IP Convergence: Beyond VoIP, Beyond Cost Savings

Of the more interesting developments that are emerging as SIP  technologies and products mature is the changing context that Enterprises’ IT organizations operate in.  Historically, telecommunications has been defined and provided to the marketplace by Service Providers like Global Crossing, Level 3, BT, etc.  The requirements needed to formulate an offering were provided by SPs to the manufacturers of the platforms (Cisco, Juniper, etc).  Things are changing rapidly on this front though.   Enterprises in some cases are bigger in many aspects of the definition than some smaller traditionally defined Service Providers.  In my humble opinion, this warrants of new definition of the Enterprise.  The Enterprise is the newest category of a Service Provider. 

With regards to SIP, there is ample evidence of its adoption in the Enterprise marketplace and vendors that have catered directly to Enterprises have taken heed.  As examples, see Microsoft’s, Siemens’, Cisco’s, Avaya’s adoption of SIP in their product portfolios.

The impact of this is an overall decentralization of the Enterprise communications environment that leads to a more collaborative workforce.  If you need some examples, think of the IM communications in support of standard telephony and email infrastructures.  Nowadays in our MS OCS/Exchange environment at Global Crossing, when I read an email – I not only have the ability to reply, but IM or click to call in response. This is all handled via a single user interface.  This form of collaboration is _NOT_ dependant on the traditional services that Global Crossing provides. (with the exception of the underlying IP transport), but rather the infrastructure is supported by our internal IT department.  By the way, this is all decentralization is enabled with SIP.

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.

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.

At some point or another when the concept of unified communications comes up during customer interactions, dialogs with colleagues, strategy discussions - often times it moves to a discussion around features and RFCs and remains there. Having come from an IT organization for which I was immersed for several years in operations I have a different perspective when I think about unified communications. When I think about unified communications I don’t think just about SIP or SIMPLE or the ability to receive communications across multiple modalities rather I think about the constructs that make unified communications possible. Don’t get me wrong – the ability to communicate across multiple modalities simultaneously such as cell phone or a software based agent using a simultaneous ring or find me follow me feature is intriguing and to some extent are becoming increasingly more prevalent in a “techno gotta have evangelists” world such as my own but it’s not the only place where unified communications is making IT operations go from good to great!

What I see as taking unified from good to great and where truly exciting work is happening is where software and network architects alike focus not on the “features” alone (although continuous improvement is important) but rather on making unified communications seamlessly integrate into existing IT environments thus allowing IT organizations to drive further value from legacy / existing investments and hopefully simplifying their operations experiences. An example of how this might occur is in and around identity management and enhanced directory services where a users identity can be defined within a unified communications model that not only allows that identity to transcend one modality to another but also might be the same identity that is used for all application access requirements. This my friends is where some of the real magic and exciting stuff appears to be occurring and what is going to make unified communications go from good today to great tomorrow when mainstream adoption across IT organizations occur so long as business justifications and associated ROI necessary for the investments are realized.

That said many vendors today offer unified communications with heavy emphasis on SIP and SIMPLE for obvious reasons – to drive market penetration for current or future products as well as to protect the cannibalization of their installed base through next generation service expansion. What will be interesting to see unfold is not what service or features come next but how many of those vendors look to attack a core and longstanding issue of IT pain points – enabling unified communications while seamlessly integrating into existing back office infrastructures. The key to success in my opinion and those who are positioned for success will be how vendors use a single identity to authenticate and gain access to different modalities such as email, voicemail, enterprise instant messaging and collaboration software or web based tools thus allowing the ability to transcend multiple modalities seamlessly and transparently while affording productivity improvements that every CIO is asking and requiring. In my opinion unified communication can’t be yet another off the shelf solution that requires more work to integrate into an environment to become productive but rather it is about enhancing the bottom line – getting something more for very little and driving tremendous productivity gains. So to be effective and win market share such companies that offer unified communications must invest heavily on seamless integration to the back office and thus driving a core fundamental of productivity that unified communications anchor on.

So no new user names, no new user accounts, rather a single yet pervasive identity in order to make unified communications become great. You could say that the argument or requirement for a single identity isn’t new – rather its been around for a while. In fact there are companies that make identity management software and have been doing so for quite some time. What you can’t say or know and for which I am most excited about is watching how those companies map their current positions in delivering such capabilities into facilitating mainstream unified communications and its adoption further. Food for thought in case you’re not yet following me - watch what IBM and its Tivoli solution, Microsoft with its Active Directory as well as others do with their software around unified communications and how they enable further business communications. Heck, one never knows what Google might do to improve their recent moves into mobile wireless communications since they may see IBM and or Microsofts current positions in this space as a threat to their continued dominance around maintaining their velocity as a formidable competitor whose deep research capabilities rival all but IBM and Microsoft in an industry moving at light speed.

From this former IT guy some real exciting stuff around unified communications is happening … taking it from good to great. Watch how a single, enhanced identity will be mapped transparently to core IT infrastructure services and driving future unified communication services thus making it possible.

OK, so Web Services has been around for some time now.  XML and SOAP have been used as an easy to implement mechanism to serve as an API for distributed applications.  However, only until the last year or so has web services come to the forefront of telecom services, and I believe it will be used as a foundation for many innovative solutions that will be built under the Unified Communications/Integrated Communications umbrella.

VoIP has traditionally been relegated to basic telephony services in the telecom industry, such as VoIP/SIP Trunking and Hosted IP Telephony services.  However, with the advent of Unified Communications (check out the Unified Communications Conference at the Fall VON Show in October), which brings together telephony, messaging, collaboration, data and mobility into an integrated solution, we begin to see services using VoIP as becoming more visual in nature, bringing telephony into web interfaces rather than to phones, and using multiple distributed applications which are blended to create solutions.

Global Crossing has announced that it is providing innovative Unified Communications solutions to the UK Government.  These services will soon be expanded to provide even greater capabilities to the Enterprise, and globalization is a key element of this strategy.

Does this mean IMS?  Not necessarily.  Many solutions in the market have built interoperability through vendor partnerships using SIP from a voice signaling perspective, and Web Services brings another element into the mix which greatly improves interoperability and improves usability.  IMS is not nearly as innovative as Web Services, and certainly not as easily implemented.  However, IMS can be combined with Web Services to anchor control, signaling, and provisioning of multiple applications in a standardized fashion.  My belief is that it will take the industry some time to pull everything together using IMS.

As an example of how web services can be introduced into telephony, clients can be built into web pages using internet API's which use click to call functionality.  In addition, web services can be used in a unified communications "Dashboard" interface where a user can view presence status, conference attendance, manage services through voice portals, and trigger entirely new communications business models.  Two innovating vendors highly leveraging web services in the telecom space are Sylantro and Iperia, which bring call control and management extended to web communications, and provide visual voicemail and unified messaging services as a solution.  Very cool stuff.

Web Services brings easy programming interfaces to industry standard transport (HTTP) to bring innovation to telecom services.  As enterprises become more distributed in nature, with remote offices in multiple countries, their key workers are also becoming more distributed and mobile.  Telecom needs to keep up with these trends and the increading demand for requirements of the changing workplace with real time communications.  This is bringing traditionally separate applications together via Unified Communications, and the "unification" or blending of these distributed applications can use a combination of signaling techniques and web services functions to bring a highly visual element to the solution.

If you're like me, when one of your internal IT guys gives you a call and asks you if you want to trial some new software, the answer is almost nearly always a resounding YES.  Last week Steve Schafer gave me a call and asked if I wanted to try out the new 2007 version of MS Communicator based on the OCS platform.  I got set up with it on Monday and wanted to share some of my experiences with it.

There are several new features that I find very attractive:

• All conversations are kept and stored in a mailbox.  This can be the text of an IM conversation, or if it's a phone call, then the number, name of person you called (if available) and the length of call is recorded.
• The IDLE status doesn't obfuscate any other status, but shares the button color so that you know if the person is idle at their keyboard while in a meeting, on the phone, or available.  You get a little bit of credit this way for behaving yourself and not multitasking while on a conference call.  It might also eliminate a few yt?'s
  
• Multi-party video calls, Ohhhh yeah!  Create a multi-person IM conversation and then fire up Video.  Whoever is talking at the time is broadcast to all other parties.  It works reasonably well for me in spite of the fact that I am a tele-worker with a lousy Internet connection.
• Quasi-FMC/UC capabilities that include a DID for your computer, simultaneous ring to another number of yours, voice-mail delivered to your inbox as a .wav file, as well as the ability to call a voice access number and access your calendar and email.  I don't suspect I'll ever use that last feature, but it is nice to know that if I was ever having trouble falling asleep that I could have a pleasant female-timbered computer voice read my email inbox to me, which I shall hence forth dub Femail.  Copyright!  :-)

And there are several things that I predict will be very evil.

• All those great mailing lists in the outlook exchange address book now come up on searches with an auto-complete function in the communicator search window.  Just when email got so crazy that you had to turn to IM for productivity gains, here come the mass IM broadcasts!  Broadcast IM's are bad, mmmkay???  Just say No!
• The new color scheme is a bit harsh.  The charcoal title bar is fine, but the new 3D shading on the buttons and the traffic-light red/yellow/green availability scheme is kind of hard on the eyes.  The other issue here is the connotation associated with red.  The previous version showed a pleasant shade of blue when someone was busy, but now it's red.  Since I tend to be booked in meetings most of the day, I am always an angry shade of red.  That's evil.

Stuff that still doesn't work quite right:

• Softphones still suck.  I have a reasonably fast laptop and a gig of RAM, but somehow I still have issues coding/decoding when my computer gets busy for a few seconds.  Give this program more priority by default.  I have a Microsoft IP phone on the way that should resolve this problem, but I'm still pretty shocked that computer telephony doesn't work better than it does.
  
• Video/audio sync in video calls.  I've noticed that I receive the video frames before the audio.  What gives?  Audio should have priority over video.  Always!  If Video is falling behind, drop the frames.  If the audio is falling a second or two behind, wipe the whole buffer and start over or something so it doesn't feel like I'm having a conversation with someone half-way to the moon.
  

All in all, the new features are pretty cool, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the company getting upgraded to this release.

A key element of virtualization is the concept of abstraction. Abstraction can take many forms and  many applications with profound  benefits.

This is the first of a  five  part series on the evolution of virtualization, with the following planned articles:

Virtualization – Part 2 - The Abstraction of the Computer
The definition of a computer (CPU, data bus, memory, input/output, and disk)  , the  abstraction of programming a computer (machine code, assembly language,  3rd generation programming languages (3GL),  4GL and  5GL), the  separation of a CPU from disk and the   application  of a Storage Area Network (SAN),  blade servers and the realization of GRID computing.

Virtualization – Part 3  - The Abstraction of Applications
Concepts of a Application Programmers Interface (API),  examples and pitfalls for APIs and the abstraction of  Web Services.

Virtualization – Part 4 – Virtualization of Voice Communications
Telephony basics in the  circuit switched voice network and the evolution of the  packet switched voice network , aka VoIP.

Virtualization – Part 5  -  Real World IT  Examples and Benefits
The anatomy and benefits  of Virtual Data Centers and  Call Centers

We’ll start the series on a model that is near and dear to our hearts – the Internet.

Vint Cerf  is one of the founding fathers of the internet and created a transport model of moving packets from one network to another. Seems pretty straight forward but,  back in the day this was not an easy task as the networks were typically homogenous deployed by a single hardware vendor (DEC, AT&T, NCR, Apollo, Banyan, etc… ). Each vendor had their own proprietary methods of defining a ‘packet’ (that is,   the number of bits in a ‘packet’; the order of the bits in a ‘packet’; the number of bytes in a ‘packet’; and the meaning of each bit/byte in a ‘packet’), and the way these computers spoke to each other (i.e. the protocol).

The first  major challenge was to allow these desperate networks to exchange data. The challenge was met by defining common communication protocols (i.e. TCP/IP, UCP, etc …)  , and   a  common packet &  addressing structure.

This allowed high powered users (Scientists at the world's research institutions) to efficiently communicate across an environment largely made up of  heterogeneous computers.  Within this structure, application developers at each vendor (DEC, AT&T, NCR, Apollo, Banyan, etc…)  developed tools, using the agreed upon common protocols  ,  to transfer files (FTP), login into another computer (TELNET) and exchange email (POP3, SMTP).


Tim Bernes-Lee was one of those high powered users and wanted to find an easier way of navigating thru the internet without having to issue ftp commands or walk thru folders ( i.e. directories).  He created an abstraction between what the internet looked like and the commands that facilitated communications .  Tim created the notion of the world wide web.  The world’s first web site  was brought online in 1991. 

Tim is credited for creating the following words we all use everyday:  www, http and HyperText Transfer Protocol.

These abstractions have lead to an  unprecedented number of users to the internet in very little time.   A concept that some call, “Internet Time” . 

“Internet Time” is defined by Wikipedia   as:

“Internet time was a common catchphrase that originated during the late-1990s Internet boom. In this period, people who worked with the Internet had come to believe that "everything moved faster on the 'net", because the Internet made the dissemination of information far easier and cheaper. Fast-moving developments were therefore said to run "on Internet time".

Efforts in virtualization of the internet are focused in/around layer 3 of the OSI stack,  in the next article in this series we will take a dive into the machines themselves to understand abstraction as it relates to their operation and subsequent evolution, in Part 2 - The Abstraction of the Computer.

We’ll then take a quick look at the applications that ride over them in Part 3 – The Abstraction of Applications.

After understanding the abstraction of the Application,  we’ll look at a very basis of communications – Voice , in Part 4 -  Virtualization of Voice Communications.

In the final article we will put all of these pieces together in understanding the anatomy and benefits of Virtual Data Centers and  Call Centers , in  Part 5 - Real World IT  Examples and Benefits.

While enjoying my morning coffee and skimming the headlines from the weekend, it appears that TechCrunch broke the story yesterday that Grand Central is being bought by Google.

  & 

If you aren't knowing what Grand Central is, allow me to priovide a quick run-down.  The entire concept is built around the 1-number ideal.  Here are some of the features: (from their website)

Screen Callers
Know who's calling and screen unknown callers

ListenIn
Hear why someone is calling before taking the call

Call Record
Record calls on the fly and access recordings online

Block Callers
Unwanted callers won't be able to reach you anymore

Notifications
Receive voicemail notifications via email or SMS

Ring Different Phones
One number that rings different phones based on who's calling

Greetings
Personalize your voicemail greetings by caller or group

RingShare
Go beyond the ring and choose ringback tones for your callers

WebCall Button
Let people call you from a web page without showing your number

CallSwitch
Switch phones in the middle of a call

Click2Call
Call from your addressbook and save your typing

Mobile Access
Visual voicemail for your mobile phone

So why is Google interested in Grand Central?  Well think of the possibilities if you combine the above services with gmail and gtalk?!?!?  It looks to me that Google is going to be taking Skype on head-first.

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac

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

In this day, we are all hit by a constant barrage of advertisements. From the web, email, TV, magazines, radio, internet radio, news videos, and movie theatres we now have an expectaion of an advertising flash suspending our immediate gratification, and have built a subliminal blockade to the best of our ability to focus on the content we seek. I recall the day when I was able to watch a DVD without being forced to fumble through 5 movie previews (I've noticed that Disney is the most aggressive).  So when I saw the AT&T comment on the Washington Post regarding the revenue opportunity of mobile advertisements, and the operator's strategy to realize it I can’t say that I’m surprised.  After all, unless you have been living in a cave for the past few years, mobile phones are already becoming an Internet utility device for many users.
We’ve already seen some mobile web banners in their early stages by ESPN’s WAP site.  However, mobile Internet is still a bit expensive at this point to open up any real opportunity.  The Mobile Internet is still primarily used for targeted information searches, based upon 3rd party research rather than simply perusing about.

United States Top Mobile Web Domains: March 2007			United Kingdom Top Mobile Web Domains: March 2007
Rank	Domain	Audience	Domain	Audience
1	google.com	1,894,143	google.co.uk	348,873
2	yahoo.com	1,315,801	bbc.co.uk	298,016
3	msn.com	903,158	orange.co.uk	215,353
4	microsoft.com	734,664	three.co.uk	210,286
5	live.com	697,589	o2.co.uk	202,373
6	go.com	571,469	google.com	148,722
7	cnn.com	509,772	t-mobile-favourites.co.uk	108,463
8	weather.com	460,564	ebay.co.uk	106,386
9	myspace.com	435,910	msn.com	93,386
10	passport.net	434,050	yahoo.com	89,668

Source: M:Metrics. Reports for the month of March are projected to represent the universe of smartphone owners and are based on in-tab panel sizes of approximately 500 panelists in the United States and 600 panelists in the United Kingdom.

Many enterprises are examining opportunities to realize revenue in the mobile space, but are in the formative stages of their research.  Looking at mobile phones beyond voice, and even beyond multi-modal communication such as FMC is a critical element to the formulation of a broad business strategy.  In the next few years, you will probably see popup blockers on mobile web browsers!