IP Convergence: Beyond VoIP, Beyond Cost Savings

I had the opportunity to present the latest message from Global Crossing in support of Unified Communications.  On March 27th, I attended a panel discussion at Sun Microsystem's Boston campus for masnetcomms.org and on March 28th I presented at a Global Crossing VoIP seminar in Cleveland.

My massnetcomms presentation was focused on the technology enablers (Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), XML, Service Oriented Architecture, Price performance of general purpose computers , Software As a Service model, Network Convergence (IP and access),  Protocol Convergence (SIP)) that have created the opportunity for Unified Communication adoption.  Unified communications is not a new concept, it’s about 10 years old and really never took off.  The early UC models were all hardware centric with specialized devices and lacked seamless integration into your desktop.  However today,  companies like Microsoft have taken a software only architecture that leverages their installed base of email (exchange) and identity (Active Directory) into realizing a seamless experience on my desktop.

In Cleveland,  I shifted the discussion to a more network centric message and highlighted our internal IT success in deploying Microsoft OCS . Global Crossing’s internal IT team began the road to Unified Communications in 2003 when we deployed Cisco VoIP handsets . 

The 2003 VoIP deployment was an important milestone in that both the network (LAN, WAN) and operations (Voice vs. Network team)  had to come together and provide a reliable and consistent transport for Voice, Video and Data. This is an excellent example of IP convergence providing a solid foundation for our subsequent deployment of Unified Communications. 

In 2005 Global Crossing deployed Live Communications System (LCS)  (LCS is the predecessor to Office Communications System (OCS) ) and in 2006 our first deployment in support of Microsoft OCS beta.  Global Crossing was one of 72 companies supporting the beta and tap phases of OCS  and in October 2007 supported Microsoft with their OCS  launch in San Francisco.

What we are experiencing is that not only can OCS provide unparalleled  integration into our desktop environments, but more importantly business transformation as it is now embedded into our workflow, sales portals and company directory.  We are able to work more efficiently , with better communications which will add to a better customer experience.

But the deployment of Unified Communications didn’t start in 2005 when we deployed LCS, it actually started in 2003 when we began deployment of a converged network.

At both presentations the message reasonated with other industry leaders and customers. Clearly IP and network convergence provides the foundation for a successful deployment of Unified Communications.

While visiting with several individuals a few weeks ago at the Ziff Davis Unified Communications Summit in Seattle, WA I noticed that some people hadn't yet realized the power of one aspect to the overall value of unified communications which relates to presence awareness. That is leveraging presence not just in instant messaging but in other communication vehicles can play an important role in transforming your business impact as an IT organization. As a result I thought I would dedicate this post to help create ideas around things that can be done to assist in helping IT in leading the way.

Here at Global Crossing in an attempt to leverage this core components of Unified Communications in an ongoing effort to incorporate the advantages of collaborative, converged services within our enterprise we've transformed internal applications from static non presence aware to anticipatory engaged communication tools that are supporting contextual collaboration with presence-awareness throughout the enterprise. In this instance presence-awareness (whether someone is available in simple terms and how to contact) is utilizing capabilities including chat, computer-based telephony, conferencing, IP video, and e-mail across tools that leveraged across the enterprise drive in principle more efficacy from consumption and corresponding execution. In fact it is my opinion that since presence has been embedded into our application infrastructure to enhance our collaborative capabilities it is natural to see transformational improvements occur around our "quality of experience" associated to the overall user experience. This is so because enabling enhanced customer experience truly enables the IT organization to drive one more component to our IT organizations transformational success in enabling the business to not only "react" but be proactive by achieving extensibility required within the distribution transparency model required for execution. Said another way the fact that presence awareness has been integrated into our application infrastructure means this action will further enhance our agility to enhance operational efficiency by allowing application "pivots" to be present thus accelerating communication by eliminating in some instances serial cognitive task execution.

As the industry landscape continues to evolve there are a few constants that will remain the same: (1) increasing business demands require more innovative, transformational capabilities between employees, partners and customers and (2) continually driving operational velocity reductions around the cost basis of delivering information technology services is imperative. It is commonly believed by many vendors such as Avaya, Cisco, Intel, Nortel and Siemens as well as software developers such as IBM and Microsoft that presence technology will continue to become an increasingly important tool at driving traditional costs out by attacking the serial nature of traditional work execution thus increasing operational efficiency.

So why is presence so important to Unified Communication services? Presence is important because it can become the intelligent communication application for converged IP communication services such as those demonstrated by our IT organization at Global Crossing. Determining where a user is and how best to reach them in our case by leveraging presence enabled applications that have been integrated into our infrastructure with the "glue" to increase the overall value of our converged IP services brought to the table and help realize substantial business transformation value.Said another way presence-aware applications offered on a converged IP communication service help evolve traditional serial actions of quickly determining and thus engaging with employees regardless of location, modality or scheduling which allows our globally dispersed users to communicate and collaborate in real time providing productivity in a truly global and mobile workforce environment. Combined converged IP communication services with presence technology provide for accelerated collaboration between our employees, partners and customers by knocking down the walls of traditional serial communications and by accelerating communication through anticipatory engagement.

Presence is the value.

This video came from the RIPE 55 conference.  Gary Feldman of Demon Internet fame performs for the secret-wg in the closing plenary at RIPE 55 in Amsterdam, October 2007.  

For those not knowing what RIPE is - from www.ripe.com - "The RIPE NCC is an independent, not-for-profit membership organisation that supports the infrastructure of the Internet through technical co-ordination in its service region. The most prominent activity of the RIPE NCC is to act as the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) providing global Internet resources and related services (IPv4, IPv6 and AS Number resources) to members in the RIPE NCC service region. The membership consists mainly of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), telecommunication organisations and large corporations located in Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia."

Video here...

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac
DISCLAIMER: The comments here are mine only. They don't necessarily reflect intelligence, refined thoughts, or anything that the reader should take too seriously. Should the reader expect a polished thought process in the content addressed here, then a strong dose of medication should be prescribed to address that misconception.

This ‘How-to’ article about taking VoIP to places beyond just voice is fantastic!  Below is a list of some atypical things that can be done with VoIP: (complete list at link above)

Call Mapping
Question: How do I know where my incoming calls are coming from?

Caller ID on TV
Question: How do I add VoIP to my TV?

Call Recording
Question: How do I record all of my calls?

Call Encrypting
Question: How do I protect my call privacy and data?

Document Editing
Question: How do I collaborate on documents with someone 3,000 miles away?

Desktop Sharing
Question: How do I give a presentation when I'm 3,000 miles away from the office?

Wakeup Call
Question: How do I program my VoIP solution to send me wake up calls?

Torture Telemarketers
Question: How do prank telemarketers?

Have fun trying some of these out.

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac

Video over any network is big news,  content is available over the internet,  over Xbox live, and over your mobile phone.

The entertainment market is moving to a model where users want to be entertained , right now, over the media they select and with the content they  like (TiVo , Apple TV, etc.. )

But are you  ready to be exposed to targeted marketing at a unprecedented level?

Please take this poll and let us know your thoughts.

Folks, convergence is gaining real ground, enterprises globally are reaping the benefits of a single pipe providing voice, data and video.

These benefits are realized in both soft and hard cost savings.

Hard costs in that enterprises no longer need a separate local loop or tail circuit for their voice or data connections, nor separate customer premise equipment , separate vendors , etc…

Soft costs in that enterprises no longer need a telcom support group , LAN support group or WAN support group.

Martin Geddes has made a name for himself as to what he calls the "stupid network" and I had to challange him on this topic.

But can a really stupid network provide the expected level of convergence? When we talk about convergence of combining voice, data and video on a single pipe, are we under estimating the ratio of data as compared to voice and video?

I think we are.

Let’s take the move of converging storage onto an IP network.

IT departments no longer need a separate network (fiber channel, EMC proprietary, ) connecting servers to storage, it is as easy as an IP address for the server and a IP address for the storage device.

Here is a real example of what the expected level of convergence can provide – more DATA on really stupid networks.

But what happens when performance doesn’t meet expectations? How can an enterprise determine how these really stupid networks are doing?

You could deploy Sniffer’s , everywhere and at a huge cost.

Or you could add intelligence into a really stupid network that can provide Application Performance Monitoring (APM).

And that is what Global Crossing has accomplished with our partner Fluke/Visual Networks.

Not saying that our network is stupid, it is not and we are very proud of the reach , consistent performance and most importantly - operational maturity.

But the addition of APM onto a converged network is the difference between night and day.

Enterprises now can experience the benefits of hard and soft costs savings without being blind sided by increasing the data demands (e.g. my SAN example above) and not being able to determine route cause on a proactive basis.

Check it out , it’s very cool.

From Dennis Morton, VP of Product Commercialization at Global Crossing:

I received a mail from Jeff Pulver, as did all others on the VON mailing list on a new Video on the Net event, and I found some of his thoughts very interesting. He believes that there needs to be a major content owner willing to take a risk by leaving the model or distribution chain currently being used to go to an internet model before a real change can occur. That may be true, but there has to be more to it than that. So, I thought I’d pose a few questions to the blogosphere.

Q1. Do we really think that just getting content to the internet will cause people to watch it there? For example, people watch American Idol and many other reality TV shows as a family or group of friends on their TV sets. Should service providers or content providers be working with manufacturers of TV’s and set top boxes to enable Internet access (where the Internet just becomes just another channel) on that device, and should the content become available on such a device before or after making it available prime time for laptops, PDA’s, cell phones ,etc.?

Q2. Perhaps a viable business model that could work is having content shown at the same time via TV and the internet and then you would have the best of both worlds. Or it could end up being another us against them business situation fighting for customer/market share?

I'm not sure how successful itunes has been with selling TV shows after it they have aired but that revenue sharing model seems to be something the media types are open to.

Thanks for the email Dennis. I'm going to post a few of my own thoughts and then open it up to our readers to post their own thoughts.

To your question about Internet-enabling set top boxes and TV's, this is most likely where the IPTV set top boxes are going. Although the current thinking is that IPTV will be a walled-garden where your IPTV provider provides all the programming, these devices will have all the technology they need to access the Internet. In a duplicative market, where the supply chain for IPTV matches that of the existing TV media, this is where it ends. But in a disruptive environment, these closed IPTV networks get opened up so that content can be delivered from anywhere. At that point, any and all of the business models that you refer to may be valid, and content owners can choose which model is best for them.

I am glad that someone is spearheading the charge for change in the media industry. All of the IPTV conferences that I have attended have mostly skirted around the subject of complete upheaval of the supply chain, at least officially.

Jeff is right. It will take at least one, more likely a couple of big players to develop a supply and distribution model that enables them to cut some steps out of the existing chain, while enabling them to make more money. Hopefully we can get the big media companies to realize that TV is going the same way as the music industry, and fighting/resisting change is only going to get them so far.

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Very exciting today and the presentations went well.

My agenda included 4 items of interest:
1. Global Crossing at a Glance
2. Global Crossing and Avaya SIP Interop details
3. Global Crossing VOIP Services
4. Global Crossing Professional Services

I started the discussion by asking the groups how many one them have made the move to a converged voice/video/data network, and not surprising only 1 out 30 said yes.

What better way to start a discussion as to how converged solutions can benefit Enterprises , and how Global Crossing (along with it’s partners) can provide professional services (such as assessment, design, financial justification, migration and implementation ) and management of the platform once transformed.

Every breakout session was about SIP ranging from best practices, do’s and don’ts’ and group learning from collective experience.

The group was very interactive, asked good questions on how Global Crossing could help and what to expect in cost savings and operational efficiencies.

I walked away feeling that our timing is right and that our converged platform’s operational maturity coupled with professional/managed services will only increase the 1 out of 30, to 15 out of 30 in the next few years.

Just arrived in beautiful Wisconsin (you need to be here, it’s breath taking) and staying at the Heidel House Resort.

Tomorrow is the 1st day of the Wisconsin Avaya User Group Meeting and I have the pleasure of presenting the value of Global Crossing and Avaya as it relates to SIP.

I also have the pleasure of being the 1st to openly discuss how Global Crossing can help enterprises with end to end solutions for VOIP, network transformation and security that leverage our experience into professional services you can use.

More tomorrow nite as to how customers are reacting to this powerful combination.