For those who have multiple technologies, multiple locations, or multiple vendors in their unified communications deployments, we’d like to recommend a white paper available on Webtorials that looks at managing the complexity of such a portfolio.
Sponsored by Integrated Research, this study notes that although performance data may be available across individual technologies and vendor platforms, it cannot be easily correlated — at times leaving IT managers in the dark when it comes to understanding how the performance of one technology is affecting another. The paper also points out the importance of quickly correlating and understanding performance data since the conditions that caused any issues can also change rapidly.
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In her introductory comments, the study’s author, Sue Bradshaw, shares an example of how complexity can quickly blossom. She says, “One of UC’s key goals is to allow people to communicate using a variety of media types. For example, you can receive a voicemail message and choose to access it through e-mail or cell phone. If the sender is online according to Presence information and currently accepts calls, the response can be sent immediately through a cell, IM or video call. Alternatively, it may be sent as a non real-time message like email. In just describing one ‘simple’ user interaction within UC we have already mentioned six technologies!”
Bradshaw continues, “If any one of these technologies is unavailable or overloaded and cannot respond in time, the whole process may break. And although the variety of technologies available today makes it easier to find a way round a problem than in the past; the fundamental advantage of streamlining communications and providing choice is compromised.”
In the paper, the author stresses the importance of managing performance information that is unified as an ecosystem — both in real time and historically. To read more about this, the paper can be downloaded for free here. Our thanks to Webtorials and Integrated Research for sharing this information and perspective.
