Is The PBX Dead? UC Strategies Discusses

How's that for a hot topic? Anyone who has followed me for a while may recall a lively dialog I started at the end of 2008, with a similar question - is VoIP dead? That one sure had legs, and the PBX topic is really no different.

Well, that was the topic for this week's UC Strategies podcast, and if anyone should have qualified opinions, it's this group. Everyone has their own take on this, and the podcast is a great listen. I provided the opening comments, and there was lots of back and forth on the utility of a PBX. However, we're all pretty much of the same mind that the PBX as we know it is simply out of kilter with how the communications landscape is evolving.

You can access the podcast here, and while you're on the site, there's a nice related article from Dave Michels that you'll enjoy too.

VoiceCon Recap

I don't usually post about shows I'm not attending, but this is worth doing for a couple of reasons. Last week was busy in telecom, with both this event and CTIA running. While I've never attended VoiceCon, this space has kept me busy in recent times. Anyone following the event will know there was lots of news, especially from the major vendors, and the show was generally very well received.

By now these stories are old news, but those who were there have had time to reflect, and I wanted to share two items that came out today. One is a post from colleague Dave Michels on No Jitter with his thoughts, and the other is a podcast from my broader set of colleagues at UC Strategies. I participate on their weekly podcasts when I can, but there wasn't much point yesterday, as they were sharing their highlights and takeaways of the show.

If all you do is check these out, you'll come away with a solid sense of what took place as well as being very up-to-date on the latest in enterprise communications. There's definitely a lot to keep track of, not just in terms of the technologies, but also what the key players are up to. I was especially glad to hear from Dave's post how strong the cloud/virtualization space has become - no surprise there - and how video has totally eclipsed voice in the big scheme of things. Again, I've been on that track for a while, and this trend is totally validated by the fact that VoiceCon is changing its name now. If you're curious, I'm not going to to give it away - I really want you check out these links, and it won't take long to get the answer there.

How Bloggers and Analysts use Social Media

This week's UC Strategies podcast was about how we're using social media. The "we" in this case pertains to the UC Strategies group, of which I'm a part. For the most part, we're independent analysts/consultants with a focus on Unified Communications, and to varying degrees, we all make use of these tools.

We touched on a few themes here, starting with the tools themselves, especially how some are using Twitter on a regular basis. Since we more or less work on our own, we found these tools quite helpful for staying in touch, doing research and keeping on top of breaking news. I'm still new to Twitter - so call me a laggard on this one - but I am starting to see its value, so look to see more tweets from me soon.

Another theme was about where social media fits in the Unified Communications schema, and how it's becoming part of the business communications landscape. I'm not sure there's a way to monetize this, but we talked about some examples where social media is becoming integrated into the fabric of UC. Pretty interesting topic, and I hope you'll give us a listen. You can access the podcast here, and while you're at it, please spend some time exploring the portal.

UC Strategies - ITExpo/Industry News Recap

After a brief hiatus, I was able to join the weekly UC Strategies podcast on Monday. This week, the focus was a recap of recent industry events as well as news of note, namely the iPad launch.

A few industry events were discussed, but ITExpo was the only one I had attended. I shared my thoughts on the Expo along with others who were there such as Jim Burton and Dave Michels. All told, it's a nice recap, esp from Dave, who was attending for the first time. Towards the end, we also talked about the iPad, and I managed to add my take to the mix.

The podcast is running now on the UC Strategies portal, and you can access it here. Hope you give it a listen, and if you attended the ITExpo, by all means, let us know what you thought of it.

Interactive Intelligence - Using CaaS for Contact Center Automation

I'm a contributor to the UC Strategies portal, and my most recent piece was an article about contact center automation, and what Interactive Intelligence is doing with CaaS - Communications as a Service.

It's yet another twist on the cloud and hosted services that I think we're going to see a lot more of in 2010. My article is based on an interview I did with their CEO, Dr. Don Brown, and he shares his thought on what CaaS brings to this burgeoning area of contact center automation. Pretty interesting stuff, and you can read the article here. Comments, as always, are welcome.

Looking Back/Looking Ahead - Some 2009 Trends of Note

Been off blogging for over a week - and not really by design. No doubt the holidays, the kids, family get togethers, etc. have been the priority, but for the better part of two weeks I've had almost no use of my PC. Seems like viruses have found me, and I still can't get these stupid things under control.

My PC is mostly fixed up, but just semi-functional, and in the midst of this massive inconvenience, I went out and bought not one, but two PCs. Whoo hoo. My current notebook cost about $1,700 back in the day, and it has served me well. Haven't bought one since, and for a little under $1,000, I just bought a new notebook and a netbook - both are Lenovo's. Gotta like that. Will be setting these goodies up over the weekend, and I can't wait to start using my netbook when I head to Miami later in January for the ITExpo/Smart Grid Summit.

With that preamble out of the way, it's New Year's Eve, and I haven't had a chance to reflect much on 2009, let alone the past decade. I really did have a bunch of posts planned out in my head, but life happens, and at this point, I'm sure you've had your fill of year-in-review articles. If anyone still has a burning desire for my take on things, let me know, and I'll come up with something.

That said, I've got two posts for you. This is my looking back post, and it's pretty straightforward. I participate on a podcast series done by UC Strategies as time allows, and we did one last week on 2009 UC highlights. It was a round robin session - about 40 minutes - with each speaker touching on a specific topic related to UC that stood out for them in 2009. Mine was cloud computing, and how this has now crept into the Unified Communications vernacular this year. I think it's going to be huge in 2010, and am sure we'll do more podcasts in this area soon enough.

The podcast was posted to the UC Strategies portal a few days ago, and you can access it here. I hope you give it a listen, and if you think our ideas are on target, I encourage you to visit the portal often.

That's my looking back post, and if you could pop into my head, you'd see there's a whole lot more, but time's up for now. I'm now going to write my "looking ahead" post, so watch for that in a few minutes.

Adtran Analyst Event Highlights

Well, it sure has been a great event here at Adtran. I'm not alone being impressed with how much high tech activity goes on in Huntsville, which is also the birthplace, more or less, of the U.S. space program. Very impressive, and am sure it's a great place to live and work. You don't have to look far around here for people or resources touting all the wonderful things about Huntsville, and that's all I'm gonna say.

This is Adtran's second analyst event, and many of us are first-timers. It's been a mutual learning experience, and it's all good. We're learning a lot about Adtran, and they're learning a lot about how to engage the analyst and media communities. There were some newsworthy items here - one of which involves a Canadian company - but we're under embargo now, so you'll just have to be patient.

Otherwise, we got good updates on both their enterprise and carrier divisions, as well as mobile backhaul, which is a real strength of theirs. For many of us, their focus on Unified Communications was the main event, and we got into a deeper dive session with them about this yesterday afternoon. On that note, there are 4 of us here from the UC Strategies fold, and we'll be doing a podcast recap of the event on Monday.

Lots of good information here, and they've looked after us well. I'll share a few photos with you now for a better sense of this.


Digium is the other big name tech company most people associate with Huntsville, and I got a quick visit with them before things started with Adtran. There'a a lot of history between these companies, and depending who you talk to, it's not all friendly.

If you've been to their building, you'll know what this is.



Got a quick lab tour...



Back to Adtran. Am not sure why they're calling this a press event, when most of us are analysts. I've shared my two cents with them about this, and I've got a feeling the name will change a bit next time around.



Morning sessions...





Lab and manufacturing facility tours...



Does your desk look like this?


IPTV testing...




Production floor...


Wall 'o phones - neat, huh? If they all rang at once, which one would you pick up first?



My favorite - the semi-anechoic chamber. That's a fancy name for a purpose-built space that tests for radio wave interference. Something like that, but if you're curious this might help. It looks like something out of Kubrick's 2001, and you don't get to see things like this every day - very cool.



After the day wrapped up, we went to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center for a tour and dinner. This is quite the place, and it doesn't take long to get an appreciation for what the space program has contributed to the U.S. in so many ways. It's getting harder these days to find genuine points of pride about the U.S., but this sure is one of them. Definitely worthwhile.

Lots of history here - doesn't matter how old you are or how much you remember about what the space program accomplished, esp in the Sixties.







Saving the best for last. We had dinner under a Saturn 5 rocket. A real one. This thing is huge - looks about the length of a football field. I'm told this is just one of two left in existence - the other is at Cape Canaveral. So, if Saturn 5 rockets and ribs are your thing, it doesn't get any better that this. Thanks Adtran!