The Issue:

Nemertes Unified Communications and Collaboration Market Analysis: Web
Conferencing

Nemertes Unified Communications and Collaboration Market Analysis: Social
Computing

Nemertes PilotHouse Award program recognizes companies in a variety of technology markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as customer service, technological innovation, technical service, value and strategic product development.

Nemertes 2008 PilotHouse Awards - Top UC Providers

For more information, contact:
Karen Wucher Nemertes Research
Phone: 972.335.7028
Cell: 972.872.0828
Karen.Wucher@nemertes.com

Nemertes Presents Top Unified Communications Vendors with PilotHouse Awards

Nemertes PilotHouse Award program recognizes companies in a variety of technology markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as customer service, technological innovation, technical service, value and strategic product development.

Nemertes PilotHouse Awards 2008: Advanced Communications Services

Nemertes PilotHouse Award program recognizes companies in a variety of technology markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as customer service, technological innovation, technical service, value and strategic product development.

Nemertes 2008 PilotHouse Awards - Top VOIP Providers

For more information, contact:

The Issue:

Advanced Communications Services - 2008

Overview:

More companies are discovering the cost and productivity benefits of
using advanced communication services, such as MPLS, Ethernet and SIP
trunking, which let them combine voice, data, video, imaging and enterprise
applications on the same network. They also see the value in using hosted
services, including hosted audio, video and Web conferencing, as well as hosted
VOIP, contact centers and data centers.

By implementing these advanced services, IT teams not only enable their
business to communicate more effectively, they provide the means to better serve
customers, boost sales and improve employee productivity.

These capabilities are extending over wireless networks, making it easier
not only to serve the remote workers in fixed branch locations, but also those who
are truly mobile. As this unified-communications environment expands to
include other communications modalities, IT decision-makers must understand
the implications for IT planning and investment.

Often, organizations will restructure or consolidate their IT departments
to more effectively manage and monitor voice and data networks. A majority of
organizations have dedicated a “communications group” within IT focused on
providing these services.

Overview:

Advanced Communications Services have become increasingly relevant to
businesses in large part because of the proliferation of branch offices, remote
workers, and the need for access to centrally provided data and applications.
These services, including Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), Ethernet,
Internet access, peering, hosted connectivity and mobile offerings, are becoming
even more critical because the way we work is changing dramatically.

The majority of companies now:

• Rely on MPLS VPN services for site-to-site connectivity.
• Are increasingly using Ethernet as part of their WAN strategies, eitherfor access to MPLS-VPNs,
  or to supplement (or even replace MPLSVPN services) with Layer-2 services.
• Are running multiple traffic types including voice, video, and/or data, across their WANs.
• Are increasing demands for bandwidth, both to the branch as well as to the Internet.
• Are deploying SIP trunking to reduce PSTN access costs while increasing call routing flexibility.

Consequently, understanding trends in service availability, features and
pricing around MPLS, Ethernet, Internet and SIP services is vital. IT have
aggressively leveraged these new service options to reduce operating costs, or
reduce per-bit cost of bandwidth enabling their organizations to meet everincreasing
demands for bandwidth with little or no increase in monthly operating
costs.

The limiting factor for many services continues to be availability as larger
providers are often slow to ramp up Ethernet or SIP-trunking service offerings, or
they must overcome challenges related to integrating past acquisitions. This has
led enterprise IT architects to leverage service offerings from emerging providers
as an alternative to their established service providers.

In the never-ending quest to stay ahead of industry trends, IT executives
are investigating hosted peering options to increase Internet resiliency. Finally, a
small number of organizations are investigating IPv6 to provide new
functionality or to meet growing governmental requirements.

Overview:

IT spending is generally up for 2008 and 2009 in terms of overall dollars
devoted to this area. But a growing number of organizations are decreasing their
IT spends or anticipating flat budgets moving into next year.

At the same time, communications budgets are not seeing hard times, with
many companies expecting increases in these budgets. This means that moving
into 2009, a greater percentage of IT spending will go toward communications
services costs.

This volume examines general trends in IT and communications spending.
Additionally, we review how different sizes of companies and different vertical
markets plan to spend their IT and communications dollars.

As the U.S. economy slows, it is key for companies to optimize every dollar
spent both in IT overall and within communications. Given the communications
budget is becoming a larger part of the overall IT budget, it’s imperative to stretch
a nickel into a dime. For example, managed services are one way companies can
leverage their communications spends because those services can help offload the
IT and network staffs.

In order to get the biggest bang for the buck, companies must devote time
and resources to effective carrier contract negotiations and procurement. In this
volume, we provide detailed recommendations on how to get the best deal from
the carriers. We also analyze what companies are doing today and where they fall
short.

Overview:

Advanced Communications Services have become increasingly relevant
to businesses in large part because of the proliferation of branch
offices, remote workers, and the need for access to centrally provided
data and applications. These services, including Multi-Protocol Label
Switching (MPLS), Ethernet, Internet access, peering, hosted
connectivity and mobile offerings, are becoming even more critical
because the way we work is changing dramatically.

The majority of companies now:

• Centralize their applications and data in primary and backup data centers;
• Open new branch locations, with an average growth rate of about 12% a year;
• Expand the percentage of employees who telecommute full- or part-time;
• Implement new collaborative applications to improve productivity, customer service, and remote management of staff.

Overview:

Wireless is emerging as one of the single most transformational technologies for business. Rather than being deployed in the context of enabling business communications, IT managers are deploying wireless to facilitate business computing. Wireless spending is now a key component of IT spending and is tied to revenue production, as well. Transformation is occurring both on the company campus and on the road, as mobile workers increasingly use wireless as their primary means of accessing company data.

Overview:

Advanced Communications Services have become increasingly relevant
to businesses in large part because of the proliferation of branch
offices, remote workers, and the need for access to centrally provided
data and applications. These services, including Multi-Protocol Label
Switching (MPLS), Ethernet, Internet access, peering, hosted
connectivity and mobile offerings, are becoming even more critical
because the way we work is changing dramatically.

The majority of companies now:

• Centralize their applications and data in primary and backup data centers;
• Open new branch locations, with an average growth rate of about 12% a year;
• Expand the percentage of employees who telecommute full- or part-time;
• Implement new collaborative applications to improve productivity, customer service, and remote management of staff.

Overview:

Advanced communications services encompass managed and hosted
services providing network connectivity between sites and to the
Internet. Connectivity options typically include MPLS, Ethernet, and/or
fixed/mobile wireless. Additional advanced communications services
include hosted applications such SIP trunking, and voice/video/Web
conferencing. Taken together, these services provide the backbone that
enables businesses to communicate, on a basic level. But they also
provide the means to serve customers, boost sales, and improve employee
productivity.

Overview:

Advanced communications services encompass managed and hosted
services providing network connectivity between sites and to the
Internet. Connectivity options typically include MPLS, Ethernet, and/or
fixed/mobile wireless. Additional advanced communications services
include hosted applications such SIP trunking, and voice/video/Web
conferencing. Taken together, these services provide the backbone that
enables businesses to communicate, on a basic level. But they also
provide the means to serve customers, boost sales, and improve employee
productivity.

Overview:

Advanced communications services encompass managed and hosted services providing network connectivity between sites and to the Internet. Connectivity options typically include MPLS, Ethernet, and/or fixed/mobile wireless. Additional advanced communications services include hosted applications such SIP trunking, and voice/video/Web conferencing. Taken together, these services provide the backbone that enables businesses to communicate, on a basic level. But they also provide the means to serve customers, boost sales, and improve employee productivity.

Providers differentiate their offerings based on price, availability, speed, reliability, manageability, and functionality. Advanced services harness new technologies, including third-generation wireless and advanced internetworking protocols, and required features, including quality of service and quick response time. And, they facilitate a collaborative work environment, regardless of location or communications device being used. This market is rapidly changing as standards evolve and as businesses adopt new collaborative technologies.

The Issue:

For some organizations, migration to unified messaging is a key
component of their voice over IP plans. Most VOIP vendors offer unified
messaging products as either an embedded capability within their VOIP
platforms, or as a stand-alone component of their product portfolios. But for an
increasing number of enterprises, voice messaging replacement has taken on a
new urgency, leading organizations to address voice messaging separately from
their VOIP plans.

A number of factors are converging to lead to a renewed interest in unified
messaging. These include obsolescence of many legacy voice mail systems, new
e-discovery and compliance rules requiring preservation and archiving of
voicemail messages, and the need for new features and capabilities to support the
virtual and distributed worker. Finally, enterprises are looking to reduce the cost
of managing complex disparate systems assembled by distributed purchasing or
acquisition of other businesses.

Read this issue paper: Next-Generation Unified Messaging

The Issue:

For some organizations, migration to unified messaging is a key
component of their voice over IP plans. Most VOIP vendors offer unified
messaging products as either an embedded capability within their VOIP
platforms, or as a stand-alone component of their product portfolios. But for an
increasing number of enterprises, voice messaging replacement has taken on a
new urgency, leading organizations to address voice messaging separately from
their VOIP plans.

A number of factors are converging to lead to a renewed interest in unified
messaging. These include obsolescence of many legacy voice mail systems, new
e-discovery and compliance rules requiring preservation and archiving of
voicemail messages, and the need for new features and capabilities to support the
virtual and distributed worker. Finally, enterprises are looking to reduce the cost
of managing complex disparate systems assembled by distributed purchasing or
acquisition of other businesses.

Read this issue paper: Next Generation Unified Messaging

The Issue:

When it comes to VOIP security, most IT leaders have worried more about threats to the underlying data network than about potential attacks against VOIP systems themselves. Many IT managers see their VOIP networks as closed systems, protected from the outside world by the PSTN (public switched telephone network). So long as there was no way to reach their IP-PBXs via the public Internet or other outside networks, there is little threat of attack or compromise that could lead to data loss or service disruption. And by and large their views have been reinforced by the lack of attacks against VOIP servers,phones, gateways, and management systems. Less than 2% of enterprises had experienced a security incident directly involving their VOIP systems, while 96%had no known attacks.

Read this Issue Paper:

The Issue:

Unlike its TDM predecessor, IP telephony is not a closed-network, single-application environment using its own network resources. Rather, IP telephony is part of an overall unified-communications infrastructure, where multiple applications compete for finite network resources. As a result, IP telephony implementations require new monitoring and management tools and skills. But is the cost of these IP telephony management tools worth the benefit?

Nemertes Research has conducted an analysis evaluating the operational and capital costs of IP telephony, and has concluded that companies using IP telephony management tools demonstrate a compelling return on investment.

Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

What kind of research is this?

Bookmark/Search this post with:

• Delicious
|
• Digg
|
• Reddit
|
• Technorati

The Issue:

Headquarters and data centers have received ample attention in the past
five years from the IT and networking staffs. With data-center consolidation
projects in place at most organizations, an entire reassessment of the core
infrastructure has taken place. (Please see Nemertes’ Next-Generation Data
Centers benchmark series for more information). As data-center consolidation
projects wind down, IT focus is shifting to branch offices. In many cases, voice
and data applications and even security functions are in data centers.

Now, IT needs to deliver these centralized services to a steadily increasing
number of branches so employees can access applications and data securely and
consistently. This growing virtual workplace puts ever greater demands on the
network and IT infrastructure to support collaborative applications in a
consistent, predictable, and reliable manner. IT staffs must evaluate the needs of
each branch location and respond with a consistent set of products and services
enterprise-wide. They also must evaluate management options to find those that
most effectively prevent problems from emerging and quickly resolve the
problems that do.

Microsoft has officially launched Office Communications Server 2007, supporting integrated voice, video, instant messaging/presence, and telephony features through a software-based platform. Though it's behind most of the IP telephony vendors in offering such unified communications capabilities, many IT decision-makers are closely watching Microsoft's entry into this space as they develop their own unified communications plans.

Cisco Takes Lead in 802.11n with Aironet 1250 Product Release

By Mike Jude, Nemertes Senior Analyst
Sept. 13, 2007

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) announced the product release of its new Aironet 1250 wireless access point, which it is marketing as the first WiFi-compliant access point to conform to the IEEE 802.11n draft 2.0 proposed standard. This move underscores enterprise momentum behind 802.11n as the next generation of WiFi technologies, and enables Cisco to stake out a leadership position in the market.

In the Nemertes Research benchmark, "Building the Successful Virtual Workplace," we noted that enterprises would increasingly look to wireless technology as a viable alternative to recabling. Cisco has explicitly recognized this with the release of the Aironet 1250.

The Aironet 1250 is a modular access point capable of being configured to operate at either 2.4 Ghertz or 5.0 Ghertz. It uses the Cisco MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) architecture to enable data rates as high as 300 GBPS in an 802.11n mode and includes a Gigabit Ethernet interface The Aironet 1250 is designed to operate in high-noise environments, with existing 802.11 a/b/g agents and is intended to enable future upgrades as new wireless standards are adopted.

To read the rest of this Impact Analysis sign up for our weekly e-mail newsletters  or register for access to free web site content