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UC Security Lacking

Beyond standing email security, most UC security efforts lean toward protection of VOIP, Nemertes finds. SIP protection lags far behind, and IM security is barely on the radar.

EU Progressive with DLP

EU Companies operating in other compliance regimes, especially in EU countries where individuals are considered to be the owners of their personal data and enterprises merely custodians, are more likely to be deploying data-leak prevention technology now. Nearly 30 percent of companies with global operations are using the technology, while 50 percent are evaluating, according to Nemertes Research.

Financial Services Leads the Way

The rise of identity theft has raised awareness about data-leak prevention quite high in financial services, according to Nemertes Research. Nearly 67 percent of enterprises in the financial services vertical are using the technology. The shift to electronic health records is having, and will continue to have, a similar effect in healthcare.

DLP Not Common...Yet

Importantly, no small organizations Nemertes has benchmarked are yet deploying data-leak prevention. Another 21% are planning to deploy DLP systems by 2011.

UC, Privacy, and Presence

Last week, we discussed some of the issues unified communications raises with respect to litigatin, including e-discovery challenges. This week, I’d like to raise awareness of privacy concerns related to UC adoption.

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SIP Trunking Differentiators

To help SIP trunking buyers Nemertes has created a check-list of key product differentiators to look at when evaluating SIP trunking service offerings. These include:

· Size of markets targeted

· Verticals targeted

· Value added features (virtual numbers, 800 call routing, contact center support, etc.)

· Geographies served

· Key partners

· Service types

· Cost

· SIPconnect certification

· VOIP system support

· Security guarantees

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SIPconnect Aims to Define Interoperability

SIP-trunking services are still are rapidly growing in availability though interoperability challenges spurred by different vendor and service provider implementations of SIP remain the key obstacle to a successful implementation. The SIP Forum's SIPconnect initiative is a multi-vendor effort to define SIP trunking interoperability standards to enable broad support between service provider and IP-PBX platforms. Recently the SIP Forum began work on an update to SIPconnect, designed to support more features and address shortcomings of the current standard.

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SIP Trunking: More than PSTN Access

Many SIP-trunking providers deliver a number of value-added services, such as dynamic call re-routing. This lets voice architects set rules for in-bound call management, such as “follow- the-sun” configurations that route incoming calls to call centers based on time of day, or routing of calls based on utilization of existing resources. By moving this routing logic into the service-provider network, customers can reduce their own operating complexity, further reducing costs and simplifying call-routing management.

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Don't Forget About Security:

Only one-third of those adopting SIP trunking have a strategy for security, Nemertes finds. Vulnerabilities for SIP trunks are significant, ranging from PBX toll fraud to sophisticated denial of service attacks and violation of compliance with privacy regulations, such as the Payment Card Industry Digital Security Standard (PCI-DSS) and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). Just as a firewall is standard Internet protection SIP security should too be standard; firewall, secure gateway and/or SIP trunk service provider.

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SIP Trunking on the Rise

Nemertes has tracked growing interest in SIP trunking, with 19% of recent research participants saying that they are deploying SIP trunking, up from 12% in 2008. An additional 28% are planning to deploy, while 16% are evaluating SIP trunking for potential future deployment. Among SMBs, half (50%) are using or evaluating SIP trunking.

Skype Grows Up

Now that it's legal troubles are apparently behind it, and separation from eBay is near, Skype is free to move aggressively into new opportunities, especially the nascent SIP trunking industry.

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The Move to Hosted VOIP

In this tight economy IT is continually looking for ways to convert capital expense (CapEx) to operational expense (OpEx). One way is to IP telephony to a hosted model. Last week BT and Cisco announced a partnership to deliver hosted IP Telephony. Using a per-user, per-month pricing model, BT Hosted IPT is built on its Onevoice UCC portfolio and 21CN global platform. Cisco Services will build the underlying infrastructure using Cisco and third-party hardware and software.

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Desktop Video, Not Ready to Replace the Telephone

Although Nemertes sees increased interest in desktop video, we don’t expect it to replace straight voice calls. Instead, it’s most often used to augment other video conferencing systems, enabling home or mobile workers, or those unable to get to a video conferencing room to still participate in a video session comprised primarily of room-based users. Rarely have we found companies who are making large investments in desktop video as a general purpose application.

Video Deployment on the Rise

Nemertes sees no sign of video uptake slowing. Participants in our 2009 communications and collaboration benchmark often cite video conferencing as one of the services that “survives the cut” as IT budgets are scaled back due to the recession. If improved collaboration capabilities and reduced travel are goals for your organization, it may be time to evaluate or grow your video deployment.

Conferencing: Not Just for the Big Guys

I was talking to a vendor the other day. These guys specialize in technologies designed for the small-to-medium business (SMB) market, and they asked how long it took for a given technology to “trickle down” from big enterprises to SMBs.

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UC for Mobile Workers

There is growing interest in providing unified communications (UC) support for mobile workers. Vendors are extending their enterprise UC platforms to support devices such as Google Android, RIM BlackBerry, and Apple iPhone via browser-based clients and apps. It’s important to integrate mobile workers into unified communications (UC) plans, while supporting a broad range of mobile platforms. Seventy-five percent of companies now have a mobility strategy, and those with one universally say it is either extremely or very successful.

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Workers Happy from Home

Teleworkers are on the rise. Nearly 86% of organizations say they are increasing the number of teleworkers between 2008 and 2009. The number one reason for about 82% of organizations is to increase employee satisfaction.

Mobile Teleworker or Teleworker that’s Mobile?

What’s the difference between a “teleworker” and a “mobile worker”? Increasingly, not very much. Last week we discussed what organizations should do in order to make sure their companies are “teleworker-friendly”. But here’s the thing: mobile workers---folks who work often or exclusively outside of offices—are basically teleworkers, too.

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IM in the Workplace, Ready or Not

Gaining popularity first on the consumer front, instant messaging continues to be one of the most widely utilized UC applications, with 68% of organizations deploying and an additional 14% evaluating. Organizations must evaluate business drivers and address security concerns, as security is often the largest roadblock to deploying the technology. To address these concerns, most organizations handle it internally, so they maintain control of user accounts, while also managing file transfers, archiving, and logging to support compliance, governance and security requirements.

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A Switch to Softphones?

For the past several years, the deployment of softphones was limited to very small pilots usually among IT staff members. Now, softphones are starting to gain key supporters among non-IT employees, resulting in 70% of organizations using softphones for an average of 22% of their employees. Although the percentage remains relatively small, the growth is significant: This year, an average of 430 employees at each company benchmarked has a softphone; last year, that figure was only 100. One reason for this increase is that softphones themselves have improved.

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