Last week, I tweeted about the Cisco® Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2010 to 2015. According to the report, worldwide mobile data traffic will increase 26-fold.

Two major global trends are driving these significant increases: a continued surge in mobile-ready devices such as tablets and smart phones, and widespread mobile video content consumption.

The Cisco study estimates that by 2015, there will be a mobile connected device for nearly every member of the world’s population.

So what does this mean? Well, for one thing, it’s a harbinger that it’s time to get our WAN architectures ready for the flood of video traffic. What happens when you don’t? Aside from the obvious—you deliver a frustrating and dissatisfying media experience—you also put other network applications at risk of going down.

If that’s not enough to spur you to take another look at your WAN, consider my top five predictions for what this tsunami of video traffic might lead to from a cultural trending perspective:

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Tags: Bill Gates, mobile, predictions, TelePresence, video, vni, WAN

In the evolution of IP routing, Cisco performance routing (PfR) is a more advanced routing mechanism. Compared to traditional IP routing protocols like Static routing, RIP, OSPF, EIGRP or BGP that use static metrics to provide reachability information to the higher layers, PfR enhances traditional IP routing by selecting the best path based on live measurements and configured policies.

As we move from applications hitherto satisfied with simple reachability to applications whose performance is directly tied to network performance, traditional IP routing protocols fall short. They cannot guarantee complex application SLA requirements as these parameters are not included in the decision making process. This void can be filled by a routing mechanism that takes applications’ requirements while making routing decisions. PfR makes adaptive routing decisions based on criteria like latency, packet loss, jitter, traffic load and configured cost policies. This ability to configure flexibility into the routing decision process makes PfR closer to applications.

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Tags: business video, enterprise networks, medianet, performance routing, rich media applications, video

Let’s face it:

• videos on the internet are a dime a dozen these days
• there’s no way to differentiate one brand from another when it comes to the impact of video
• YouTube is the only channel for video distribution and there’s no value in anything else

If you believe any of this, then you definitely need to join me at an upcoming Social Media Week panel.  I will join several industry colleagues in providing a crash course on how to stand out in a video world.

In this session entitled, “How to Stand Out When Everyone’s Using Video,” I will focus on the finer points of using video to engage audiences and integrate it with organization’s social efforts. With me will be Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3; Jordan Hoffner, president of digital media at Electus; and Melissa Chanslor, social media lead at Text 100.  Moderating the panel is a true technology and social media maven, Liz Gannes of All Things D.

During the discussion I promise we won’t just tell you that video is important, and that it provides a different channel to communicate with various audiences — everyone knows this by now. Instead, we will be specific about why it can be a great tool for a brand (especially if you’re a media company), and how to get the most value from it. Read More »

Tags: All Things D, brand, cisco eos, Electus, Social Media Week, value, video

I work for a technology company — in emerging technologies, no less — but keep finding myself on the end of the technology adoption curves.  It was 2000 before I got my first cell phone, and I’m still using a non-touch-screen Blackberry. Even my two-year old son looks at me with pity when he watches me use my phone.

Part of the reluctance stems from the need to learn (yet another!) interface.  It takes me back to the first time I used a WYSIWYG word processor and found myself wishing I could go back to WordPerfect 4.2: I’d committed the formatting tags to muscle memory already.

This “learning investment” in older technologies makes it harder to adopt newer technologies, even when they’re clearly superior.

But video is totally different.  Unlike other technological “innovations” in the past, it’s actually becoming easier to use.

Consuming video is easy:  just click on play. (Okay, unless it’s a Flash video on an iPhone.)

Interacting with video is easy: just use a phone interface or a touch screen. (No more remotes!)

Recording video is easy: just hit the big red button on the Flip camera.

Distributing video is easy: just plug the Flip camera into your USB port — no more fiddling with tape and converting formats.  Or take a video with your phone and upload it to Facebook.

In fact, it’s strange to NOT see someone I’m talking to.  I telecommute from home, and 90% of the calls I make are over video.  I do one-on-ones with my team members over video.  I meet with groups, sitting in telepresence rooms, over video.  I brainstorm with people spread over five different locations, all over video.

And all over a home broadband connection.  Using a touchscreen interface that even I find intuitive.

I can see the sceptical eyebrow lift, the thoughtful finger tapping, the distracted texting, the enthusiastic hand-waving.  Silent pauses don’t make me nervous anymore.  Everyone gets away with less multi-tasking, which means meetings get shorter and more productive. What a concept!

Most importantly, video makes me feel as relevant as being in San Jose.   Sure, I don’t get the water cooler talk (who has time for water cooler talk, anyway?) but I get to wear pajama bottoms.

Tags: telecommuting, TelePresence, video

Defining Your Approach to Workspace Video

A companion post to “Techwise #83 -- Extending Video from Boardroom to Workspace”

Register here to watch the video!

Definitions are changing. Is your dictionary up-to-date?

Workspace. The definition of the workspace has changed because the workforce itself has changed.  Many employees are still sitting neatly in offices and cubicles, but they are also now global, remote and mobile.  They still come together in boardrooms and all-hands meetings, but they also come together in virtual environments, sometimes from their hand-held tablet in a hotel lobby.

Work. The definition of work itself has changed, and workers are spoiled on speed. Information flows more like fast food than a sit-down dinner.  Just to make it more challenging, travel budgets that use to enable face-to-face contact have been slashed and will never return to the “good old days.” This has created new communication gaps that need to be filled to stay competitive in this new Nascar race… and IT leaders are holding the keys.

Collaboration. Collaboration technology has a new definition too.  It used to mean sticking a document in a shared folder so multiple people could access it.  Now it refers to the complete set of tools that workers use to connect with each other and get the job done.  As Robb Boyd describes in his Keys to the Show segment, this includes using video in places outside the classic “videoconferencing room.” And just to make it tougher on IT, it’s a highly situational choice about which tool gets used and when. Read More »

Tags: call manager, collaboration, tandberg, video, WebEX, workspace