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Anywhere Connectivity
Insights on keeping connected as the world is shrinking
Working from home, the balancing act for employers and employees
Mon, 01/18/2010 - 14:42 | by Mark BathWith the adverse weather we have had, many businesses have had to ramp-up remote access capabilities over the past few weeks. Many UK workers took advantage of their company’s policies by working from home and connecting to their emails through the internet and Virtual Private Networks (VPN). Many have been saying this is the first time we have really seen the UK communications and IT infrastructure tested by having so many people working from home. While many have been able to offer their staff remote working facilities, many companies do not have such technologies in place and have therefore been losing money, failing their clients and delaying on projects this winter, costing the UK economy up to £2bn. Where is the Digital Britain bill when you need it eh?
Many tech savvy employees, including many from Global Crossing, took advantage of VoIP technologies such as video messaging and instant messaging services to communicate and work remotely with their colleagues in order to maintain their efficiency and meet their working commitments. As the UK’s climate becomes even more unpredictable, companies that have unified communications and VPNs in place will be the most productive and suffer the least, they will also be best placed to offer their employees the work/life balance that many workers expect.
The question is when are the rest of UK businesses going to get up to this level of technology to allow their employees to work from home?
Google’s Real-Time Search – Clutter or Clarity?
Tue, 12/08/2009 - 16:07 | by Kevin CourteauI’ve seen the demo on YouTube and I have the following observations. If you haven’t seen it, check it out.
For many of us professionals that use Google for researching about technology solutions, or industry trends, this feels like irrelevant clutter and noise being spewed at us, when we are really looking for established and well founded ideas, not the musings of everybody wannabe expert wasting time texting random comments from their local coffee shops and taverns.
If I wanted to keep abreast of Tiger Woods continuing “transgressions” than this might be of interest, but then why wouldn’t I use my already established social media networks for this? I suppose that Google’s recent deals with Twitter, Facebook and MySpace to pull their real-time posts into this feed is the allure. So instead of drinking from a single firehouse, I can now drown myself in a much bigger cascade of information.
So Google becomes the aggregator of social media? That’s probably a good thing. But does it really help me from a business search perspective? Watch the quick video below if you haven't yet.
Cleary as a consumer I can see the value as an opinion resource.
A Better Way to Deliver Thought Leadership
Thu, 11/19/2009 - 16:27 | by Kevin CourteauGlobal Crossing recently enhanced its web presence, including the IP Knowledge Center (IPKC). The IPKC houses our library of rich media including white papers, solution briefs, position papers, customer videos, and webinars.
As marketers we have struggled with the age old conundrum – give away the content for free or require visitors to register first. Many pundits suggest giving it away as a prerequisite for piquing prospective interest, while others hold fast to the theory of lead capture and metrics.
We have found a rather simple and elegant compromise to this conundrum.
Videoconferencing: Staying Anywhere Connected Face-to-Face without the Hassles
Tue, 11/10/2009 - 15:54 | by Kevin CourteauVideoconferencing collaboration solutions are becoming more of a business priority as enterprise budgets remain constrained under the pressure of a sluggish economy. Most recently, the buzz in this sector of the industry has focused predominantly on Telepresence and increased use of video to the desktop.
Telepresence is not just videoconferencing but the ultimate "immersive" videoconferencing experience, which is considered the next best thing to being there. It focuses on a packaged solution versus selling individual components. Among the key components, however, is room design, which places an emphasis on lighting, tables, and directional audio, as well as providing multiple screens that deliver high definition video.
Social Media For Talk Show Hosts & Preachers – Why not CIOs?
Wed, 10/28/2009 - 09:08 | by Kevin CourteauImagine my surprise when our 60 something priest at our small community church mentioned both Facebook and Twitter in a recent sermon.
That same week I had heard the local radio talk show host quoting in disbelief the published statistic that 69% of adults still have no clue what Twitter is. The same talk show host who only 8 weeks earlier created a Twitter account, then soon complained how Twitter was useless and good for nothing but cluttering his mobile phone with annoying text messages. Now his station is actively promoting their Twitter account encouraging all listeners to follow him and the station. How quickly this individual went from knowing nothing, to hating the application to fully embracing it, and now to assuming everybody else must be using it.
Our priest is over 60, not a 20 something younger person that would be fully plugged into the social media phenomenon, and he did admit to not having either a Facebook or Twitter account. By mentioning these two services he did grab the attention of the younger members of our congregation to illustrate a very interesting point. The driving factors behind these two services are not recent; rather they satisfy the long standing basic human need to be connected with others. He drew the analogy of the early Christian communities and their gatherings to share their stories and beliefs.
So that is why social media is all the current rage, the underlying basic human need for social interaction. This should be no surprise to anybody – remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
When the "Cloud" is stormier than you would like….
Mon, 10/12/2009 - 14:28 | by Adam UzelacWhen the Cloud is stormier than you would like….
If you visited the T-mobile website for their Sidekick (www.sidekick.com) today (10/12) , you would have been met with the following:
T-MOBILE AND MICROSOFT/DANGER STATUS UPDATE ON SIDEKICK DATA DISRUPTION
Dear valued T-Mobile Sidekick customers:
T-Mobile and the Sidekick data services provider, Danger, a subsidiary of Microsoft, are reaching out to express our apologies regarding the recent Sidekick data service disruption. We appreciate your patience as Microsoft/Danger continues to work on maintaining platform stability, and restoring all services for our Sidekick customers.
Regrettably, based on Microsoft/Danger’s latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device – such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos – that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger. That said, our teams continue to work around-the-clock in hopes of discovering some way to recover this information. However, the likelihood of a successful outcome is extremely low. As such, we wanted to share this news with you and offer some tips and suggestions to help you rebuild your personal content. You can find these tips at the T-Mobile Sidekick Forums (http://www.t-mobile.com/sidekick ). We encourage you to visit the Forums on a regular basis to access the latest updates as well as FAQs regarding this service disruption.
Wi-Fi Internet Junkie – In Search of a Fix, Nomad or Pirate?
Thu, 10/01/2009 - 13:55 | by Kevin CourteauWe take our Internet connectivity for granted until it goes dark – then the shear panic sets in.
Wednesday started like any other day – early morning email processing with a bowl of oatmeal at home over my reliable high speed Internet connectivity at home with Time Warner Roadrunner service.
Later that morning I was enjoying the broadband connectivity at our Rochester office, while taking a self-paced interactive video training session without a hint of jitter or delay on this high bandwidth application.
Then the early afternoon call from home, an ailing wife with a doctor appointment needing me to be there when the kids get off the bus. Not a problem to work from home when necessary with high-speed Internet connectivity.
Integrating Social Media into Global Crossing Web Presence
Sun, 09/27/2009 - 20:58 | by Kevin CourteauGlobal Crossing launched a new Web presence today, incorporating Web 2.0 technologies, featuring our viewpoint on key industry challenges and reinforcing the Global Crossing value proposition. Our objective was to create a leading-edge B2B web presence for prospective customers and clients.
The new GlobalCrossing.com site presents a significantly enhanced user experience, including new content, regional customization, access to more subject matter experts and additional rich media. Click play below to listen to a few words describing the changes to our site.
New Opportunities and Challenges in a Shrinking World
Thu, 08/27/2009 - 12:15 | by Kevin CourteauExtraordinary networking advancements are creating a new information era. Enterprises are confronting a whole new set of challenges in the web 2.0 economy. 3pd9aevxiu The old boundaries of voice and data networks, distance and geography have been erased. Regardless of how you describe today’s global business environment – a “flat world” or a “shrinking planet” – globalization 2.0 is upon us and information communications technologies (ICT) have never been a more critical enabler of enterprise competitiveness. Read more and comment...
Anywhere Connectivity on my Summer Vacation
Thu, 08/13/2009 - 08:39 | by Kevin CourteauI do like being connected, but on my own terms. Therefore, I remain a steadfast laggard on adopting a Blackberry or other mobile email device. My favorite excuses are my arthritic thumbs and old eyes. When one leaves the office on holiday, associates are reluctant to call you, but they do feel compelled to copy you on every email regarding the projects you’re engaged with. They may not expect you to respond, but once you have become addicted to your “crackberry” it takes nerves of steel to resist replying. Read more and comment...
Keeping Clients Connected with a CDN.
Wed, 08/05/2009 - 08:32 | by Kevin CourteauKeeping your clients and prospects connected to your high-value and high-volume video content is critical and increasingly warrants the need for a dedicated content delivery solution. Whether your organization is selling B2B or B2C, you need to efficiently distribute, manage and monetize your online content. The heavy and unpredictable traffic load on the public IP networks, driven in large part by the proliferation of video content, means that you can no longer rely on the best-effort delivery over the public internet for distribution of strategic content. This becomes even more obvious as you become more successful and the demand for your content grows and bandwidth demands increase. At the same time the current economic pressures have constrained many IT budgets to the point where the demand for serving the rich media appetite of their audience becomes a challenge for the scarce IT resources. Read more and comment...
Keeping the Americas Connected
Mon, 06/08/2009 - 10:51 | by Kevin CourteauAccording to Yankee Group, broadband penetration in Latin America is projected to increase from 24.1 million lines in 2008 to 35.5 million lines in 2013. Contrary to the global economic downturn the Latin American broadband market is expected to experience continued growth over the next five years, based on increasing broadband penetration, the popularity of 3G mobile services and the increasing usage of content-rich applications. Read more and comment...
Need more proof that the world is shrinking?
Mon, 06/01/2009 - 18:05 | by Kevin CourteauConsider the current worldwide recession.The economies of today’s world are so tightly integrated, that a major recession can no longer be isolated to a single country or region.
The interconnected global economy is one of several factors driving an ever more pervasive need for anywhere connectivity and unified communications. Another factor is the need for speed – whether its expediting the launch of a new service to beat the competition, responding to a business issue to maintain customer satisfaction or processing and shipping the next order within the current financial reporting cycle, we live in a world where instant gratification has migrated into our business expectations.
When we place a phone call, send an email or type an Instant Message, we expect a real-time reply. I believe the out-of-office voice mail and email reply will go the way of the dodo bird. We will expect the voice and email messages to follow and find our intended recipient on their personal mobile device wherever they happen to be on the planet.
I plan to blog about the industry trends that will influence and affect the way we stay anywhere connected with our customers, suppliers, distributors, co-workers and peers.
Europe's iPhone perspective
Thu, 01/11/2007 - 17:17 | by Gert NieveldFrom Europe, it’s fascinating to see the media hype around the iPhone introduction and the associated blogs mentioning the technological features.
The response here is basically “not impressed” from a feature perspective: Several carriers (even wireline) offer voice e-mails. A 2 Mpix camera is meager in a market where 3 Mpix camera’s have been out for over a year, and you won’t even be able to buy a phone without audio/mp3 player. Most existing smartphones (starting at less than half of the iPhone price) have a dedicated OS/MS Windows version that offers the user multiple browser and office-type applications as well as the capability to run navigation software such as Tom Tom.
In fact, integration of navigation software into the mobile is one the hottest items in EU phone sales, now that everyone’s familiar with phone camera’s, audio, and video. Touch screens are not unique either in this area, but even the smartphones maintain their keypads in support of the 850 million phone users (i.e. everyone except the US) that use it for creating SMS messages (on both wireless and wireline phones). Hopefully, the iPhone also has a solution for visually impaired people?
The response here is basically “not impressed” from a feature perspective: Several carriers (even wireline) offer voice e-mails. A 2 Mpix camera is meager in a market where 3 Mpix camera’s have been out for over a year, and you won’t even be able to buy a phone without audio/mp3 player. Most existing smartphones (starting at less than half of the iPhone price) have a dedicated OS/MS Windows version that offers the user multiple browser and office-type applications as well as the capability to run navigation software such as Tom Tom.
In fact, integration of navigation software into the mobile is one the hottest items in EU phone sales, now that everyone’s familiar with phone camera’s, audio, and video. Touch screens are not unique either in this area, but even the smartphones maintain their keypads in support of the 850 million phone users (i.e. everyone except the US) that use it for creating SMS messages (on both wireless and wireline phones). Hopefully, the iPhone also has a solution for visually impaired people?
The European press is impressed, however, by Apple’s iPhone marketing campaign. The market penetration of the iPod in the US will greatly boost sales potential for the iPhone. The press sketches a bleak future for other US centric products such as Blackberry and Palm. Equipment providers, such as Nokia, were quick to state that Apple is now following the path they’ve already been taking for years while pointing at some basic flaws of the iPhone for the EU market, such as lack of a 3G capability.
To me, the key strategy behind Apple’s iPhone introduction is mainly based on a defensive replacement scenario. Just think about it: When all mobile phones play mp3 audio and have no built-in connectivity to iTunes, what will this do to the market for the iPod and associated music downloads?
With kids getting their mobile phone at the age of ten or less, the interest in iPod’s and other mp3 and/or video players will disappear over time, so Apple needed something quickly to defend their iPod franchise. Most kids do not have the budget to buy the iPhone, however, so Apple should better get an inexpensive version of the iPhone released soon. I’m sure that AT&T/Cingular will see the huge market potential and be eager to sponsor the price (as far as allowed in the US).
Apple’s initiative to enter the mobile phone market is following Sony’ decision, several years ago, to enter this market (cleverly done with partner Ericsson). Sony added its audio/video know-how to Ericsson’s phone, which are now outrank most other phones such as Nokia’s. The latter phones offer better computer capabilities, however, and as long-term mobile phone manufacturer, Nokia’s market penetration is still significantly higher. Now that the audio/video industry and the computer/software/gaming industry are all moving into the mobile phone arena (Microsoft also announced they will release a Zune mobile phone), I’m sure we’ll see some great new introductions in the coming years.
With the differences in features becoming smaller, sales of mobile phones will be entirely determined by marketing budget and strategy. In that respect, the Apple iPhones will be a fierce competitor. Marketing power and creating a hype is key, and that's exacly what happened at Macworld 2007. Technology is not involved. As Om Malik writes in his blog: “... hopefully we will all be rational soon”.
Closing the Digital Divide
Tue, 01/02/2007 - 21:41 | by Gert Nieveld
Just before Christmas, I was honored to present an overview of Global Crossing’s experience in the planning, deployment, and operations of submarine cable systems to the Development Fund Commission of the European Union in Brussels.
In its efforts to reduce poverty in Africa, the European Council defined a strategy to speed up and provide continued support for the African infrastructure. The EU-Africa Partnership was established in 2006. This Infrastructure Partnership encompasses many elements that are considered standard by most of us: Some 42% of the 900 million Africans do not have access to safe water; 20% of Africans have no access to electricity; Less than 6% have access to internet.
In a five year period from 2008 onwards, the European Development Fund will invest €5.6B (US$7.3B) in the African infrastructure. A significant percentage of this amount will be for the expansion of African communications networks and international connectivity. This will greatly assist in closing the Digital Divide, as mentioned by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his opening speech of the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis in November 2005.
Despite the lack of access to electricty, Africa is the world’s fastest growing market for mobile telephone services. In remote areas, smart entrepreneurs have even started battery-loading services for people with mobile phones that do not have electricity at home. Mobile phones have taken over from wireline services, for which an infrastructure is basically absent outside the main cities. The mobile penetration rate, which I estimate to be around 16% at present, is still massively behind Western-European countries, where penetration in some cases exceeds 100%. Fixed phone penetration is less than 5%. You can find details on the African market at the African Regional Office web site of the ITU.
The growth of the mobile market offers great potential to boost business, but Africa still lacks the international bandwidth to support this growth. To stimulate new business as well as to handle international traffic, key improvements need to be made in the interconnection between African countries and between Africa and the rest of the world. The two main options are: Expansion of satellite links and/or submarine fibre cables. Due to high latency problems with satellite connections (up to 600 ms), submarine connections are the preferred choice for voice and internet services, while satellite connections are selected for broadcast-type services.
Some of you may remember the Africa ONE project, which involved the installation of 39,000 km of submarine fibre cable around Africa. The project implementation, for which Global Crossing was selected for project management and undersea construction, was planned to start in 1999 and be completed in 2002. The project eventually was abandoned late 2001 when international funding evaporated. At the time, a main reason for Global Crossing not to participate as either investor or owner in this project was based on the absence of deregulation in African countries as well as on difficulties reaching the many landlocked nations. Experience from GC’s other submarine projects in Europe, US, South-America, and Asia is that the full growth potential only emerges once deregulation comes into effect.
Mid-2002, the SAT-3/West African Submarine Cable (WASC) with a capacity of max 120 Gbps was taken into service between South Africa and Portugal. The SAT-3 cable is a club cable owned by a consortium of over two dozen incumbents. Besides in South-Africa, the SAT-3 cable lands in eight other West-African countries. Unfortunately, like many other consortium cables, the SAT-3 cable system suffers from cooperation issues between the club cable owners. At present, few countries have benefited from its existence.
In 2003, an East-Africa Submarine Cable System project (EASSy) was initiated for linking eight East-African countries to the rest of the world. The completion of this new club cable system is targeted for 2Q07: Less than six months to go. According to the EASSy website, some 23 carriers have signed the project MOU. According to other sources, however, the protocol approving the construction of the EASSy cable has only been signed by twelve carriers up to now. Completion of the project before 2009 is unlikely. We can further expect that this club cable will face similar problems as exist with the SAT-3 system today.
EASSy will not provide a direct connection of these eight East African countries to the rest of the world, but will only connect them to the SAFE and SeaMeWe-4 consortium systems. A significant reduction of capacity costs for the consumer is therefore not to be expected. A total investment of around US$300M has been indicated at present for EASSy. In July 2006, the European Investment Bank approved its participation in this investment.
When trying to gather data from the EASSy website in preparation for my presentation to the EC, I immediately perceived the problems that burden so many of these projects: Both content and data access are poor. Many web pages and images do not exist or cannot be loaded due to hosting problems. This phenomenon already shows the desperate need for many African countries to get better internet connectivity. For a future investor, however, it will be difficult to understand why a US$300M project does not offer a professional looking website. Most high school students on this side of the digital divide will be able to create such sites in a few days and have them hosted by an ISP for under US$50 per annum.
My advice to the Development Fund Commission of the EU, and to any other investor in projects like EASSy, is to add the learnings from SAT-3 high on their 2007 Resolutions List: Especially the aspects related to open access to these scarce resources deserve detailed study. The unique situation that exists in Africa (e.g. the virtual absence of a fixed in-country telecom infrastructure) requires maintaining a careful balancing act between telecom regulation, deregulation and incumbent privatization. A direct connection of EASSy either to countries with a deregulated telecom enviroment and/or to privately owned submarine cable systems is a must. The funding should further be governed by tight control structures to ensure that aid actually ends up where it is needed most: With the African enterprises and consumers. From my perspective, this is the only way that Africa will be able to cross part of the digital divide in the next five years.
Any other suggestions for bridging the digital divide? Don't hesitate to post your comments below.
In its efforts to reduce poverty in Africa, the European Council defined a strategy to speed up and provide continued support for the African infrastructure. The EU-Africa Partnership was established in 2006. This Infrastructure Partnership encompasses many elements that are considered standard by most of us: Some 42% of the 900 million Africans do not have access to safe water; 20% of Africans have no access to electricity; Less than 6% have access to internet.
In a five year period from 2008 onwards, the European Development Fund will invest €5.6B (US$7.3B) in the African infrastructure. A significant percentage of this amount will be for the expansion of African communications networks and international connectivity. This will greatly assist in closing the Digital Divide, as mentioned by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his opening speech of the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis in November 2005.
Despite the lack of access to electricty, Africa is the world’s fastest growing market for mobile telephone services. In remote areas, smart entrepreneurs have even started battery-loading services for people with mobile phones that do not have electricity at home. Mobile phones have taken over from wireline services, for which an infrastructure is basically absent outside the main cities. The mobile penetration rate, which I estimate to be around 16% at present, is still massively behind Western-European countries, where penetration in some cases exceeds 100%. Fixed phone penetration is less than 5%. You can find details on the African market at the African Regional Office web site of the ITU.
The growth of the mobile market offers great potential to boost business, but Africa still lacks the international bandwidth to support this growth. To stimulate new business as well as to handle international traffic, key improvements need to be made in the interconnection between African countries and between Africa and the rest of the world. The two main options are: Expansion of satellite links and/or submarine fibre cables. Due to high latency problems with satellite connections (up to 600 ms), submarine connections are the preferred choice for voice and internet services, while satellite connections are selected for broadcast-type services.
Some of you may remember the Africa ONE project, which involved the installation of 39,000 km of submarine fibre cable around Africa. The project implementation, for which Global Crossing was selected for project management and undersea construction, was planned to start in 1999 and be completed in 2002. The project eventually was abandoned late 2001 when international funding evaporated. At the time, a main reason for Global Crossing not to participate as either investor or owner in this project was based on the absence of deregulation in African countries as well as on difficulties reaching the many landlocked nations. Experience from GC’s other submarine projects in Europe, US, South-America, and Asia is that the full growth potential only emerges once deregulation comes into effect.
Mid-2002, the SAT-3/West African Submarine Cable (WASC) with a capacity of max 120 Gbps was taken into service between South Africa and Portugal. The SAT-3 cable is a club cable owned by a consortium of over two dozen incumbents. Besides in South-Africa, the SAT-3 cable lands in eight other West-African countries. Unfortunately, like many other consortium cables, the SAT-3 cable system suffers from cooperation issues between the club cable owners. At present, few countries have benefited from its existence.
In 2003, an East-Africa Submarine Cable System project (EASSy) was initiated for linking eight East-African countries to the rest of the world. The completion of this new club cable system is targeted for 2Q07: Less than six months to go. According to the EASSy website, some 23 carriers have signed the project MOU. According to other sources, however, the protocol approving the construction of the EASSy cable has only been signed by twelve carriers up to now. Completion of the project before 2009 is unlikely. We can further expect that this club cable will face similar problems as exist with the SAT-3 system today.
EASSy will not provide a direct connection of these eight East African countries to the rest of the world, but will only connect them to the SAFE and SeaMeWe-4 consortium systems. A significant reduction of capacity costs for the consumer is therefore not to be expected. A total investment of around US$300M has been indicated at present for EASSy. In July 2006, the European Investment Bank approved its participation in this investment.
When trying to gather data from the EASSy website in preparation for my presentation to the EC, I immediately perceived the problems that burden so many of these projects: Both content and data access are poor. Many web pages and images do not exist or cannot be loaded due to hosting problems. This phenomenon already shows the desperate need for many African countries to get better internet connectivity. For a future investor, however, it will be difficult to understand why a US$300M project does not offer a professional looking website. Most high school students on this side of the digital divide will be able to create such sites in a few days and have them hosted by an ISP for under US$50 per annum.
My advice to the Development Fund Commission of the EU, and to any other investor in projects like EASSy, is to add the learnings from SAT-3 high on their 2007 Resolutions List: Especially the aspects related to open access to these scarce resources deserve detailed study. The unique situation that exists in Africa (e.g. the virtual absence of a fixed in-country telecom infrastructure) requires maintaining a careful balancing act between telecom regulation, deregulation and incumbent privatization. A direct connection of EASSy either to countries with a deregulated telecom enviroment and/or to privately owned submarine cable systems is a must. The funding should further be governed by tight control structures to ensure that aid actually ends up where it is needed most: With the African enterprises and consumers. From my perspective, this is the only way that Africa will be able to cross part of the digital divide in the next five years.
Any other suggestions for bridging the digital divide? Don't hesitate to post your comments below.
