Its a no-brainer that IP-based video applications are increasing at a dramatic rate, and its having a dramatic affect on network traffic. A recent study/white paper by Cisco attempts to quantify the growth and provide a glimpse into the future. According to this paper, video traffic on the internet in 2007 exceeded the level of traffic on the entire internet in 2000.

"The Exabyte Era"

cisco.com...net_implementation..pdf

Anyone Can be a Film Studio

But what is driving all the video traffic? It is a combination of factors culminating into the "perfect storm". What do you need for an application or technology to go mainstream? You need several factors including a low barrier to entry, something that simplifies the technology, add a dash of the killer application, and voila, you have a technology that goes mainstream and grows exponentially. For video, think about 5-10 years ago when video cameras became so affordable and prevelant that just about everyone bought one and became and amateur video producer. Barrier to entry number one removed. But still, it wasn't that easy to be a distributor and distribution networks were not common.

But today, social networking sites like YouTube, MySpace and many others appearing every day have dramatically lowered the barrier to video publishing to the point where anyone can do it. So video cameras are so common that almost every cell phone, PDA, laptop, digital still cameras, and oh yeah...video cameras themselves, provide a pretty high quality video capture. If so inclined, video editing software is also cheap and easy to use. Add to that a free, global video publishing and distribution system, and essentially anyone, anywhere can be a film producer. Our kids showed us a couple films they shot and edited and we were amazed. With little or no training, they are making movie shorts that rival those at Cannes (hey, they are our kids, yes we are biased).

What Does it Mean for Corporate Networks

If you administer a corporate network, you may be saying at this point "so what, that's a consumer phenomenon, it does not apply to me." We say, think again. The cross-over is already happening. First, you have alot more applications relying on video that are finding their way onto converged IP networks. Traditional video conferencing over IP networks was just a toe in the water. Add to that Telepresence, IP video surveillance systems, broadcast communications, training VoDs, desktop video conferencing, digital signage, and so on, and the video "spectrum" of the network starts to get a little crowded.

Second, if you have not seen it already, social networking is coming to a corporate net near you. Ask yourself, why have social networking trends zeroed in on video as the predominant communication medium? Easy. Video is the most effective medium. People can show or demonstrate concepts much more effectively and easily using video than any other.

Just as the progression occurred from voice exchange to text, to graphical, to powerpoint slides, video will start to supplant those forms of communications. Think about the time it would take to create a good set of slides describing how to setup one of your company's products. Now how much easier would it be just to film someone doing it? That's one of many examples that is happening. Soon enough, all sorts of intellectual property will shift from documents and slides to video clips.

The point is, if you think the video phenomenon is just for consumers, you may want to check your wallet for the Flat Earth Society card and discard it soon.

In part 2 we will examine a few things you should be thinking about to prepare your network for video.