Communication,
what is next and where to? FROM WHERE I SIT
A very personal view formed from own experiences and not aimed at or for any particular company, service provider, consultancy or software house.
Communication,
what is next and where to?
Latest reports from Ovum UK and the Gartner group show that data traffic will significantly outgrow voice traffic.
The distinction between the two is already blurred as VOIP (voice over IP) is running alongside pure data traffic.
Capacity is no longer an issue as fat pipes come on-line slightly faster than demand and this will accelerate with further drops in the price performance ratio.
Latest mergers like Inacom and Vanstar in the US show the trend away from pure either communications, hardware, software or network providers to true "all in" service providers, covering data, voice, hardware and software from desk to desk wherever these may be.
The above gives a good example of what is required to generate the base blocks for true virtual businesses. A business that can function every where. On coming cheaper satellite technology will leave no black communication spots on the globe using the equivalent of the smallest present mobile phone.
If you think the mobile phone is a curse this may even be worse. Accurate GPS (global positioning information) will be available even if the device is switched to messaging mode.
Voice, data, desk top, Lap Top and communication to and from information source all managed and provided from a global specialist. This leaves the enterprise to look and concentrate on its core business and form very close relationships to its vendors and customers.
This is the next hurdle to jump. CRM (customer, and not to forget, vendor relationship), this is already tearing down the next existing border, Corporate networks. Corporate networks, Internet, Extranet will converge to just the net. This generates two immediate main challenges .
How to derive true and useful information from the vast amount of data and security.
The first will fill too many pages to elaborate, just for controlling any business, key figures need to be established and once established measured, but equally important these need to be adjusted to the ever and more rapidly changing business model. (To quote a CEO "I don’t know what my bank will be in 5 years").
Security, or how to keep the information of the leading edge of business from leaking out to early or leak out at all. How to keep confidential data confidential (doctor / patient , lawyer / client, competitor / competitor) while using the free flow of information to make the business more competitive.
Security / access management within the corporate behind the standard firewall is demanding, frustrating and time consuming and the more the entity and working practice expand to the outside the more holes appear. When this explodes outward to all the vendors, customers, employees, affiliates, business partners and the general public this has the hallmark of a costly management nightmare. It is therefore important to follow and adopt early technology to stem this. PKI (public key infrastructure), VPN (virtual private networks), LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) and role based policy engines are the building blocks.
These will allow the business to concentrate on getting the right information, which is the information that is needed there and than, to the right addressee confident that it is "secured" rather than worrying about it or worse prevent this by too elaborate and complicated methods and policies.
As an example, I have just received a new business c-card with a 5 (five) digit PIN. No way in the world am I going to remember yet another PIN with yet another format to the approximately 20 other PIN and PW already active on my behalf.
Seamless, secure and effective communication allowing IT/IS to generate benefits as a business resource in line with a changing business model, is like a bright light.
Question !
Is it a light at the end of the tunnel or is it an oncoming train ?
Martin B. Goetz-Jablonowski
July / 2001 still valid 8/2002
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