Cisco Systems Inc.’s Joe Burton has a “suggestion” for the industry on the best architecture for unified communications: Combine on-premises and on-demand delivery.
While having a big influence, Burton told attendees at the VON Conference & Expo Tuesday that he has no illusions that the big technology companies like Cisco can hand down an edict for how communications will evolve. “My message to Cisco and our customers is, ‘We are not in charge, the world is bigger than that. There are huge global trends and transitions taking place all around us. Our job is to help customers figure out how to thread the needle.’”
Burton, who is vice president and CTO for unified communications for the networking giant, examines those trends – technological, societal, legal, business/financial, etc. – to find inflection points, or changes that will change revenue (up or down) 25 percent.
Taking this into account, Burton and his team have created a model for successful UC deployments – for service providers or enterprises – beginning with a foundation on an intelligent network. Its layers, listed bottom first, include:
- Intelligent Network – on-demand and on-premises
- Web Services – call control, voice/video, customer databases, business applications, etc., exposed through Web Services
- Security
- Applications and mashups – iGoogle, Sharepoint, line of business applications, custom applications, Webex, etc.
- Policy – a second security layer
- Workspace devices
“Generally, this the kind of collaborative architecture everyone needs to fit into,” Burton said.
The approach solves several problems, not the least of which is that companies do not agree about how to deploy UC. Burton said a poll of enterprise CIOs at a recent Cisco meeting found that while most intend to adopt a cloud strategy, their ways of doing it varied. While one company wanted real-time apps (voice and video) on prem and Web conferencing and IM on demand, another wanted all services on prem and disaster recovery in the cloud. These were only two of several derivatives, he said.
“I don’t think we will converge on a single answer anytime soon,” he said.
Another problem is that companies need to give employees the tools that they need; otherwise, they will source them on their own. In a personal example, Burton said he needs his Macbook Air, Nokia and Apple iPhone to do his job. But company policy says he should be fired for this rogue initiative.
Cisco’s architecture lets employees use the devices they want while providing two layers of context-sensitive security that identifies the user, the services they are accessing and the context (where and what device) they are using to access it. In practice, this can prevent the company’s proprietary data from falling into the wrong hands, e.g. on a lost mobile device.
The architecture, Burton said, speaks to the evolving needs of employees for a new workspace, e.g. any device or location. But it also works for partners who are increasingly seeking equal access and inclusion from the cross-company collaboration. It also works for customers who want intimacy with their suppliers in being part of the solution. And, it works for business leaders who are seeking business transformation.
