Over the last few months, a growing consensus has emerged pointing to a dramatic change in the way people access the Internet.
In 2011, for the first time ever, worldwide annual demand for smart phones surpassed that of PCs, laptops and tablets combined. Then last month our Mobile Visual Networking Index (VNI) Update reported that global mobile data traffic is growing even faster than previously forecasted and will increase 18-fold over the next five years.
So by this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, the ‘top of mind’ for network operators, government officials and device manufacturers was the dramatic accelerating impact that mobile data consumption will have on Internet access, networks and users.
When we launched the mobile VNI report on February 14, a panel of industry, academia and government experts glimpsed into the future of mobile broadband and related policy issues, with three key takeaways:
Government policies that try to choose between wireless or wire line broadband delivery set up a false choice. Both are needed to work together. While wireless infrastructure will increasingly be the choice of most users for access, all wireless connections ultimately will lead to fiber. The network isn’t mobile, users are mobile and networks of the future will be heterogenous, combining small cells and fiber backhaul with macro cells for coverage.
Both licensed and unlicensed spectrum will be crucial to satisfy broadband demand. The VNI study highlighted the importance of “off-loading” of mobile traffic to Wi-Fi to cope with rising data consumption: currently 11% of mobile data traffic is being off-loaded by operators to small cells (including Wi-Fi and femtocells) and globally this will double to 22% by 2016 and to 37% in the US. More spectrum, and the right kind of spectrum, will need to be made available.
Cloud based services, enabling delivery of content and applications on any device at any time, will require network architectures that provide high quality of service. By 2016, cloud applications will account for 71% of total mobile data traffic (up from 45% in 2011). And because advanced cloud services require an average latency of less than 50 ms (Cisco’s Global Cloud Index), network improvements will be needed to support high quality wireless cloud experiences.
Mobile broadband subscriptions already outpace wired broadband connections, and as billions of new Internet users emerge over the coming years, mobile broadband connectivity will increasingly become how most of the world’s population connects to the Internet.
Watch the highlights of mobile VNI study in the launch video. The panel discussion begins at minute 24:00.
On my flight home Friday after a full week at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), I was reflecting on how mobility is more important than ever before. This comes as no surprise considering the success of consumer devices and our need to be mobile in our day-to-day lives. Now, the real opportunity is how we bring mobility, video and cloud together to create the next generation internet.
At CES, Cisco showed up strong, sharing with customers, the analyst community and the media how we’re making the internet more visual by leveraging the power of Read More »
Many of us here on the Cisco Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI) team are excited about upcoming news around Cisco’s virtualization solutions. And the Cisco VXI message gets amplified further at VMworld Copenhagen (Oct 18) and Citrix Synergy Barcelona (Oct 25).
Here is a quick video summary that my wife, Beth Dooley, helped me record a few hours after returning home (Silicon Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, California) from my VXI Experience Tour in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. The video was shot from our backyard deck. The original was 10 mins in length but we cut it down to just the first 3 mins:
During this VXI tour in APAC, I delivered our message to 10 sessions, 3 countries (Singapore, Japan, Korea) with hundreds of customers, partners, and internal Cisco teams. Siva Mandalam (Director, Cisco Enterprise Architecture & Systems) delivered our message in India the week before. PJ Barber (Director, Cisco Desktop Virtualization) delivers our message in Australia this week.
Prior to this trip, the Cisco team was expecting the vast majority of its near-term revenue, partner activity and customer interest for VXI to be concentrated in North America and Europe. After this APAC tour, it’s obvious there are some big things happening in Asia. Many could argue that the most mature countries in the APAC region for desktop virtualization adoption would be Australia and India. However, we’re seeing early signs of positive growth in Korea, Japan, and parts of China and SouthEast Asia as well.
In Japan, the attendance and interest exceeded everyone’s expectation with sessions in the hundreds leaving standing room only. In Korea, the teams were not only enthusiastic but they could see beyond just hosted virtual desktops and how this architecture applied to their overall “cloud” initiatives. In recent years, Korea has taken an innovation leadership role in areas such as automobiles, home appliances, consumer electronics, Internet broadband delivery, mobile handsets, and a variety of Post-PC devices from companies like Samsung and LG. Also, Korea’s modern culture is a strikingly unique blend of old tradition and new innovation. You can see this blending of old and new not only in their technology landscape but it extends into their music, fashion, and films. Cisco VXI is in many ways a blending of old (Windows PCs and legacy applications) and new (virtual workspaces using collaborative networking and cloud-based computing).
In my opinion, Korea is a country to watch for the next 12-18 months in this area. I could see at least one or two of Korea’s leading industries emerge as a guiding light for how businesses can move into the Post-PC area, deliver unique collaboration services, and embrace cloud computing in a way that we have not seen before.
Overall: the APAC region leveraging Cisco VXI has all the ingredients to be a significant portion of “first-mover” Enterprises and Service Providers in the Post-PC era. The proliferation of next generation devices are well suited for VXI when combined with rich collaboration services using high-performance networks and clouds. We just need to help convert this beaming enthusiasm into action. Amazing new developments are sure to come out of Asia, yet again.
So says Alex Dunsdson who leads M&C Saatchi Strategy Group on development of portable content initiatives for business.
The self-professed “mobile realist” led a session for partners at Partner Velocity last December called Mobile is the “Next Frontier of Marketing — How Can You Get Started without Falling Off the Edge?” (Full session replay available on the Partner Velocity site.)
There are more smart phones sold now than PCs, he says. What’s more, a staggering 90% of people have their mobile phones within one meter of themselves at all times.
So how do you leverage that opportunity to use mobile to market to your customers? We chatted with Alex to find out his thoughts and learn some mobile do’s and don’ts.
What else did he say? Here are 3 mobile marketing tips he shared. Read More »
We’ve wrapped up an action-packed week at Partner Velocity in Barcelona, Spain where Cisco partners learned, not only to change their way of thinking about marketing, but also to use social media in innovative ways.
I had a chance to interview speaker and creative director of Thinque Anders Sorman-Nilsson about ideas and how to “thinque funky.”
Anders says that in a highly digital world, high touch (and appealing to our customers’ hearts and emotions) is key. He also talked about thought leaders, those who have unleashed their own inner super heroes, who blaze a trail in new thinking.
What else did partners learn at the event? Here are just a few memorable quotes from speakers.
