Page 15 - Avaya Extra Q2 2015

2nd Quarter 2015
Telecom Reseller: Extra Report on Avaya 15

PROKOP
promises to ofer signiicant improvements in terms call with a customer’s previous interactions? How Andrew Prokop has been involved in the world
continued from page 4
of speed and media quality.
will success be measured and reported both in real- of communications since the early 1980’s. He holds
he biggest diference between the two codecs time and historically?
four United States patents in SIP technologies and
is that VP8 is open source, while H.264 is patented While all these are ixable issues, they are
was on the teams that developed Nortel’s carrier- year. Momentum is building in a big way.
and therefore licensed. While there are rumblings not solved without planning and efort. New grade SIP sot switch and SIP-based contact center. Where will WebRTC see its biggest impact?
about a “free” version of H.264, it’s unclear to me technology can get an undeserved bad rap if it’s not His sotware currently exists inside products from Finance, customer care centers, health care, and
just how that will made available, distributed, and implemented carefully.
Avaya and Genband. He has now found a home
education will likely be in the forefront of the most
supported. In the end, though, I hope that some at Arrow Systems Integration, where he holds the signiicant applications. Imagine click-to-call or
consensus is reached. Uniied communications Winner, winner, chicken dinner
position of Director of Vertical Industries. hrough click-to-video buttons on every company’s webpage.
really ought to be uniied at all levels.
In the end, though, I expect that WebRTC will be customer engagements, users groups, tradeshows, Personally, I would rather point and click than pick
Another challenge exists in terms of the actual a big winner all around.
and webinars, Andrew has been an evangelist for up a telephone handset to dial an 800 number.
experience. Despite the fact that WebRTC is he codec diferences will be worked out and the SIP as a transformational technology for enterprises Ater that, I envision social media will be a big
natively available in a user’s web browser doesn’t standard will be solidiied. Consumers will welcome and their customers. Andrew understands the needs participant in the WebRTC space. It’s already part
mean that the conditions to create a WebRTC
call are ideal. PCs vary greatly in performance. real-time communications that doesn’t require downloads or plug-ins. Companies will love the of the enterprise and has the background and skills necessary to assist companies as they drive toward a of Google Hangouts and I cannot imagine that the folks at Facebook aren’t running prototypes in their
Network connections can oten be far from ideal. consistent interfaces that address a huge market of world of dynamic and immersive communications. labs.
A user’s speakers, microphone, and camera can be disparate technologies (PCs, tablets, smartphones, Andrew is an active blogger and his widely-read
set up incorrectly, resulting in a sub-par real-time browsers, etc.). Developers will create a vast array of blog, SIP Adventures, discusses every imaginable What are the challenges?
communications experience.
new and exciting communications applications.
topic in the world of uniied communications. He is Like all new technologies, there are diferences of
here are also the challenges back at a company’s WebRTC is a disruptive, revolutionary just as comfortable writing at the 50,000-foot level opinion as to how it should be implemented.
customer support center. Will the agents be properly technology that stands toe-to-toe with the biggest as he is discussing the subtle nuances of a particular One of the choices that developers are facing
trained to handle yet another customer touch point? changes we’ve seen in the communications space. I SIP header. Andrew can be found on Twitter at @ today is choice of video codec. Google is a strong
How will the agents be able to associate a WebRTC
am sure of that.
ajprokop. n
supporter of VP8, while Cisco has put their eforts
behind H.264. Avaya has chosen to play it safe and
support both codecs until an agreement is reached.
here is some debate amongst the WebRTC
community as to the pros and cons of the two
codecs. From what I was able to gather, H.264 does
a slightly better job with high-motion video, but
both perform well in most other situations.
Note that VP9 is just around the corner and it

CROSS continued from page 13

Not only is it imaginable, it’s a daily
occurrence. Hot spots are everywhere, and the
likelihood is that someone in your company is
using them. Whether it’s the IT admin analyzing
a problem over a non-fat no foam hazelnut
macchiato from Starbuck’s or the CEO using
Gogo inlight to receive pre-meeting documents,
your most sensitive information is inding its
way across the public Internet. So, why isn’t that
terrifying?
It’s not terrifying because it’s part of the
corporate security policy. hose individuals
are connecting back to the network via
secure tunnels (likely SSL). he images and
applications on their devices are probably being
validated via MDM if they’re not corporate issue. hey’re generally connecting back to a Data
Center (DC), which is under signiicant scrutiny
and highly secured, where they’re authenticated
and authorized via user proiles. In fact, the
biggest risk comes from someone peering over
the seat at the CEO’s screen.
So, if mobility of our workers is becoming
more and more the norm, and they’re going to
be working from home, on the road or at that
Starbucks, then why continue managing those
workers across 2 paradigms? Why not extend
that norm to be.well, the norm? Deine your
policies and security around the assumption that
workers will be accessing your systems remotely,
and focus on securing your DCs and large
campuses rather than trying to secure the far
more numerous remote sites. A solid Internet
connection, appropriate encryption, some cloud
managed APs and a well maintained captive portal will give your branch workers everything
they need with less stress on IT and a healthy
monthly savings.
In fact, a recent RFP for branch connectivity
across the US revealed that MPLS prices were
on average 100x Internet prices on a per Mb
basis every month with the exception of areas
like Silicon Valley with a highly connected
demographic and overburdened infrastructure.
What could your business do with that
99% savings, plus the savings on branch
infrastructure and the time freed within IT?
I know it sounds farfetched, but to quote Dr.
Sheldon Cooper, “I am not crazy, my mother had
me tested.” he world is changing fast. You can
either lead that change and shape the outcome,
or you can try to ignore it and ind yourself

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