The industry reflects, looks ahead

Peter Chai, Asia-Pacific vice president and general manager, 3Com

	Peter Chai, 3Com
	The world is warming up to emerging enterprise-class applications like OpenOffice and open standard operating systems like gOS.

Q. Gartner issued a report warning IT heads to prepare a recession budget. What is your view?
Chai: In the volatile world of today, companies that cannot adapt to the rapid changes in global markets will fall aside. Companies should also ask themselves how they are going to ride through the recession or any cyclical downturn for that matter.

From 3Com's perspective, the company made a bold step to form a joint venture (JV) with Huawei in 2003, and in three short years, the JV (now fully owned by 3Com) managed to become one of the top two enterprise network equipment players in China. Even if a recession does hit the United States hard, 3Com will not be badly affected because of our strong business base in China and Asia-Pacific.

So, in preparing for a recession budget, businesses need to look toward doing business in markets in the Asia-Pacific region that are likely to be stable and continue growing despite a U.S. recession. It's all about going where the growth is.

Name three hot technologies to watch in 2008.
The first is IP surveillance. It is one of the most exciting applications that benefit from running on IP-based networks. Today's video surveillance over IP offer significant performance, cost and functionality improvements over older analog CATV systems, and these IP video solutions are now taking centerstage due to the current global security climate.

Analog systems cannot meet the new requirements for video surveillance systems that must be able to monitor hundreds of locations across cities, store the data for extended periods, apply intelligent video image searches to detect suspicious activity, and support forensic analysis.

Moving ahead in 2008

 

 

1.	Socializing goes big in 2008
2.	The urge to merge in 2008
3.	New chips on the block
4.	Web threats dominate security landscape
5.	Battle for the mobile platform space in 2008
6.	The industry reflects, looks ahead

Looking back on 2007

 

 

1.	Looking back at 2007 with envy
2.	Predictions that went right and wrong
3.	2007's movers and shakers

Large-scale deployment of IP surveillance networks are also being driven by low-cost multi-terabyte storage and high-bandwidth links. For example, locations in China are already using 3Com's low-cost Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPON) solutions to monitor long stretches of highway in order to keep the roads safer for motorists.

The second is unified communications. Research firm AMI-Partners predicts that in 2008, we'll see the debut of unified communications appliances that integrate triple-play convergence, plus security and mobility for the small and midsize business (SMB) segment. While VoIP is indeed a disruptive technology, the important trend to note is that the industry focus is now on unified communications that VoIP is enabling.

Customers will move beyond using VoIP to save cost and toward enabling new services that change how employees collaborate and communicate. Therefore, internal IT departments and external service providers need to think about how they can create a partner and technology ecosystem that can offer a dynamic range of services.

The third is the Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON). Nationwide broadband networks are sprouting up all over Asia with the general goal of driving fiber to every end point and enabling Gigabit speeds. For example, Singapore is planning to complete an island-wide Gigabit network by 2015. In most cases, a mix of two main technologies will enable these metro deployments, namely active point-to-point (P2P) Metro Ethernet and EPON.

One example of a Metro Ethernet deployment is Paneagle Communications (Paneagle), an ISP in Malaysia that has recently participated in the country's first nationwide Metro Ethernet project. Built on an extensive fiber optic cable infrastructure along the railway and gas corridors, the network stretches from north to south of the Malay Peninsula and passes through almost all major Malaysian towns. Paneagle's Metro Ethernet network uses 3Com's 10Gigabit Ethernet switches and is designed to support data, voice and video communications as well as security features like VPN for business users.

Like active P2P Metro Ethernet, EPON is based on standard IP and Ethernet protocols. The difference is that EPON uses low-cost passive optical splitters to divide out the bandwidth for last-mile connections in FTTH (fiber to the home) deployments. Another example is how EPON is deployed to link IP video cameras over long distances to monitor highways in China by extending an existing IP metro network without requiring any additional active equipment.

The debate on open source is...
...Changing the way end-users and enterprises view applications. The world is warming up to emerging enterprise-class applications like OpenOffice and open standard operating systems like gOS (the new unofficial Google operating system based on Ubuntu). More users and enterprises are now focusing on the function and quality of the applications and services. Their adoption is moving toward software that can provide the same high-level of IT service for the lowest cost in terms of deployment and support.

Where network services like security, voice, video and management functions are concerned, the same trend is emerging. Today, enterprise users can deploy enterprise class open source network services on servers to throttle bandwidth and provide denial of service mitigation, for example. And just like the industry saw commercial firewall and VPN software move into appliances and then to the network switch fabric, the same is happening for open source network services as well.

The reason why network services are moving into switch fabric is because server-based services running on operating systems often lack performance and dedicated appliances that offer high performance eventually start stacking up (physically), creating an appliance glut that is tough to manage.

The biggest challenge facing IT departments is...
...Being able to manage branch office networks centrally with regard to converged voice services, gateway security and data communications security. The current scenario in most organizations is that branch and main offices use several appliances and server-based solutions that are difficult to manage. An important solution to this challenge is the emergence of multiple service routers (MSR) that integrate multiple services into the network and support central management. MSRs deployed across regional offices, for example, can be integrated with security and voice applications that are managed by a head office.

A related challenge is in the high cost of bandwidth to link branch offices up. To address this issue, WAN optimization applications can be integrated into the MSR network to optimize the use of leased bandwidth. In the future, MSRs will enable head offices to manage branch offices as though they are local offices.

SMBs can also use MSRs as an integrated device for data networking, voice telephony and security solutions. Likewise, service providers can also take advantage of branch office and SMB needs by offering MSR devices as a managed service that they can control. The MSR platform will allow service providers the flexibility to add, upgrade and change network services as the needs of the customer changes.

 Previous page 

Adobe Systems  

Talkback 0 comments

• Senior Service Delivery Consultant – Domain Operations
• Service Delivery Manager – Banking IT
• Service Delivery Manager ( IT Head ) S&D
• INTERNATIONAL BPOMIS EXECUTIVE call 9899967866
• VP/AVP Finance MIS Banking

TechGuides

Cost and graphics concerns delay a VDI project

Virtual desktops are a serious paradigm shift and Scott Lowe is taking it in a slow and measured way. In this article, he provides an update on ongoing VDI efforts at Westminster College.

Read more »

Latest from Blog Central

Do we need more delivery centers?

Read more »

Cutting-edge technology from premium sponsors

Adaptive Threat Management

High Performance Security for your Distributed Enterprise

Achieve lower TCO, agility, risk mitigation, compliance, and productivity

Webcast series: Cybercrime is a growth industry - is your organisation prepared?

More resources to optimize the security of your enterprise »

Brought to you by:

 

 

 

More Tech Showcases:

Hitachi Eco-Products

Juniper Networks