Nortel Networks last week offered a look into the future of networking in the enterprise environment. At its "Evolution of the Enterprise" seminar held in Johannesburg, the theme was very much one of progressive growth, with the forklift approach to technology relegated well off centre-stage.
Tony Wilson, enterprise director of Nortel Networks in SA, believes that the network of the future (circa 2010) will display all the characteristics necessary to drive applications that will sustain a mobile, dispersed workforce, rich media collaboration, unified messaging, business telephony and closer customer contact.
Things to look forward to, he said, include Gigabit speeds to the desktop, which would also mark the last bastion for cable networking as wireless technology becomes the only subsequent consideration, along with IP telephony as the norm, SIP as the standard dial-tone, and greater workforce "presence".
As can be expected, this vision for the enterprise will be realised through convergence, but not only in terms of bringing voice and data together to facilitate the implementation of new applications.
In his overview of "Enterprise IP Communications", Charlie Wade, director, product marketing EMEA at Nortel Networks, highlighted the fact that many things are converging. "The way people communicate is changing, and so is the way in which we gain access to networks. While there is convergence between wired and wireless access, we are also seeing convergence in the way public and private networks are deployed and used. We have choice in how services are being delivered and will see these collide," he said.
But changes in communication are also driving a number of trends. People want instant answers, and are becoming increasingly impatient waiting for calls to be returned and relying on voice mail services. It`s also no longer the case of sticking your head over a partition to see if someone is available.
"The more `virtualised` the workforce becomes, the greater the proliferation of devices and the need for these to access the network in much the same way. This calls for centralised communication services available to everyone, everywhere, with improved contactibility and `visibility`, or presence. It`s simply not just about calling each other anymore," Wade said.
In the workplace, the move is clearly away from talking to collaborating, from delays to the immediate, from being reactive to being proactive, and from being dependent to adaptive, all pointers in employing the organisation itself as an asset. For Nortel Networks, in fact, the future value and real gains in convergence are in productivity and in facilitating greater collaboration.
While converged networks will reduce cost in the long-term, reducing operational cost is only the first stage in the convergence roadmap. "TCO and an increase in mobility were primary drivers for IP telephony. The second phase relates to personal productivity by providing full service access to all employees through centralised applications," said Wade.
"The next phase looks at organisational productivity and how to get most out of people in organisations. Collaboration plays the greatest part here for improved efficiencies and productivity. And the last phase relates to market productivity, extending that out to customers for improved service and contactability.
"On a nuts and bolts level, the creation of the virtual enterprise relates back to a clearly defined technology blueprint, where communication services are layered above the data network, and adaptive clients and engaged applications on top of that. While security and manageability has to permeate all aspects of the infrastructure, the key aim is to reduce cost and complexity while ensuring simple, intelligent communication."
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