The Next 40 Years of the Internet? One Word: Video

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Internet history teaches us that service innovation follows bandwidth expansion in a ‘virtuous circle’ of development. Application continues to drive bandwidth and bandwidth will drive new applications.

In 1995, 56k accelerated walled garden services from AOL and online bulletin boards. From 1997 to 2000, broadband speeds of 512k-1MB and the introduction of NetScape gave birth to the World Wide Web. In early 2000 with 2MBs, came peer-to-peer file sharing, online games, music downloads and Napster. In 2005, bandwidth of 2 - 5MBs brought us Web 2.0, MySpace, FaceBook and YouTube. Today, a speed of 10 - 50 MBs brings us HD IP TV and VoD. 

With history the best predictor of the future, what should we expect from the next 40 years of the Internet?  Video will completely reshape the Internet and its use. Video will be the driving force behind a total transformation of the user experience. 

Users will immerse themselves in video-based interactions anywhere, anytime, on any device. Today’s Web 2.0 and TV services will merge into a unified, ubiquitous, interactive, social, and media-rich experience for a new breed of viewer/user.

In five years, annual global IP traffic will reach two-thirds of a zettabyte (the equivalent of 250 billion DVDs = 1 zettabyte) and the sum of all forms of video will exceed 91 percent of global consumer traffic. A prediction—annual global IP traffic will reach a yottabyte (250 trillion DVDs) within 40 years!

Glimpse into the future
• The source of video content creation will shift from a small number of centralized, organized professionals producing premium content, to billions of dispersed, independent individuals producing informal, personalized content as easily as they generate e-mail today.
• Imagine telepresence as a daily experience in the home and workplace, video mail as mundane and highly productive, and shopping as akin to taking a walk down virtual aisles. If 6 million meetings per day took place over telepresence, 12 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emission would be saved daily.
• Ultimately, the distinction between applications and devices will become meaningless—they will all be a seamless, continuous and holistic video experience, a ‘normal” part of everyday life.
• Mobile Internet and data center/cloud services will be the driving forces behind a transformation of the Internet to medianet.
• 3G/4G and Wimax end-to-end mobile networks will deliver robust video and voice services on an unlimited number of channels and smart devices. Leveraging IPv6 addressing, networks will enable literally billions of devices to proliferate and communicate while addressing the IPv4 address exhaustion issue.
• Media data centers will deliver billions of video streams through virtual clouds to billions of devices and people.
• The distinction between landline and wireless will disappear as device experience fragmentation is resolved through the medianet. Applications will function in essentially the same way regardless of the device used.
• Network openness and virtualization will facilitate the flexibility and velocity that robust video service demand, while maintaining network integrity and security.  With millions of video streams distributed, network content delivery capabilities be transformed. Content caching at the network edge will accommodate massive amounts of traffic. 

Most important, network flexibility combined with creative business strategies will generate an incalculable number of new applications. And so the ‘virtuous circle’ will continue, providing limitless opportunity for those who have the vision to see the future of video. 

The next 40 years of the Internet? Video—good for business, good for entertainment, and good for the planet!

Recession stress on Bosses head

Posted on 11:41 PM No Comments
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According to a new report, nearly two out of three small business owners froze their own pay last year, compared with a third who decided not to increase wages of their employees, reports Yorkshire Post.

More than one in four bosses cut their pay in the face of the recession, while some sold or refinanced their cars or houses to raise money for their businesses, a study by Santander Business Banking of 300small businesses showed.

Majority of those surveyed said that they introduced cost-saving measures and more than a third did not have a holiday last year. Paula Ickinger, Head of business banking marketing at Santander, says, "The past year has been hard for small businesses and owners have felt the pain with pay freezes and in some cases, even having to take pay cuts. It is impressive to see that just one in 20 have had to cut jobs and is a testament to the commitment of business owners that they have, where possible, protected their staff. That should stand them in good stead for the return to growth that is tentatively under way."

One in seven (14 percent) of small businesses said that they have increased bank borrowing during the down turn, while 32 percent have put plans for business expansion on hold. Around 41 percent of small businesses have renegotiated deals or changed suppliers, while 26 percent have not updated machinery or vehicles as originally planned, according to Santander.

Around 14 percent have sold or refinanced business assets, such as premises, to raise cash. 

Job security matters more than better pay- Indian pros

Posted on 11:15 PM No Comments
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The once jumpy, job-hopping Indian professional, restless to keep pace with a booming economy and happy to switch employers for every raise, has become more sensible, as he now prefers job security over better pay, when looking for a job.

When sales professional S. Raghavan interviewed for a job with an information technology (IT) firm in November, he asked most of the questions. Raghavan wanted to know about the relevance of a new business unit the firm was creating, its importance in the larger scheme of things, strategy and road map.

"I wanted to know how serious they were about the business," says Raghavan, 35, who moved out of a sales role at his previous job when his team lost its prominence in the aftermath of the global economic crisis.

Interviews have now become a two-way process, according to D.K.Srivastava, Corporate Vice-President and Global Head, HR at software services provider HCL Technologies. Srivastava says that candidates now ask him and his team about job stability, career growth, training, projects in which they would be deployed and post-project plans, among other things.

The downturn created an element of job insecurity that young professionals hadn't experienced, and money alone may not be a sufficiently attractive blandishment. "Earlier, money was the only driver," says Cherian Kuruvila, Director of operations at Manpower Services India, the Indian arm of U.S. based Manpower.

The fallout of all that wariness is a talent crunch, especially for new firms. "Newer telecom players are finding it too difficult to get talent," says Manish Kharbanda, Chief HR officer at Sistema Shyam TeleServices, the Indian mobile services arm of Russian conglomerate Sistema Group. He says that it takes a lot of convincing to get people on board. "Prospective employees ask about business plans, which was unheard of." Kharbanda says that he was lucky to have hired 3,500 people last year when the firm entered India; he plans to hire an additional 1,000 in 2010.

Many HR executives welcome the new-found caution, but Rajiv Srinivasa, Marketing and Sales Director at recruitment firm Talking Heads, says that he is not sure if the sobered progression of career growth and salaries will last. "There are chances things could well reverse, say, in the latter half of 2010, once demand for people really picks up."

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