Convergence

Convergence is transporting voice, data, images and video traffic over a single network. The withdrawal of TRAI regulations that had hitherto curtailed the use of IP telephony by enterprises resulted in a surge of deployments in the past few months. Infrastructure Strategies (IS) 2005 shows that almost 65 percent of enterprises have deployed VoIP. The average deployment isn't humongous; 64 percent of organisations have less than 50 VoIP users.

The BFSI, BPO and telecom segments are the largest users of convergent technologies. 67 percent of respondents from the telecom sector have VoIP, while 33 percent have video-conferencing facilities. 85 percent of respondents in the BPO segment have VoIP. Penetration of video conferencing is low; VoIP is a more flexible and lightweight technology (in terms of link utilisation). That combined with the global nature of the clientele of BPO companies has worked out in its favour.

IP Tel-a viable alternative

While grey areas remain, the interest in IP telephony suggests that VoIP has got rid of its reputation of being unreliable. Adopters are now beginning to consider it as a viable alternative to traditional telephony. With the influx of broadband connectivity, the use of VoIP among small and medium enterprises has surged. Resources tend to lie idle for much of the day on the average network. There is a pressing need for convergence so that common resources can be used for multiple tasks. VoIP helps enterprises use the IP backbone they put in place for activities such as disaster recovery during the day, and for data transmission after office hours, or in time slots where utilisation is known to be low.

Managers are looking at IP telephony to help them curb rising expenses, extend the reach of their business, boost productivity and get returns on their investments in infrastructure.

IP-based solutions will enable companies to deploy essential services such as video conferencing, collaboration and other value-added options. For SMB ventures that are mostly involved with exports and foreign partners, VoIP (ever since TRAI delicensed IP to PSTN calls for international calls) is a great way to make long distance calls.

Infrastructure Strategies 2005 is a Network Magazine(NM) - IMRB survey