Does CT drive convergence? Is it an enabler? Yes, but everything is still very much in an evaluation phase."
Converging On CT For Enterprise
March 2, 1999
INTERNETWEEK:
To IT managers assessing the effect of
convergence on their mission-critical
applications, Eric Giler has a suggestion:
Install a computer telephony (CT) system to
determine how valid convergence is within
your network.
It's not exactly new advice, but Giler,
president and also founder of Brooktrout
Technology, said CT has some distinct
advantages that could help enterprises as
they begin to examine pushing voice and
data traffic across a single line or platform.
"I think that the computer telephony
industry, in general, has the ability to
integrate voice, fax and data and make
those applications available to a wide variety
of users, from small workgroups to large
offices," Giler said, in advance of his keynote
at this week's Computer Telephony Expo in
Los Angeles.
Giler said developers also are increasingly
using other more open standards such as
multivendor interface protocol (MVIP) to
create new CT apps, and that there is a
huge base of existing developers ready to
bring apps to market much more quickly than
router-based products from Cisco.
"Voice over IP to me is just another CT
application; the datacom guys come in with
their own architecture while the CT people
say, 'Use industrial-strength PCs' " to
manage voice and data services, Giler said.
"The datacom boys say, 'We will modify
existing routers and blades,' but that
provides only limited functionality. It's Cisco
vs. everyone else."
Giler's comments notwithstanding, Sterling
Research analyst Sam Alunni said the
deployment of CT is just one part of the
puzzle facing IT managers investigating
convergence.
"It makes sense, but it's an old story," Alunni
said. "There are so many additional issues,
and the factors supporting such a
deployment aren't there yet. Does CT drive
convergence? Is it an enabler? Yes, but
everything is still very much in an evaluation
phase."
Giler said he would caution IT managers that
the pursuit of convergence shouldn't be
driven strictly by cost considerations.
"Chasing cost savings can be very elusive,"
he said. "Everyone knows that packet-based
data networks are cheaper than
circuit-switched, but that alone won't drive
people to buy" packet-based voice.
"You can operate that circuit-switched
network for a penny a minute, so what's the
advantage of being cheaper than that?" he
asked. "If the world is moving from
circuit-switched to packet-based
technologies, to make an assumption that
you are going to completely throw out your
circuit-switched apps is silly."
Copyright c 1999 CMP Media Inc. |
