Productive Collaboration a Target for 2012

Jerry Caron - Vice President, Analysis

Summary Bullets:

• Enterprise adoption of now-generation collaboration tools has been slower than expected
• This could change in 2012 – if suppliers get the solutions right

The calendar made its ritual shift from one year to the next over the weekend – just another day, to be sure, but one that no doubt triggered a flurry of Facebook updates and a torrent of Twitter tweets with even casual users joining the devotees in contemporary online social revelry. Texting is so last century. And as for “Happy New Year” phone calls? Well, I did ring my octogenarian parents, and didn’t even use video.

2011 in the Cloud: The Year of Managing Expectations

A. DeCarlo

Summary Bullets:

• While most businesses are still experimenting with on-demand services, research by Current Analysis shows the vast majority of those using the cloud today are happy with their experience.
• Positive cloud experiences bode well for future growth, as market acceptance of cloud services rises and solutions mature.

2011 was a banner year for IT services.  As organizations continue to explore their alternatives to traditional outsourcing models, IT solution providers have been evolving their strategies to support the expected rise in on-demand services.  Acquisitions like CenturyLink’s multi-billion dollar deals for Qwest and Savvis; Dimension Data’s OpSource purchase; and Verizon’s Terremark and CloudSwitch buys, among others, are changing the market landscape for cloud services.  

LTE: Revolution or Evolution for Business Users?

G. Barton

Summary Bullets:

• LTE bandwidth will make tablets and smartphones even more powerful tools.
• Reliability remains fundamental for all mobile solutions.

2012 will see the launch of Long Term Evolution (LTE) services in the UK.  It is tempting to see this as the beginning of a revolution in delivering mobile services.  Trials of LTE have already occurred in the UK, with BT and Everything Everywhere partnering to run trials in Cornwall whilst O2 has run its own trials in London.  The promised increase in bandwidth from around 14 Mbps up to around 50 Mbps, and even above 100 Mbps in the longer term, certainly seems to offer a lot of potential.  However, the question must be asked: what extra advantages does this bandwidth offer business users?  Even for consumer users watching YouTube video clips, 14 Mbps is usually more than sufficient bandwidth.  In theory, LTE supports a maximum speed of up to 150 Mbps on current technology.  However, when deployed in the real world, BT has predicted that 30 Mbps will be the maximum likely speed (and then only during low-usage periods), whilst Everything Everywhere has suggested that speeds will be between 2 Mbps and 40 Mbps.