The Power of IP Video Unleashing Productivity with Visual Networking

by Baker, Jennifer C.; Dalke, Felicia Brych; Mitchell, Mike; Nanjiani, Nader

• ISBN13: 9781587053429
• ISBN10: 158705342X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-12-22
• Publisher: Cisco Press

Summary

Understand and profit from the business benefits of video, voice, and web communications technologies.

Author Biography

Jennifer C. Baker attended Ohio University, where she majored in telecommunications. Her interest in video stems from this time, when she worked at both the local ABC affiliate and the local PBS station covering the news. She has 16 years of experience with voice and video applications, including telephony, contact center, unified messaging, video, and TelePresence. During her tenure at Cisco, she has been a consulting systems engineer, a senior marketing manager, and is now a senior product manager in the Cisco Worldwide Technology Practice.

She is also a published author and the recipient of numerous industry awards. She lives in San Diego with her husband.

 

Felicia Brych Dalke completed a BComm in MIS from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and a master’s degree in project management from the University of Quebec. She spent nine years in various IT development and planning positions with Revenue Canada in Ottawa before joining Cisco in 1999. During her term at Cisco, Felicia managed development and operation of several global IT services, including remote access, voice/web/videoconferencing, desktop video, instant messaging, and various voice services. Since 2006, she has worked with engineering organizations to promote adoption, new requirements, and integration for collaboration products. She currently manages an international consortium focused on collaboration. Felicia lives in Mountain View, California, with her husband and children. This is her second project for Cisco Press; she participated as an editor and contributor to Troubleshooting Remote Access Networks, published in 2002.

 

Michael Mitchell has been working with video at Cisco for more than 12 years. During this time, he has been uniquely positioned to witness the migration from traditional communication tools to the new paradigm of converged IP-based media. He is currently the director of the Collaboration Business Services team at Cisco. Team responsibilities range from global video production to connecting business processes with the latest Web 2.0 tools.

 

Nader Nanjiani has worked in the area of interactive media, IP telephony, communications, and marketing for more than a decade. Nader is currently a marketing manager at Cisco, where he has been specifically responsible for the marketing of IP phones, wireless phones, video endpoints, Unified Communications applications, and related call control applications. While at Cisco, Nader has launched a series of award-winning online games, IP communication products, web applications, and communications solutions to boost awareness, revenue, and brand loyalty around Cisco technologies. In 2003, he launched the first-ever Cisco online community for certified engineers, which today supports the professional development needs of hundreds of thousands of Cisco customers, partners, and prospects. The Power of IP Video is Nader’s second title with Cisco Press. He also co-authored The Business Case for E-Learning, published by Cisco Press in 2004.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xxi
Where Are We Headed?	p. 1
Quad-Play and the Curse of Interesting Times	p. 3
Executive Summary	p. 4
Virtualization: A Common Modus Operandi	p. 5
Quad-Play in Virtualized Environments	p. 6
Why Video?	p. 7
Globalization 3.0 at Our Doorstep	p. 7
A Rocky Ride	p. 8
Has It Really Gotten That Flat?	p. 9
Consumer Led: When Work Emulates Social Networks	p. 11
From Web 2.0 to Visual Networking	p. 12
Viral Video: The Edward R. Murrow of Our Times?	p. 13
What Next?	p. 14
Summary	p. 15
End Notes	p. 16
The Way We Work	p. 17
Executive Summary	p. 18
Use of Video in Organizations	p. 18
IP Video and Collaboration at Work: An Illustration	p. 19
Find Them Now	p. 20
Softening the Edge of Fast Turnarounds	p. 20
Mobility: Productivity on the Go	p. 21
Click to Call from Anywhere	p. 22
Follow Me Around	p. 22
From Voice to Video to Web	p. 22
Virtual Collaboration	p. 23
One to Many in a Matter of Moments	p. 23
Moral of the Story	p. 24
Making a Difference	p. 25
Productivity When Away from the Office	p. 25
A Family-First Workplace	p. 26
Environmentally Friendly Workplaces	p. 26
Rationalizing Real Estate	p. 27
All About Nuance	p. 27
Summary	p. 28
End Note	p. 28
Beyond Workplaces: Video in Collaborative Workspaces
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Introduction IntroductionVideo changes everything!When we think about the evolution of business communications, we first think about the telephone, text-based email systems, voice mail, text messaging, and voice conferencing. As businesses migrated to converged IP networks, we saw more integrated voice/web/videoconferencing, video streaming, instant messaging, and the start of integrated communications enter the business environment.Today, we hear about quad-play technologies, Unified Communications solutions, TelePresence, IP video surveillance, video portals, Web 2.0 mash-ups, and various solutions developed to address a variety of business needs, all leading to visual networking. The use of IP video to transform business is a growing trend, and large companies or public institutions that want to remain competitive need to prepare for change! What Is Visual Networking and Why Is It Important?In the simplest terms, visual networking is the combination of digital video and social-networking (Web 2.0) technologies. It also includes various traditional video applications such as conferencing and streaming that enable communications, collaboration, and new business models. In terms of trends, IP video combined with interactivity promises to make the video experience measurably distinct and improved from the passive video viewing experience with traditional media. And the possibility of making video interactivity pervasive across web, mobility, and IPTV (next-generation TV) platforms promises even greater engagement and responsiveness for audiences.So why is visual networking important? From a business perspective, the combination of Web 2.0 technologies and IP video means that your teams will be able to interact and collaborate in a meaningful way from anywhere in the world. Thus, businesses can have an unprecedented level of agility. Teams can form dynamically around an opportunity, rapidly build rapport, begin developing solutions, and then be repurposed to a new opportunity. Physically "being there" is no longer a requirement.A few Internet video trends highlight the growing acceptance of this form of communication. In 2005, 9 billion video streams were served over the Internet, and in 2006, that number rose to 31 billion streams. By December 2007, in only 1 month, 10 billion video streams were served (more than all of 2005)! Video now accounts for 60 percent of Cisco internal network traffic; and although we are an obvious early adopter of these technologies, it is a sign of changes to come.In 2008, another video trend was established. NBC Universal captured more than 3600 hours of video from the 2008 Olympic Games (more video than all other Summer Games combined)! Viewers were able to watch video recordings online via the Internet of events that had never been broadcast before. By 2010, corporate TelePresence traffic is expected to generate more traffic than the entire Internet backbone in 2000. All of these trends demonstrate the growth of IP video and indicate a need for even greater Internet bandwidth.From a product perspective, these trends keep Cisco focused on video as a strategic priority, and require a next-generation platform to manage the expected demand. The network is the platform to provide new video experiences; and content creators, aggregators, service providers, and consumers are all stakeholders in creating these exper