From Unified Communications to WebRTC

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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Contents

• Introduction- VoIP 3-8

• UC 9-15

• WebRTC 16-23

• Closing thoughts 24-26

• Contributors 27

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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(VoIP) Voice over Internet Protocol

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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If it was not for the invention of the telephone, the Internet, Internet Protocol (IP), and the audio transceiver — IP telephony, might not have been as evolved as it is today. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), often defined as IP telephony, is rapidly becoming ubiquitous in the business world.

Tim Basa, Executive Vice-president of Sales & Marketing at Bullseye Telecom believes the primary motivations to make the switch to VoIP is significant cost savings, scalability and portability. In fact, Basa adds that VoIP is less than half the cost of POTS - $141 to $66 per line average spend. And all that is required is a stable broadband internet connection. But beyond cost, it is the ability for business (of all sizes) to easily and efficiently scale with VoIP - flexible communications and mobile communications.

INTRODUCTION

“We are at such an exciting time. The Internet of Everything is basically upon us and companies (of all sizes) need to be ready — future ready now.”

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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• The Internet

• The audio transceiver

• The telephone

• Internet Protocol (IP)

Four inventions laid the cornerstone for the successful communications system that we have

today.

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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We’ve come a long way since 1995, when 486-based PC’s and 28.8 K modems ruled the digital realm.

In the world of inventions, an integral nugget was deposited 27 years ago, when Vocal Tech Inc co-founders Alon Cohen (an Israeli-born entrepreneur) and Lior Haramaty designed and patented (US Patent 5825771), the first audio transceiver. Their invention inexorably changed the telecommunications industry and played a huge part in making VoIP possible today.

VoIP beginnings:

• 1994 – VocalTek’s Cohen and Haramaty patent the first audio transceiver.

• 1995 – VocalTek creates the first Internet phone software and Intel and Radvision began working on VoIP standards (H.323 standards).

• 1996 – The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) begins working on the H.323 standards.

• 1999 – The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), RFC2543 is released and becomes a key catalyst for the future of VoIP.

A Little History

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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“VoIP will become more pervasive. By 2017 I estimate that 75 percent of new business will not even look at public switched telephone network (PSTN) as a viable solution. Video plus screen sharing will be used by more and more employees. Many more devices such as desk phones, computers and mobile smartphones will support Video. Most important is that joining a videoconference via a cell phone or a desktop is becoming as simple as joining an audio-only call today...”

Alon CohenEVP at Phone.com

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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Though an increasing number of companies are moving away from Public Switched Telephone Networks (PTSN) and diving into VoIP alternatives with advantages that offer greater scalability, lower cost, and value-added features – PSTN vs. VoIP murmurs still linger, reminding us that emergency calls (911), power outages, and natural disasters could leave us in the middle of an ocean with a boat stripped of its rudder and sails.  

Josh Lowenthal, COO of Freeconferencecall.com, believes that some areas of VoIP will grow dramatically and some will hit the ceiling:

The PSTN vs. VoIP Debate

“For mission-critical use and collaboration, quality, and connectivity doesn’t measure up to PTSN…. When you have a natural disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane, VoIP is unreliable.”

Though Josh believes that the future of VoIP could be very transformational, he also believes that the biggest problem is commercial:

“Skype will never be interchangeable with Viber, thus limiting its potential. Consumers want multiple choices to bind these together. However, it doesn’t appear that any plans are on the horizon for these VoIP services to do so — which means PSTN will be irreplaceable.”

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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Unified Communications (UC)

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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One trend that is kicking up speed in the VoIP realm is that of unified communications (UC) and it is a trend that is transforming the way mid-sized to enterprise businesses are operating today.

Corporate Email

InformationManagement

Instant Messaging

& SMS

CollaborativeSolutions

ScreenSharing

Video Conferencing

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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“Mobility is one of the key factors that influence the success of UC. According to IDC research, it is estimated that the number of people accessing the internet through mobile devices will far outnumber the ones using PC or laptop. By the year 2015, the number of Smartphone users is believed to be around 2 billion.” Deepak SinganamallaTop Challenges and Benefits of Unified Communications in the Manufacturing Industry

The drivers behind UCAlon Cohen of phone.com describes the most common driver for UC as workforce efficiency and convenience. Cohen states at his blog that people want to work efficiently and effortlessly, and this includes access to other people in an efficient and easy to use way. Cohen terms UC as a productivity tool.

Dell: Today’s employees expect to communicate and collaborate at any time, from anywhere...

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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“The factors of scalability, flexibility, and cost predictability are now taken as a given with customers pushing for the Martini effect…anytime, anyplace, anywhere but with the addition of on an device”

Steve DayHead of Business Development at Network Telecom (UK)

The drivers behind UC (continued)

According to a new report published by Transparency Market Research (TMR): Unified Communications Market, the global UC market is expected to reach US $61.9 billion in 2018.

The primary growth drivers for global UC is a rising mobile workforce, the growing penetration of mobile devices, BYOD (bring your own device), virtualization of organizations, and the demand for cloud computing.

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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Reliability

Cloud-based UC services should

provide enterprise-class

reliability.

Security

Service providers should have a

secure network that protects both

voice and data communications.

Flexibility

Employee mobility and flexibility lead

to higher productivity.

Quality

Service providers should stand

behind its network quality in

its service level agreement.

iCore Networks recently wrote in their Whitepaper: Boost Workforce Mobility and Productivity with Unified Communications that four trends are driving enterprises toward hosted communications:

The drivers behind UC (continued)

Hosted communications

“Companies that provide hosted VoIP and Unified Communications (UC) services can deliver on these core communications requirements today because of the recent strides in Cloud technology, virtualization and IP-based communications.”

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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“While many outsourced unified communications (UC) systems will be okay, a minor violation can become a huge lawsuit.” Michael BremmerCEO of Telecomquotes.com

The Challenges

Michael Bremmer, believes that the biggest challenge with UC will be that of governmental regulations; due to UC boundaries that are constantly being refined through the courts.

As an example: Bremmer stated that one company may offer group health plans that may fall under HIPPA requirements, so their technology most likely will need to be compliant.

“Challenges in the UCC market remain, including the lack of vendor product interoperability and the complexity of many UCC solutions, but the market should experience continued growth as businesses continue to experience the benefits that UCC provides to end users and the business as a whole. ”

Blair Pleasant President of COMMfusion LLC & Co-founder of UCStrategies.com

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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“The first generation of unified communications was true to it’s name: it was all about bringing disparate technologies together. We couldn’t focus on things like user experience and productivity because the base technological hurdles were still so huge. And while UC remains complex, I believe the industry has already begun a shift in focus toward enabling true productivity and collaboration empowered by these technologies, where workers can seamlessly transition between IM, voice, web, and video meetings as needed ”

Sean O’BrienExecutive Vice-president of Strategy & Communications at PGI

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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WebRTC

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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WebRTC stands for real-time communications that is capable of enabling browser audio and video conferencing.

Voice Calling

Collaboration Networking

Healthcare & Education

Video Conferencing

Contact Center

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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Campbell Williams, states the technology that seems to be getting most attention is WebRTC, which promises potentially to do for browser-based voice and browser-based real-time communication what session initiation protocol (SIP) has done for more client-based communications.

“WebRTC promises to put that into any browser from a communications perspective. So for example, I could be logging on to my company portal and from here I can pick up voice mails, video calls, I can dial my colleagues, I can see who’s available and who’s not, and rather than needing a client application I’m doing everything through a browser. ”

Campbell WilliamsGroup Strategy and Marketing Director at Six Degrees Group

Doing everything through the browser

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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“SIP trunking and WebRTC are promising communications technologies each in their own right. Marry the two, and things can get really interesting.”

Beth SchultzManaging editor of No Jitter

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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“WebRTC will eventually transcend VoIP SIP as the primary technology for person to person and group voice/video communications.”Andy AbramsonComunicano, Inc., CEO and Founder of VoIPWatch

Will WebRTC transcend VoIP SIP?Andy Abramson, CEO and founder of PR firm Comunicano and author of Web log VoIPWatch, is considered to be one of the eight most influential voices in the growth of “Internet Telephony” (along with Alon Cohen who co-designed and patented the first audio transceiver). He believes that companies like Dell, Google and Microsoft will all be selling VoIP services far more integrated into essential IT services.

Abramson states it will be as common as buying dish soap at the supermarket:

Darc Rasmussen also believes that WebRTC could transcend VoIP:

“Instead of purchasing, maintaining and operating expensive ‘PBX’ environments to route and control VoIP communications, WebRTC promises a future of instant, point-to-point communication and collaboration.”Darc RasmussenChief Executive Officer of IR

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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“This will allow for companies to expose voice and video channels directly through their website and software products. Imagine being able to talk to a company directly through a phone embedded in the company’s site. We are already seeing organizations such as Amazon (Kindle’s MayDay) expose support capabilities right in their products. This capability will become more accessible to any size company as these new standards proliferate and communication providers make it easier to integrate UC capability into a company’s existing infrastructure and processes.” Rich WeborgCEO at OneReach

Embedded support channels in more placesRich Weborg believes that WebRTC will become more ubiquitous (supported in all browsers) and finally allow people to be detached from their phones.

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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Be Proactive and #BeFutureReady

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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Closing thoughts

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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Is WebRTC Ready Yet?Browser Support Scorecard

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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“A backup or recovery system is important in case a disaster happens. For example: to ensure communication isn’t interrupted if the network goes down, the system should be set up to reroute calls to another location or phone line. ” Wes HaydenCEO, Virtual Hold Technology.

This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies

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• Wes Hayden, CEO, Virtual Hold Technology• Josh Lowenthal,  Chief Operating Officer at

Freeconferencecall.com• Sean O’Brien, Executive Vice-president of

Strategy & Communications at PGI.• Darc Rasmussen, Chief Executive Officer of IR• Rich Weborg, CEO at OneReach• Campbell Williams, the Group Strategy and

Marketing Director at Six Degrees Group

• Andy Abramson, Comunicano, Inc., CEO and Founder of VoIPWatch

• Tim Basa, Vice-president of Sales & Marketing at Bullseye Telecom

• Michael Bremmer, CEO of Telecomquotes.com

• Alon Cohen, EVP at Phone.com and Expert on VoIP mechanics.

• Steve Day, Head of Business Development at Network Telecom (UK)

Graphics, (unless otherwise noted are from Bigstockphoto.com

Contributors

Resources