Year end wrap-ups are always an interesting look back at the events of the year. I'm going to take a slightly different approach this year and simply talk briefly about some things that were interesting to me this year in the unified communications space.


Vonage
A spectacular failure that was long ovedue in my view. I was a long time detractor of Vonage. It was a company without a mission or mantra beyond scavenging dial tone customers from the traditional carriers in my view. It's not a company I miss or mourn. Their passing, and they way they handled business did a grave disservice to the industry as a whole, and they're not a high mark in our past.


Video and Telepresence
Certainly Cisco made a splash with their Telepresence initiative. Then again, as the 800 pound gorilla, Cisco can make a splashing about on almost any topic. To the detriment of the industry, telepresence remains illusive to most organizations who aren't the large-dollar revenue potential that Cisco and the high-end solutions target.

There's a bright spot for video services and the whole concept of telepresence though. Actually there are several bright spots. Companies like SightSpeed began the shift from consumer services to business services, enabling telepresence of a highly configurable sort to small and medium business. Recently Skype stepped into enabling higher quality video.

2007 was a year of slow and minimal progress in video and telepresence solutions really but the groundwork was laid for some of the things we should see ahead. More on that in my looking ahead to 2008 post that will follow later.


Microsoft and the Office Communications Server (OCS)
The other 800 pound gorilla made their own splash. I think OCS is getting a mixed bag of results at this point. It's early and still not a mature solution. Microsoft certainly has the presence and embedded base in enterprise business to make a very significant impact. Their approach to opening up development capabilities in OCS is in keeping with the MSDN approach that's been quite successful across the whole array of MS solutions. In short, they'll continue to be a force to reckon with. How well Microsoft will do at penetrating voice services space will largely be driven by how well they can integrate traditional telephony and other key aspects of netx generation services. How they approach messaging, presence and mobility on a broader perspective will be the key for the real success of OCS.


Mobility and the Dawn of Fixed Mobile Convergence
For me, 2007 was a watershed year in mobility services, really driven by many different things. Nokia led the way throughout the year with a continual stream of advancing mobile devices supporting multiple services. While other handset makers may be exploring the space, Nokia charged ahead with a number of WiFi enabled handsets, SIP stack on the phone, VoIP support in ways only shown by Nokia, and a commitment to ongoing development and progress.

Beyond the handsets, we saw companies like GrandCentral (acquired by Google), Truphone, MOBIVOX and others truly enable some highly acclaimed solutions that allow users to create their own, custom variations of FMC-like solutions.

More on FMC in my look ahead to 2008. It's one of the truly exciting bright lights on the road ahead in 2008.

Presence and Availability
Perhaps 2007 was the year of social computing. With services like Facebook, Twitter and Jaiku enabling a whole new form of staying connected to friends and colleagues, the nuances of presence and availability are finally really becoming understood. These are attributes about us as individuals that we're quickly learning how to share. We're also learning how important they are. I find it interesting that some of the realities we're seeing in how people want to manage these attributes mirror almost precisely some of the ways my friend Howard Thawe at iotum and I talked about a year and a half ago.

Another bright light on the 2008 horizon as we'll see this segment start to mature and really take off. In 2007 we began to learn he how and why as individuals. In 2008, I think we'll start to discover the how and why of availability and presence in the enterprise.


Software Oriented Architecture (SOA) or Software as a Service (SaaS)
These two remain areas of slow growth, but undeniable future reality. I'll be working on a white paper series on this area very soon, and you'll read more about it in the months ahead. The integration of enterprise business applications and work flows with network services for voice, video and data will move from concept to reality in the coming year. I don't expect this to become a mature reality in 2008, but we'll see it change from a pipe dream and concept into something tangible. I think we'll start really sinking our teeth into this next year. This year it remained a sleepy, but interesting idea.


Voice over IP - VoIP as Plumbing
If there was a shaking revelation in 2007, I don't think it shook enough people. Having written books and papers about VoIP from a number of different perspectives, my view is focused in a different way that the enterprise customer view. My history in VoIP goes back ten years or more. But the stark reality is in 2007 VoIP became plumbing.

For many years, VoIP was viewed as a major disruptive technology. People expected it would completely change the face of telecommunications. I know I believed that. But I don't believe that today. I've often, in the past, referred to circuit switching, for either voice or data, as nothing more than plumbing. It's base infrastructure. It's a foundation.

VoIP has proven that it's really just another foundation element. The hot technology area is voice as a service. It's how and where we can use voice services. How we deliver them is irrelevant to customers and users. VoIP truly is just another delivery mechanism. It's a great delivery mechanism. It lets us maximize the value of IP networks. Cost savings and operational efficiencies can be huge, but at the root of things, VoIP is simply a service delivery mechanism for a service.

In 2007, we saw solution providers begin to understand this and start shifting their attention away from technology sales toward solutions. Today, the thought leaders, the real leaders, aren't selling VoIP. They're focusing on solving business problems. I think we'll see a huge shift in this direction next year.

Overall, 2007 was a year with some excting moments. There were a couple of spectacular flameouts. Some divisive court cases. Some bitter, nasty battles between rivals. But in the end, it was a year of incremental improvement and change. 2007 was a year of setting the stage of what's still to come.

More on the in a future post looking ahead to 2008.


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