale of these mega cities will result in them wielding an economic and investment clout on par with that of countries. Eventually cities, rather than countries, will be targeted as hubs of investment, wealth creation and economic growth and they will be on par with countries in terms of their economic and investment influence.

Each city will become a customer showing uniqueness in its infrastructural demand offering cross-sectoral micro implications and opportunities in mobility, healthcare, logistics, smart products, security and retail sectors. This in turn would result in companies altering their product portfolio and in-house services to target cities as a customer. The city infrastructure market will also develop into a new industry offering various new white space marketing opportunities, highly customized and innovative city solutions and new urban business models.

Discussed below are snippets of our research into understanding the micro implications on such industries of urbanisation:

The Urban Future: Are you ready?

With economies displaying rapid urbanisation rates and ever expanding cities developing into mega cities, smart cities and sustainable cities the impact of urbanisation will result in drastic changes made to business models. Companies those are able to look at cities as customers and position themselves as partners and solution providers to cities will not only benefit from new business and investment opportunities but alsoavoid future bottlenecks, wastage and diseconomies of scale by improving their thought-leadership on cities.This would require, in addition to contingency planning, a lot of visionary innovation and realignment of operations from businesses. Partnerships between city governments, solution providers (businesses), and academia will become the working model for most future city projects. Convergence between industries, players, technology and products is inevitable as the world itself converges into urban clusters.

So, are you ready for the great urban challenge?

Apple, iPhone, and the Shifting of Coolness

Katherine Burns — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:16:16 GMT

There’s a wonderful scene in “Almost Famous” in which Philip Seymour Hoffman tells the teenage aspiring writer/protagonist, “I met you. You are not cool.” I’ve always loved that line, because I feel like what he was really saying was, “You are your own kind of cool.”

On my best days, this is how I would describe myself – my own kind of cool. I’m not cool by normal standards: no crazy college stories, nothing like that (unless you count that I used to channel Monty Python and click coconuts together on many long, horseless walk to the library… by the way, if you think that’s cool… you’re not either).

If the coconuts story doesn’t have you convinced, here are some other reasons why I’m not cool:

1) Old movies. This makes you cool at the Turner Classic Movies film festival, but that’s about it. Couldn’t care less that this makes me not cool. To me, this just represents a deficiency in taste on the part of my peers.

2) Pop culture basics. For better or worse, I tuned out the music and TV of my youth. No Cosby Show, no In Living Color, no… I’m not sure what music I didn’t listen to, because I’m not sure who was big then, because, well, I didn’t listen to it then and I don’t listen to it now. Tiffany. Was that a thing?

3) Technology. I always seem to be one (or a dozen) steps behind in adoption of gadgets. As an example, I got my first iPhone this past December. This phone is the coolest, you guys! I can take videos! The photo quality is great! The background noise is almost nonexistent! I realize that these remarks were far more relevant in, say, 2007. This is what I mean by being not cool.

Which brings me to my next point. As I said, I’ve just come around to how great my iPhone is, and I’m enjoying the heck out of it. And then I open up the Wall Street Journal today, and I see this article comparing the iPhone to the Model T. The Model T! The must-have car of 1924! Whether you were an early adopter or a late one like me, you’d have to be living under a rock not to know that the iPhone (its many iterations, launches, sleek design, nifty-looking headphones) has been one of the most exciting, have-to-have-it product introductions of our lifetime. It’s still flying off the shelves as I write this. What on earth could the iPhone possibly have in common with the car that pioneered the power of mass production in early 20^th Century America? Here’s the author’s argument:

The Model T couldn’t have been the Model T unless the automobile were on its way to becoming too interesting a product for consumers ever to be satisfied with a single model, a single manufacturer, a single design statement.

The same is true of the iPhone. Different customers not only want different things from their smartphones, they want difference for its own sake, which explains the otherwise inscrutable shifting of coolness cache from the iPhone to Samsung’s Galaxy S line.

In sum, the smartphone market that Apple essentially pioneered now wants to “explode into diversity,” and Apple may not be ready for it. You can have any phone you want, so long as it’s white?*

I think the remark about the inscrutable shifting of coolness cache is interesting. For a very long time (an eternity in technology time, really), the iPhone has been a status symbol phone. This author seems to be arguing that it’s someone else’s turn now. Uncool people like me are starting to embrace the iPhone, and that must mean it’s not cool anymore. If it’s not cool anymore, something else is, and at least in this author’s opinion, that something may be the Galaxy (which, by the way, I considered purchasing instead of the iPhone, but it was frankly too cool for me…I’m not making that up).

Anyway, if I worked for Apple, I would cringe at any comparison of our trendiest, most breakthrough product to a car whose time passed almost a century ago. The stakes, and the challenges, for Apple are now extremely high. Reinvent the category yet again, or be surpassed by those with a new idea.

I’ll leave the adoption of those new ideas to the trendier set. For me, the iPhone is perfect. It’s just the right amount of cool – its own, very distinct, kind of cool. Just like its owner.

*I know that the iPhone also comes in black. But it’s more poetic to stick to just one color. Go with it.

Katherine is the Director of Strategic Communications for Growth Team Membership, a premier best practices research group within Frost & Sullivan. You can follow her on Twitter: @KatherineSBurns.

The Decline of Voicemail and the Changing Rules of Communications Etiquette

Michael Brandenburg — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:23:04 GMT

If there was one general theme that presided over my recent research on the voice and unified messaging market, it was that while voicemail usage has been fading over the years, there is still a requirement by most businesses to have a voicemail box associated with every user. In trying to understand the decline, conventional wisdom suggests that other applications in the unified communications and collaboration stack, namely e-mail and instant or text messaging, are proving to be more popular than voicemail. Based on my own in-box, the continued popularity of e-mail is certainly having an effect on voice calling, but there is actually another, less obvious change that is causing voicemail’s decline: we don’t make unsolicited phone calls anymore.

In my role here at Frost & Sullivan, I talk on the phone to a lot of people during my workday: my boss and teammates, other colleagues within the organization, as well as clients, vendor teams, journalists, and countless others. Yet, with rare exception, I always know who I am going to be talking to before I pick up the phone. That is because there is almost always a prior notification. A phone conversation with my colleagues is almost always preceded by an instant message; conference calls with vendors are always pre-arranged via e-mail or a calendar invitation; social networks or commercial instant messaging might get involved before having a phone call with other contacts. With other elements of the UC&C stack serving as preludes to a voice conversation, there is little reason to not expect a caller on the other end, and even less reason to leave a voicemail message.

This expectation that all wanted and anticipated calls will be preceded by some form of notification is making me even more suspicious of the unsolicited calls that still do come in. This suspicion is only amplified by the constant robo-callers that seem to show up each election cycle or credit card offers that still get through despite state and federal do-not-call lists.

Obviously, there are always going to be roles within the organization, such as customer service or helpdesk services that will continue to receive unsolicited voice calls. However, for many knowledge workers, voice communications, while not completely outmoded, have been escalated one tier higher in the overall communications stack. Voice communications are now reserved for the most meaningful part of the conversation while minor details, trivial matters, as well as the logistics of more in-depth interactions are handled via other communications modes such as e-mail, chat, text messaging, and others.

Truly Unified Communications and Collaboration Technologies Still Not Mainstream

Melanie Turek — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 22:55:54 GMT

According to Frost & Sullivan’s 2012 IT Decision Makers’ View of the Enterprise Communications Evolution survey, awareness and usage of various communications and collaboration tools is increasing. The C-level executives who participated in the survey report the highest level of awareness and usage for instant messaging and conferencing (including audio, video, and web). Despite the industry spotlight on enterprise mobility, mobile extension applications rank only average among the tools listed in terms of awareness, organization use, and personal use by decision makers.

Enterprise social media tools and shared team spaces are likewise getting a lot of attention in the industry. But these applications also rank in the middle of the pack in terms of awareness and usage.

Organizations that have deployed advanced communications and collaboration tools generally expect to usage to increase or stay the same over the next year, while a large portion of non-users report no plans to adopt new tools in the next year, mainly because they have other technology investment priorities or believe the new tools have limited value.

Overall, communications and collaboration tools are meeting organizations’ expectations—with the exception of enterprise social media tools, which most users have not integrated with formal marketing, market research, and other traditional customer acquisition and retention programs.

Indeed, although most of the CXOs in the survey said that although they currently manage a complex mix of UC&C products from a variety of vendors—and although they also hope to simplify that situation in the near future—very few have actual plans for integration, either across the applications themselves or with broader business software or processes.

Among the top UC&C solutions providers, AT&T tops the list as most generally and primarily used. However, Skype earned top honors in reported customer satisfaction (although while 31 percent of survey respondents generally use Skype, only six percent list Skype as their primary provider).

The financial services sector is the leading adopter of unified messaging and visual voicemail, perhaps due to regulatory mandates. Surprisingly, penetration of unified communications clients is deepest within the hospitality vertical. Also somewhat surprisingly, enterprise social media tools have had their greatest traction within the public sector.

Adoption of video conferencing tools was highest in hospitality and the public sector—a departure from conventional wisdom, which suggests healthcare and education would rank among the greatest adopters of visual collaboration tools.

Future deployment of UC&C solutions does not vary significantly by company size, but larger organizations have plans to deploy them more actively. Smaller companies are more hesitant, likely due to budget constraints and/or lesser requirements for advanced communications tools.

Amazon Launches New Cloud Based Video Transcoding Service

Dan Rayburn — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:47:19 GMT

On Tuesday January 29th, Amazon announced a new cloud based video transcoding service called Amazon Elastic Transcoder. As with other AWS services, there are no contracts or monthly commitments and customers simply pay based on the number of minutes they need to transcode and the resolution of the content being transcoded (SD vs. HD). Amazon is offering the transcoding service in multiple regions including three in the U.S. (Oregon, Northern California, N. Virginia) as well as Ireland, Singapore and Tokyo. Pricing for transcoding content in standard definition (less than 720p) ranges from $0.015 (one and a half cents) for U.S. based regions to $0.018 from the Tokyo region. For HD content, Amazon charges 2x what SD costs. Amazon’s service is for on-demand content only and does not transcode live streams.

It was only a matter of time before Amazon added a cloud based transcoding service to their offering as it’s a natural way to enable content owners to get more of their content onto the Amazon network. But a lot of questions remain about how scalable Amazon’s new service is and how it works. On their FAQ page Amazon says that, “if a large number of jobs are received they are backlogged” but they don’t say for how long. Amazon also hasn’t said if their transocding service will output completed files to a third party CDN or only to Amazon’s own CDN CloudFront. [Update: You can only putput files to an S3 bucket.] One limitation of their service is that they only support H.264/AAC/MP4 for output formats. While those are the most popular formats today, customers who have legacy platforms or devices to support are limited in their choices. Also, the service does not currently offer the ability to create segmented output files, which is required for HLS streaming. Amazon says there is no SLA for the service at this time, so there’s no guarantee what a customer gets from a quality perspective or turn around time.

From quickly testing the service this morning, all video files first need to be stored in an S3 bucket and delivered back to your S3 bucket. I don’t see anyway you can upload the videos directly from your computer without first putting them in an S3 account. Amazon’s service comes with a bunch of preset transcoding templates, which you can see here. You can also create your own custom templates but twice when I tried to do that I got a page with an error of “an error occurred when we tried to process your request”. Transcoding however was quick with a 79.5MB four minute file taking just under 5 minutes to transcode and be delivered back to my S3 bucket.

There’s already a few cloud based transcoding services built on top of AWS, like Encoding.com, that have been around for years and have reliable, guaranteed, service with a support number you can call to ask questions and get help with your transcoding job. So I don’t see Amazon’s new service taking share away from anyone else in the market any time soon. Amazon’s new service has a long way to go to being as easy to use or robust as Encoding.com’s cloud based service, but it makes sense for Amazon to offer it as they have tens of thousands of CloudFront customers already and know a certain percentage of them need a cloud based transcoding service that fits into the AWS ecosystem.

For those who want to try Amazon’s new transcoding service, the company is currently allowing anyone to transcode up to 20 minutes of content each month for free.

Vidtel Brings Video Closer to the Mass Market with WebRTC Support

Elka Popova — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:17:48 GMT

Today, Vidtel, an innovative cloud video telephony and video conferencing provider, announced interoperability of its MeetMe and Gateway services with WebRTC video endpoints. This announcement is significant both for the entrepreneurial provider and the industry as a whole. Vidtel can now serve a new customer segment that is bound to grow exponentially within the next few years.

There is a lot of excitement around WebRTC and the promise it holds to revolutionize communications. There is indeed a large potential for WebRTC applications to provide advanced communications and collaboration capabilities to a much broader customer audience at a fraction of the cost of today’s hardware- and even software-based telephony and video solutions. However, WebRTC is still a work in progress and most market participants are only now making baby steps in the development of WebRTC applications.

Most likely WebRTC will have a lesser impact on the voice communications space and a greater one on video communications. Voice telephony is already ubiquitous and convenient (thanks to the good old PSTN and flourishing mobile communications) and is getting increasingly inexpensive with IP technologies and growing competition. Certainly, WebRTC will help further reduce costs and customize voice applications, but the solutions we have available today already meet the demands of most users.

In the video space, however, WebRTC can make a big difference. Video is still deployed on a very small scale due to a number of factors including cost, limited interoperability among the different vendors, and the inconvenience of using room-based systems (e.g., the need to reserve the system/room, walk to it and back, etc.). Both new technologies and new business models are promising to help overcome these barriers and bring video to the mass market. Cloud-based video bridging is already helping deliver cost-effective video conferencing services and alleviate the need for the business customer to install and maintain complex systems. But there still remain cost and interoperability challenges related to the video endpoints.

Vidtel’s video conferencing solutions bring unique benefits to end users. With its Gateway service and any-to-any endpoint capability it is looking to cost-effectively connect the disparate islands of multi-vendor technologies deployed across customer organizations. By adding WebRTC support, it becomes one of the very first video conferencing providers to extend its service to the variety of WebRTC endpoints/applications and users expected to emerge in the near future.

Vidtel’s innovative solutions and partner-centric approach can boost the entire market. Vendors and service providers that choose to partner instead of build new technologies in-house can use Vidtel to gain a foothold in the growing video conferencing market. Companies like Vidtel can become the network behind diverse partner-branded interfaces that enables ubiquitous video connectivity across multiple business organizations as well as between businesses and consumers.

The Advent of the Phablet

Ronald Gruia — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 08:18:35 GMT

If CES is a bit of precursor of what’s to come at MWC, then we should expect even more phablet launches later in February. First, a quick definition by what the term “phablet”: it is a crossover between a smartphone and a tablet. The original definition was simple: any smartphone having a display between 4.6 “ and 5.5”. However, since screen sizes of various smartphones have pretty much migrated to displays 4.6” and above (particularly in the 2H 2012), perhaps the above definition has to be changed to include any smartphone with a screen size of 5 “ or above, and smaller sized tablets, with 6.x to 7.x inch screens.

At this year’s CES, vendors such as Huawei, ZTE, Sony and Pantech introduced a few new phablet models. Huawei led the way with two new models: the Ascend Mate and the Ascend D2. The Mate features a 6.1-inch 720×1280 HD IPS+ touch screen, an 8 MP rear camera with HDR, a1 MP front-facing camera, a quad-core 1.5 GHz processor, pentaband HSPA, dual-antenna design with a better network coverage versus the competition. Huawei maintains that Mate’s 4,050 mAh battery can run for two days of “ordinary usage” on a single charge. The Mate comes w/ Jelly Bean 4.1, has a pretty sleek design (with a thickness of only 6.5 mm) and will start shipping in February in China.

The Ascend D2 comes with an impressive 5-inch full HD IPS+ 1080p touchscreen with Gorilla Glass protection, a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor and a 13 MP rear camera, all fueled by a 3,000 mAh battery. It is a bit thicker than the Mate (9.9 mm) and also comes with the same OS (Jelly Bean 4.1). The phone is already being sold at China Mobile for 3,990 Yuan ($642) direct from Huawei's Vmall.com outlet, which is giving away a free 5200mAh external battery with each device. There are plans to introduce it in Japan as well in some point in the future.

Not to be outdone, ZTE has also introduced a phablet at CES: the ZTE Grand S. This model comes with a 5-inch 1080p display, a quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor and a 13 MP rear camera. The handset also has a sleek design which is a tiny bit thicker than Huawei’s Mate (6.9 mm versus 6.1 mm for the Mate). The device runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and comes with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, and 4G LTE. The Grand S is expected to GA in China sometime in Q1 of this year.

Finally, Sony’s Xperia Z has a 5 inch screen with Sony’s Mobile Bravia 2 engine and Gorilla Glass. The handset is 7.9mm thin, runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (upgradable to Android 4.2), and comes with a quad-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 2GB of RAM and LTE. The Xperia is also dust resistant (IP55) and water resistant (IP57). The two Z models (Z and ZL) are expected to be released around the world before the end of Q1 (expectations are that they will be released in time for MWC). Pre-orders are already available in the UK via Clove (for £522).

Final word: Samsung pretty much defined the “phablet” product category with the launch of the original Galaxy Note. But if the success of the successor (Note II) is an indicator, this segment will get a lot of interest in the upcoming months. Late last November, Samsung had indicated that it sold 5 million Note II phablets around the world in two months. By comparison, the original Galaxy Note took three months to reach the 3 million mark. Therefore, we expect to see more products coming out in this area and look forward to trying a few at this year’s Mobile World Congress.