Office Of The Future

The Telecom industry is at the epicenter of the convergence phenomenon that we see in the industry today. It is always interesting to see them predict how the sweeping changes would impact business globally. Daniel Burns of Telstra’s Chief Technology Office, responsible for its Network Engineering, Fundamental Planning and Strategic Initiatives highlights a series of predictable developments. A few of them:

- In the office of the future, businesses will use a single broadband service for all their communications, including telephone, data and video services. Within that environment, wireless technologies will create an opportunity for businesses to provide employees with a lot more roaming capability.
- Businesses will have a lot more management flexibility. New tools will enable businesses to update their systems, to do “adds,” “moves” and other changes to their servers much more quickly and easily than today.
- IP Networks, moving voice and data communications to Internet-based networks, known as IP networks, will further reduce costs and create an opportunity for businesses to add new and exciting services. It will also provide enhanced security providing a very secure network to protect your information. Read the note Cisco'sIP Vision in the convergent world.
- AI will really make it much easier for businesses to communicate with their customers. There is even the prospect of human-machine interfaces, incorporating communications tools into your clothing, or in your watch, to improve people’s health. There are just so many different things that are possible, and IP-based communications solutions are likely to play an important role in them all.
- Wireless technologies are probably the most exciting area of emerging communications technology. Within the next decade, wireless networks will have bandwidth capabilities up to one gigabyte per second. This will create a huge opportunity for people to do almost anything from anywhere besides providing amazing mobility capabilities.