tele.com Magazine Announces 10 Leading Technology Trends of the Global Communications IndustryAnnual Study of Trends Reveals Technologies that Deliver Real Products, More QuicklyPRNewswire CMP Media's tele.com magazine has uncovered ten leading technologies that are delivering real products, or are about to, at a faster time-to-market. This annual study of technology trends is designed to help tele.com's service provider executives cut through the vapor and identify key technologies driving new products and services into the market. tele.com's editors sought out to learn what was necessary to improve network efficiency, service capabilities, and increase revenue streams. They surveyed the industry's technology leaders who need, use, and often fund research for these technologies. The editors refined their research further to deliver a business and technology perspective of how these leading technologies can and will affect their business plans. tele.com found the industry's top technology trends to be causing both disruption and opportunity in the market. All of them are designed to offer increased functionality, complexity and scale, so that service providers can jump start old services and deliver new ones at rocket speed. Trend #1: Managed VPN's (Virtual Private Networks) The explosive demand for corporate connectivity, due to prolific Internet-based applications, is forcing companies to outsource the management of their wide area networks to public network providers. This in turn, highlights the need for increased security in the public network. Why it's hot. VPN's offer both enormous flexibility in meeting connectivity demands as well as enhanced security. "Security is on every manager's mind, and VPN's are the technology of choice for secure IP communication," says Jeff Wilson, director of access at Infonetics Research Inc. (San Jose, Calif.). Trend #2: Content Delivery Services now deliver static and graphics-laden data to the edges of Internet networks, where users receive it in four rather than ten seconds, or faster. Why it's hot: Rising delays in content delivery are what make these systems very attractive to providers who have undergone 8 percent monthly increases in Internet traffic recently. Trend #3: 10-Gbit/s Ethernet Due to insatiable bandwidth demand, companies want to take 100-Mbit/s fast Ethernet to the desktop. The technology backbone used to enable it is the 1-Gbit/s Ethernet for LANs and now, the up-and-coming 1O-Gbit/s Ethernet for MANS and WANS. Why it's hot: 1O-Gbit/s promises to link the network from end to end with a single protocol making network managers' jobs less cumbersome. Trend #4: Managed Storage: Service providers have armed themselves substantially to push multiplatform data to users at rates of up to 1OO-Mbit/s in effort to support the pent-up demand for managed storage by enterprise companies. Why it's hot: IT Managers are drowning in an explosion of data while the talent pool needed to administer it is drying up. The compounding of data combined with a mix of data types make this technology a necessity. Trend #5: Optical Switches have increasingly gone from laboratory curiosities to limited commercial production due to recent deployment by major vendors. Why it's hot: The drive network providers have for building backbone capacity is attracting them to optical switches, which theoretically, can switch optical signals faster and more efficiently. They are seen as the linchpin to this high-bandwith networked world. Trend #6: Quality of Service (QoS): Service providers are aware that adding QoS to the IP network is a must when looking to deliver tiered and priority services to customers across several IP networks. Why it's hot: QoS, in great demand from end-users as well as by the network operators themselves, needs to be completed and successfully delivered this year before it's pushed overboard by competing technologies. Trend #7: Voice over DSL services are on their way to the big leagues. Competitive local service providers have successfully integrated VoDSL gateways with DSL access multiplexers (DSLAMS) and customer premises integrated access devices (IADS). Why it's hot: Voice over DSL services allow customers to replace plain old telephone service (POTS) with high-speed data and multiple voice lines over one DSL connection -- at a lower cost. Trend #8: Wireless LANS: Service providers are working with the newest version of the wireless LAN technology to quietly test its use as a high-speed wireless technology for bustling spots like airports, downtown areas, and densely packed suburbs. Why it's hot: To meet the growing demand for wireless Internet access that has coincided with a coming of age for wireless LAN technology and standards. Trend #9: Home Networking is expected to skyrocket in the next few years due to the necessity created by a combination of abundant bandwidth, accessible broadband services, multiple PCs, and increased telecommuting. Why it's hot: Home networking increases business productivity and allows Internet access to multiple home users through alternate channels such as electrical outlets. Trend #10: Softswitches: Considered a wonder technology, these switches allow providers to control voice and data paths over the same network. Why it's hot: Softswitches potentially reduce deployment costs and they allow operators to customize service intelligence to specific communities. These trends represent an outline of tele.com's annual study of technology trends. Clearly, "There's no shortage of white-hot developments ... these technologies are hotter than ever because they've finally begun to deliver real products or are about to, and the speed of their deliveries is only expected to increase," said John Salak, editor-in-chief, tele.com. For complete details on these trends, refer to tele.com's June 5, 2000 issue, page 74, or visit the Web site at http://www.teledotcom.com/. tele.com is the only publication delivering comprehensive, global coverage of the business and technology issues facing Next-Generation Network Service Providers worldwide. This in-depth information and analysis, completely customized for today's management executives, thoroughly explores the forces redefining this industry -- business, products & technology, policies, and people. The magazine's circulation spans more than 79,500 managers at all types of network services providers and operators worldwide. The tele.com Web site is http://www.teledotcom.com/. CMP Media Inc., recently acquired by United News & Media plc (NASDAQ: UNEWY), is the leading high-tech media company providing essential information and marketing services to the entire technology spectrum -- the builders, sellers and users of technology worldwide. With its portfolio of newspapers, magazines, custom publishing, Internet products, research, consulting and conferences, CMP is uniquely positioned to offer marketers comprehensive, integrated solutions tailored to meet their individual needs. Online editions of the company's print publications, along with products and services created exclusively for the Internet, can be found on CMPnet at http://www.cmpnet.com. Web site: http://www.teledotcom.com SOURCE: CMP Media Inc. Contact: Samantha Giacco for CMP, 212-592-8420, sgiacco@cmp.com Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/181993.html or fax, |