February Musings

Despite the absence of very many posts here on PinDropSoup – It was literally a busy month.

The future of the phone conversation got updated at NoJitter with Remember When IP Phones Were Cool?. This is becoming a series of posts that started with a NoJitter feature last July-IP Phones Will Never Beat 2008 Record. It sparked numerous conversations around the web, some of which were languages I don’t speak. It also led to a VoiceCon Panel last November as well as another panel coming up in a few weeks at VoiceCon Orlando.

My position has evolved, but not really changed: I am no longer impressed with hold, transfer, redial, and speaker as the core features of the enterprise phone. Assuming I am not alone, buyers will spend less for this core functionality; or the phone gets an overhaul and delivers a new value proposition. The implications for the first option include more soft phones, low cost SIP phones, existing phones, even cell phones as the primary extension. This represents a major threat of lost revenue and margin for both manufacturers and the channel. The second scenario is more exciting, but less clear – videophones are emerging as a potential winner here.

I wote two stories about Mitel’s virtualization news. Mitel is the first major manufacturer with a cloud (initially private-cloud) offering. I was a disappointed in the amount of coverage this got because I think it is one of the most significant telecom announcements in a long time. But make no mistake, telecom services are heading for the cloud! Mitel and VMware cracked the code and now jointly support Mitel’s call director in a VMware environment. At NoJitter, I wrote “A Real Solution for Virtual Telephony“. This is a fairly comprehensive look at the benefits. It isn’t about saving $3k on a telecom server. Basically, for the first time – voice and data servers can co-exist – not only on the same hardware, but in the same technical strategy along with plans for operations, capacity, resilience, disaster recovery, and more.

The Mitel news got me thinking about convergence, and how we have become desensitized to it over the past ten years. This news will reawaken conversations on convergence. Now, not just the applications, but the call director will fall into the realm of the IT administrator. As mentioned above, it means things like disaster recovery planning also moves to the IT playbook. I think there are major ramifications to the channel. At UCStrategies.com, I wrote “What Convergence Means to the Channel“.

I don’t know how long of a headstart Mitel will have on virtualization from its competitors, but I am guessing at least a year. They had a huge advantage by previously separating their call director from hardware and consolidating their applications into a single server. Those were big efforts alone and reasonable prerequisites for virtualization. At the upcoming VoiceCon, I will be moderating a panel on virtualization and the cloud.

“Do You Practice Safe SIP?” was published at UCStrategies.com. This piece looks a some of the dangers associated with telecom’s latest love child; SIP. It also looks at the increasing importance of the Session Border Controller (SBC). SBCs are different than firewalls and will play an increasingly important role in delivering telecom services.

Then came “Skype’s All Business” at UCStrategies.com. This post takes a look at how Skype is inching toward the Enterprise. I believe Skype would be bigger today than it is if it had not been under eBay’s myopic wings – but that is no more. Skype is independent and its ongoing penetration into the enterprise is ramping-up and is ultimately inevitable. Skype fills a service hole that enterprise CPE makers and carriers create. Now with momentum and a huge customer base, Skype looks like a train that will be hard to stop. I expect some interesting developments also result from Silver Lake being the majority owner of both Skype and Avaya (and Nortel). It is also worth noting Skype will have a presence at the upcoming VoiceCon show, probably for the first time. In fact they will be participating on a panel I am moderating on Friday. SkypeJournal reprinted this piece with permission.

I did a second feature for NoJitter on desktop video called “Lights, Camera-Phone, Action!“. This one took the position that video conferencing rooms are fine and dandy, but desktop video is what to watch. Desktop video is on the verge of real interoperability. All of the major CPE makers (and hosted players) offer desktop video now, and it will start to get used between organizations. Video technologies, including the desktop, are getting a high amount of attention at this year’s VoiceCon.

Just for grins, I also posted “Apple Peddler?” at Examiner.com. This is a border-line rant about Apple fans that push so hard to convert me to being a Mac user. I don’t like Apple, but don’t confuse this with me being a fan of the PC either. I would be happy with a Mac if someone would buy one for me, but since that hasn’t happened I’m sticking to PCs. I can complain all day about the Mac (or the PC), but what amazes me is how Mac fans love to complain about Macs more than me. The PC/Mac wars from a functional perspective ended… the browser won. Now the only question is which is on sale – and that’s why I am a PC.

That covers my Feb posts. Here are a few other items from around the web I liked:

Raising the Real-Time Child: Nick Carr takes a humorous look at real time parenting.

5 Reasons Mobile Carriers Should Fear Google: This takes a nice look at the multiple Google telecom fronts.

Please Robme Hits Our Worst Fears. I love the attention Please RobMe got and the inevitable conversation around social media and personal privacy and security.

You can see all of my shared items here.