Stephen, thanks for that message and your ongoing efforts in getting the news out to us.
[and] All,
Looking at the increasing numbers of releases coming out in this field caused me to recall a brief conversation I had with a colleague the other day.
I asked him how his VPN RFPs were going, and his eyes rolled up inside his head:
"We're at a standstill."
It was late at night, and he was obviously flabbergasted looking for a cigarette on Wall Street, at a time of night when all of the regular stores were closed, and the only known overnight "deli establishment" was undergoing renovations.
Wussup?
"The European front is in check, but here in the States it's really wild. Out of control."
"The new management tools coming out... even the modeling tools, can't test them or design around them, without an actual network already in place. In order to set parameters and performance objectives, never mind test them, you need to first install them and tune 'em, and without a network in place, you just can't do that. It's a Catch-22. Modeling tools just wont do in a vacuum. And we've already modified the bid several times in the past month, and the carriers and vendors are starting to look at us kinda funny."
"How about the extranet?" I asked... The reply was, "In spades."
Improvements, upgrades, revisioins, some would call these a collective strive towards excellence, are accelerating at an unprecedented pace in this sector, leaving rubble and broken models in their wake. And so it is with VoIP, I feel.
That is, improvements and enhancements in the model, if I can use that term (and harmonization efforts between models), are taking place way faster than carriers, vendors and users can digest them. And with each implementation, another reason to preserve another investment. It kinda works at cross purposes against itself in this regard.
Perhaps the incumbents knew this, or possessed the intuition that this would happen, all along. Or am I just giving them too much credit here?
So, when can we expect the eye of this hurricane to pass over us, so that everyone has at least a moment of respite in order to catch their breath? Any ideas where this is all going? Surely there have been other occasions in recent history that parallel this one, can anyone point them out?
And what is the proper approach that carriers should be taking, assuming the foregoing accurately characterizes what is taking place here? Comments and arguments are welcome.
Regards, Frank Coluccio |
