IP Connections
Software provides low-cost UC
Alternative to hardware can eliminate the need for expensive networking upgrades.
by Bob Johnson
Organizations need
inexpensive unified communications (UC)
solutions that can integrate with their
existing IT, telephony and mobile
environments. Such tools are now beginning
to appear, offering the ability to leverage
the existing infrastructure, a minimal
impact on available bandwidth and simple,
straightforward policy-based administration.
This new generation of UC solutions
streamlines the task of providing on-demand
access to people and information in order to
encourage collaboration, accelerate the flow
of information and deliver better and faster
decision making at all levels of the
organization.
The key problem is
bloated offerings that require significant
investments in hardware and software hinder
UC adoption. Today’s UC solutions offered by
the major vendors can be complex and
expensive, and lock an organization into
specific infrastructures.
The key elements of a UC
solution include:
- Presence.
The cornerstone of any UC application,
this provides real-time notification of
users’ current availability.
- Secure
instant messaging (IM). Colleagues can
enter into timely sessions to
collaborate faster, but with the
security and privacy that are not
offered by public IM services.
- Video.
Desktop videoconferencing offers
anytime, spontaneous convenience over
traditional videoconference or
telepresence approaches where employees
have to book conference rooms in
advance.
- Conferencing
and collaboration. UC is about bringing
together groups of people who can see
and edit information together.
- Mobile
integration. People want to collaborate
anytime, anywhere. Teleworkers and
business travelers can fully participate
in UC sessions from laptops amd mobile
devices.
The new generation of UC
is available as a software application that
can be immediately deployed onto a standard
server within the corporate network and
leverages existing videoconferencing and
communications infrastructures. UC software
can eliminate the need for expensive
networking upgrades by utilizing IT-defined
controls, user-specified adjustments and
real-time adaptive bandwidth management to
deliver a positive experience on the
existing infrastructure.
IT defines the maximum
operating parameters for all UC sessions to
control the impact on bandwidth. Adaptive
bandwidth management constantly monitors
communications latency for each user, making
adjustments as required to provide users the
best possible experience with the highest
possible performance. Users have the
flexibility to make individual adjustments
for voice, video and data according to the
unique circumstances of the UC session.
The new generation of UC
provides for ease of administration for IT,
as well as for users. Administration of the
UC solution can be performed by end-users
with a minimum of training. Individuals
initiating a UC session can easily reach out
to participants using pre-existing Active
Directory or LDAP groups or personal address
books.
Bob Johnson
UC can help organizations
provide faster and more flexible access to
people and information, while offering the
potential to reduce business travel
expenses. The new generation of UC has the
potential to deliver on the potential
espoused by the big players by supporting
existing equipment, providing high
performance with the current infrastructure
and eliminating administrative complexities.
Bob Johnson is president and chief operating officer of Dialcom, Herndon, Va.
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