Acme Packet trends for the future of IP

Acme Packet has recently released a list of six trends that will affect the future of IP communications. The evolution from TDM to IP interactive communications introduces significantly more communication service choices and application possibilities. These trends are:

  1. Unified service evolves—anywhere, anyone, anytime. Unified services are evolving so they can be delivered anywhere, to anyone, at anytime—and on any device. Historically, users have primarily relied on standalone, device-specific services. Now communication services are becoming integrated—or unified—in the form of presence-enabled voice, interactive video, IM, and collaboration. Ultimately, these unified services networks must become interconnected and interoperable, exte
  2. Service provider choices will increase. Traditional facilities-based service providers—both fixed-line and mobile—will offer unified service to all market segments—residential, business and mobile—just as they did for voice. Large enterprises will continue to provide services to their own employees using their own infrastructure for some period of time, and over-the-top service providers will offer additional choices that are often differentiated by price and functionality. Our choices in who provides our services will only increase.
  3. Cloud services will dominate. Within most enterprises, IP PBX, and unified communications (UC) servers will vanish from enterprise premise since it doesn’t matter where servers physically reside in IP networks. Only the largest, communications-critical enterprises will build their own clouds.
  4. Network transport choices will increase. The best-effort, untrusted internet will always be available as a transport network providing ubiquitous reach for over-the top service providers and enterprises to exploit. As an alternative, managed service provider networks are interconnecting with one another today, to provide high-quality, trusted, transport services between both federated enterprises and subscriber groups.
  5. Mobile access will dominate. While tethered device connections are terminal (e.g. dead), high-bandwidth wired aggregation and backhaul networks are essential. Mobile access will dominate our world, and now is the time to prepare for this eventuality.
  6. Identity and privacy become critical. Replacing the PSTN with IP communications networks will require trusted mechanisms for guaranteeing identity, reliable communications delivery and preserving privacy when needed. Building controls at IP borders will allow service providers and enterprises to build trusted networks that protect the IP that people truly care most about—their identity and their privacy.