The Convergence
Conundrum
Abstract: Convergence has come in many forms, and made and broken many
promises over the last 10 years. IP appears to have delivered a common
denominator upon which both users and operators can build a solid converged future,
but do their efforts and aspirations match up?
By
Chris Lewis
VP EMEA, Yankee Group
The Convergence Conundrum
Convergence has come in many forms, In the converging world we also need to take
account of the explosion of mobile services. So, it is
and made and broken many promises not merely a question of voice and data converging
over the last 10 years. IP appears to on the corporate network backbone. We also need
to build mobile and mobility into the equation.
have delivered a common denominator
Whether we like it or not, people prefer to use their
upon which both users and operators mobiles. Hence, developing in-house mobility
can build a solid converged future, but solutions with preferential rates for non-roaming
campus calls and allowing seamless integration of
do their efforts and aspirations match
mobile device led data applications all contribute to
up? Chris Lewis, Yankee Group’s VP the new ‘extended enterprise’ view of the world.
EMEA, investigates.
Many of the benefits we see today from converged
IT and communications have been around for many
Within the operator, the collapse of different network
years. The difference today is that a reliable IP core
elements and infrastructures into a single platform
can support all of the differing traffic types, and the
supporting voice and data services makes the
quality of service and class of service available
network much easier to manage. More importantly
across networks means that the users’ demands
infrastructure convergence is set to halve existing
can finally be drawn into a single service , centrally
operational costs, according to some operators that
controlled but delivering customised service to the
have already initiated a move to full migration. More
individual. The plethora of service providers
than 80 percent of major operators in EMEA have
targeting the business market are now being drawn
clear plans for migration to a converged IP-based
from traditional incumbent operators, network
infrastructure. This 80% of operators are in
integrators, value added service providers as well
advanced pilot and field test mode today, with the
as the systems integrators and Business Process
final roll-out planned over the coming 36 months.
Outsourcers from the IT services world. There a lot
of variable parameters in the convergence
conundrum and end users are looking to work with
Within European businesses, there is also a drive
the partner who best understands individual needs
toward convergence, focusing on collapsing
and can deliver against those promises. It is no
separate voice and data infrastructures. By
longer a question of owning the latest fiber, or
integrating voice and data into a single corporate
installing the latest switches. This is a time for
backbone, enterprises are, like operators, achieving
practical communications and IT services.
operational efficiencies. The difference between
operators and end users is that 39% of Yankee’s
recent GNS survey of Europe’s MNCs are already
actively converging their voice and data themselves,
The Yankee Group is a global leader in
with a further 37% planning to do so over the next
communications and networking research and
24 months. This gap between the operational
consulting. If you would like more information
efficiency of the service providers and user demand
on its services please view the website
is also set to be addressed by other service
www.yankeegroup.com or email
providers. The same GNS survey showed that
euroinfo@yankeegroup.com
companies are prepared to work with providers
other than the incumbents to drive towards
convergence and benefit from differing degrees of
outsourced services. Around 40% of the European
sample said they would turn to ‘other service
providers’ for their network services outsourcing.
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The Convergence Conundrum
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