* The importance of applications convergence
One of our recurring themes is that convergence in general and VoIP in specific will not live by toll reduction alone. Rather, true power comes from overlaying voice and data convergence with applications that reach into both realms, thereby redefining business processes.
This trend was borne out in Steve’s 2004 Webtorials VoIP State of the Market Report. In the report, of the three factors that were in a virtual dead heat as leading drivers for convergence, two of them – “enhanced/converged business processes” and “easier to deploy new integrated applications” – were focused on application convergence.
It appears that both services providers and their customers are backing up this trend. According to a recent press release by BellSouth, the company is now offering the Nortel Multimedia Communication Server (MCS) 5100, an applications platform, as customer premises equipment to its customer base. And evidently customers are taking BellSouth up on the offer. The press release highlights Charlotte, N.C., Central Piedmont Community College as an early, happy customer that’s using this equipment.
If you need to learn more about this area, we’re offering an “Applications Convergence Backgrounder” at Webtorials. With both a paper and a complementary presentation, this backgrounder is intended to provide a sound starting point for network professionals who are just moving into this arena.
The backgrounder begins by examining a number of applications that fit into this space, including unified messaging and skills-based routing. Additionally, it gives an overview of the important protocols XML, V-XML, and SIP, with an emphasis on the latter for presence management. Finally, it presents both an architectural logical model for this convergence and some brief case studies.
