2013 is a critical year in terms of connectivity, with a focus on where we have been and where we are going.
Speaking at Kathea's annual VISCOM event in Johannesburg this week, Arthur Goldstuck, analyst, journalist and World Wide Worx founder, stressed that the data explosion has already begun and is not going to stop any time soon.
According to Goldstuck, Internet connectivity in SA has grown massively in the past two years and is predicted to continue to grow over the next few years before levelling out. "This prediction is based on the assumption that nothing is going to be done by government to bring access to the mass market. While that could change, so far government has only paid lip service to the idea of universal broadband access."
Goldstuck noted that it takes about five years for the average person to feel comfortable doing transactions and engaging in higher-level activities on the Internet. People often say this caution is driven by security concerns, but Goldstuck believes gaining online confidence is a factor of spending more time online.
"The trends we are seeing in the market now are pointing towards a tipping point that begins in 2013. How people use the Internet in terms of their confidence in the environment and what they use it for will all come to a head this year. And this has a lot to do with video."
Goldstuck noted that YouTube is the third-most-visited Web site globally, and forecasts are that interest in video will continue to increase. Cisco predicts that the equivalent of all the movies ever made will cross global IP networks every three minutes by 2017, said Goldstuck.
The popularity of online video was also highlighted by Kathea network specialist, Matthew Gray.
According to Gray, online video has become the best and most effective way to share information across the Internet, noting that, as bandwidth improves, communicating and collaborating with the public via Web-based video becomes more and more viable. Quoting the same Cisco research, Gray noted that, by 2013, Cisco predicts that 90% of mobile Internet traffic will be online video content, adding that, in the last three years, mobile video traffic has increased by 5 000%.
"Businesses can capitalise on this. A visual collaboration strategy allows a business to continue doing its core business while increasing effectiveness, interacting with business processes and effectively driving end-user productivity," said Gray.
Embracing video collaboration and connectivity is essential, concluded Goldstuck. "Video collaboration socially and in business has become a necessity; it is no longer just something fancy to impress people."
Share