The Hyperconnected Enterprise

Extreme Networks has copied Nortel's campaign of attacking the Cisco Energy Tax, but then hides energy consumption behind unreal 'best practices', and creates a closed calculator tool.

Virtually all Extreme's estimated "savings" are based on their assumption that all phones/ports are powered off - every night, weekends and holidays. Basically Extreme's "Green IT" best practices design recommendation is that customers power their network down the equivalent of 106 days out of the year to save electricity. For the vast majority of companies that I talk to this approach does not make either business or operational sense. Reject this best practice and the result is higher energy bills and TCO with Extreme solutions.

Extreme's Energy Savings Estimator is hard coded and hides any of the assumptions used to arrive at the results. Contrast this with Nortel's approach of making all assumptions clearly visible to users of our tool and verifying these through third party testing with open invitations for competitor participation. One analyst I spoke to actually uses the Nortel Energy Efficiency Calculator in a two-day course he runs.

So don't get blind-sighted by Extreme claims ... and demand all the facts.

According to data recovery firm Kroll Ontrack, human error is the number one cause of data loss.

Some of the most memorable mishaps:
1. A customer "washed away" her data after putting her USB memory stick through a washing machine cycle.
2. A scientist was fed up with his hard drive squeaking, so he drilled a hole through the casing and poured in oil. The hard drive was completely destroyed, (but he did stop the squeaking).
3. A photographer noticed that ants were living inside his external hard drive, so he sprayed it with insect repellent. The ants died, along with his data.

It's not just about technology;)

You might have seen John Roese's blog, in which he, as Nortel CTO, talked to the transformation of R&D in Nortel.

Most visibly, the R&D program has shifted to what we call "20-60-20"- 20% is late-lifecycle spend, 60% is focused on growth and mature product activity, and a full 20% is directed to emerging and new technologies and markets, such as those in application software. An excellent example of the latter is the Nortel Agile Communication Environment, communications integration software.

Some are asking, whether this transformation is still on track given that John is leaving Nortel at the end of the year and given the state of the world economy.

The answer is absolutely yes.

Last week, Phil Edholm, the enterprise CTO, held his first team meeting to drive forward with the enterprise portions of the advanced research and incubation programs, which John initiated.

The incubation program continues to represent some 3% of R&D, and is targeted at opening new addressable markets outside of the existing business units. A good example of an element of our incubation program is web.alive, a highly innovative e-commerce, e-learning and collaboration application.

I am glad to see that R&D continues to be at the heart of innovation in Nortel.

The moderator/consultant of a recent user/vendor roundtable I attended, asked an interesting question: "What would vendors like customers do to differently?"

On thinking about it, I think that what we want to see less feature-driven RFPs, because
1) Feature lists reflect what can be done rather than what the enterprise needs or is using.
2) Feature lists tend to be backward rather than forward looking, and get in the way of identifying new ways of achieving the same or better results.
Feature lists dictate one particular how, rather than the why or the what.

So what we want to see is more business-driven requirement documents, which
1) Identify the business, application and user needs- the why
2) Identify IT operational and technological/architectural needs - the how
3) Identify the most important business results- the what.

Thanks for asking.

Last week, I attended a user/vendor roundtable (literally, around a boardroom table in a law office) organized by a well respected Canadian consultant. There were some dozen customers, Nortel and Microsoft, and Cisco and Avaya. It was intended to provide insights and practical advice to the attendees.

In general, I think the format was very conducive to a good and generally friendly exchange of information over a 2 hour period.

I found myself agreeing with the Cisco spokesperson more often than not.

To Cisco's comment that in today's climate, saving money was very important, I AGREED.

I then observed that Nortel data solutions could immediately lower your energy bill by 40% and your TCO by up to 50% (as verified by third parties). In addition, UC based on software can also save money by unifying the IT infrastructure, not just the user experience.

Cisco then said that UC was about collaboration. I AGREED.

I said this was a narrow view, stating that while collaboration is very important, UC is all about optimizing business processes, a view that resonated with the audience, particularly when I illustrated the point by giving the example of accelerated patient discharge at Orlando Regional Health.

Cisco then said that integrating Cisco-based communications into business applications would take too long to deliver benefits. I AGREED.

This is exactly the problem with Cisco's network-centric approach which inherently creates bottlenecks for enterprise application innovation. With the Nortel Agile Communication Environment (ACE), we developed an app in 10 minutes while on stage at the Websphere development conference. Now that's the path to business agility and application innovation.

So who says I never agree with Cisco;)

Verizon is basing its managed Telepresence service on a partnership with Nortel. The service provides "complete setup and management of telepresence conferences, including pre-connected and configured video circuits, and the ability for users to make conference reservations online."

Makes sense to me. The service will leverage Nortel's extensive global infrastructure of Multimedia Network Operations Centers.

My guess is that Cisco didn't make the short list, because their solution is a closed system locking the customer and the service provider into Cisco, from cradle to grave. Why would anyone invest millions of dollars in a Cisco proprietary solution?

In contrast, Nortel's solution leverages partnerships with industry leading Polycom and Tandberg, to deliver a broad range of desktop and room video interworking. This is a much better fit with what customers really need.

Previously, I asked the question "In which sport, is human endurance pushed to the limit (athletes have died), and does Internet Hyperconnectivity trump TV?"

Thirty solo racers (including 2 women) left Sunday in an around the world race (the Vendee Globe) in their 20m/60 foot 'formula 1' racing yachts. A good portion of the 27Km trek will be in the southern ocean culminating in rounding Cape Horn, sometimes reaching speeds of as high as 40 knots (roughly 80 kph or 50 mph!). They aren't allowed to touch land, or get any assistance.

Four years ago, the #2 boat came just 5 hours past the leader, while the #3 bought limped in a day later having lost its keel.

Why do I call this extreme sport hyperconnected? While TV camera crews stay home, you can follow the race over the Internet, getting video and audio, podcasts, emails etc from the boats.

This was effectively the headline that greeted me in the local paper.

The sun rose this morning and the sky hasn't fallen.

So time to ponder yesterday's announcements.

Much of the press focused on the $3.4B loss announced. I'm no accountant but I'm told that these charges have no bearing on our current cash position ($2.3B in cash).

Personally, the announcement of 1300 layoffs hit me closer to home. It's very sad when the friends and co-workers find themselves out of a job, after working so hard for something they believed in. But hopefully those in Ottawa will find a job quickly. Consider that in 1997, there were 900 knowledge based companies employing 50,000 workers, while today there are over 1800 companies employing 80,000 workers. And Ottawa is not unique. Good luck and thanks for your contribution to Nortel- the press may not know it but I know our customers do.

The next element of the announcement was the departure of a number of senior executives, among them John Roese, our highly outspoken CTO. I had a lot of time for John. His blog shoes will be filled by Phil Edholm, the Enterprise Corporate Strategy Officer. Phil is no less opinionated and already has his only blog.

John's year-end departure marks an aggressive shift highlighted in today's headline that moves head quarter roles such as the CTO/CMO into 3 lines of business, one of which is enterprise. For me, this establishes the strongest enterprise focus I have ever seen in Nortel (and I've seen a lot over my 36 years here), with sales, marketing, R&D, operations and services under one president, Joel Hackney. This along with great people, strong technology, and discerning customers aligns our stars--- we now have to deliver.

Let me end by highlighting a recent win. HSBC, about as technology and business savvy a customer you can find, chose a Nortel UC solution based on the Nortel Agile Communication Environment. This is a great endorsement of our strategy of becoming a software and services company, or as Joel says "a Communications Integrator".

The sun may have come up, but Nortel, our customers and the industry at large have a storm to weather. I think Nortel is better prepared than it was even a few weeks ago to come out stronger in the end.

In which sport, is human endurance pushed to the limit (athletes have died), and does Internet Hyperconnectivity trump TV?

Someday, your neighborhood politician will walk up to, and even though you've never met, will greet you by name. Someday, politicians running for office and heading into debates, may be tested for this 'banned substance'.

Researchers at the University of Washington and Sandia National Laboratories have developed the latest in heads-up displays, combining a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights! So far only tested on rabbits, but future versions may have integrated 2-way wireless, and solar cells for power. Ever focused on something up close- no problem, micro-lenses will make it appear further.

You could link to face recognition software and have a name display appear before your very eyes when you walk up to someone. Opportunities galore- you could say "the eyes the limit".

I haven't heard anyone talk about incorporating a touch sensitive display so that you can interact with it!

If you are an American, your challenge is separating facts from rhetoric. Hard as this may seem, please make your choice and vote. If you are not an American, you will be watching with great interest on the sidelines.

But in IT, there are no sidelines and there are hard facts!

Who offers 7x better resilience?

Who offers 20x better performance?

Who offers up to 50% lower TCO?

Who offers 40% lower energy consumption?

Who is tightly integrated with Microsoft's OCS? Or with IBM's Websphere or Sametime?

Who offers multi-vendor communications integration software and services?

In IT, you have a choice.

What struck me most about the series of announcements (spanning Vancouver and Vegas to Dubai) on recent Nortel wins in the hospitality industry is how hotels are aligning their technology investments with their visions for enhanced guest experience.

For example, the Shangri-La Hotel in Vancouver wants to provide easy access to personalized services - from messaging and mobility to room service and reservations - without allowing technology to intrude. For example, hotel management explicitly did not want to use color touch-screen phones, as these are viewed to impose on the peaceful, laid-back, 'no-tech' atmosphere of guest rooms.

The Palazzo Las Vegas recognizes that going green is as much about cost and technology as it is about meeting social expectations of their guests. The Palazzo has been recognized as the largest 'green' building in the world with a Silver LEED (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design) Certificate from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The Bonnington Jumeirah Lakes Towers- Dubai is investing in providing efficient wireless Internet access and voice services throughout the hotel, making staff readily available and reachable via a single number for rapid, responsive and personalized guest service.

These are leading the transformation of the hospitality industry with innovative technologies that can help enhance the guest experience, generate new revenues and improve operational efficiencies.

Avaya made some noise at its recent analyst conference about its SIP App Server, an enterprise retrofit of its Ubiquity offer for carriers.

Should you be interested?

Not if you are interested in....
• Products today (Avaya is talking about 2009)
• Multi-vendor environments (Avaya is paying lip service to multi-vendor, but there's no reference to anything but Avaya)
• Integration with your SOA environment (nothing here for you since this was designed for carriers)
• Development toolkits ("will eventually open it up to ISVs and customers")

In contrast, the Nortel Agile Communication Environment (ACE) is ....
• A shipping product with announced customers like HSBC
• Multi-vendor out-of-the-box and interworking with Nortel Communications Servers, Microsoft OCS, IBM Sametime, Cisco CUCM and Tandberg video (interoperability with Avaya infrastructure is coming out soon)
• Integrated with Websphere Application Server and with Microsoft environments
• A foundation for pre-packaged applications (such as hot-desking), customized communications-enabled applications and a toolkit for enterprise, SIs and ISV application developers.

Finally, Avaya is just now folding communications-enabled apps into its UC organization, so integration of their SIP App Server with UC may take a while.

On the other hand, Nortel totally subscribes to the view promoted by UC Strategies, a consortium of industry analysts, that Unified Communications is "communications integrated to optimize business processes". That's why ACE is tightly integrated with Nortel's UC solutions (our own and those developed with Microsoft and IBM).

At his VoiceCon keynote in Amsterdam earlier in the month (Amsterdam), Royal Dutch Shell's Group IT Architect Johan Krebbers positioned UC (built on OCS) as a key element of Shell's global collaboration strategy (80% of teams in Shell are global!), tightly linked with their information sharing strategy and built around a single user experience.

He also stated that OCS was Shell's voice platform of the future, stressing that even today, the OCS feature set is adequate for many employees, many of whom are mobile and comfortable with soft phones.

Traditional PBX vendors should be worried by Microsoft's entry in the PBX market.

But Nortel is not among these. You see, we agree that the future of telephony is as a software UC application, and the future of Nortel is in software and services. To accelerate our transformation, we have developed unique alliances with Microsoft under the Innovative Communications Alliance, and with IBM with a particular focus on SOA.

But as William Gibson wrote: "The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed", and clearly Shell is at the tail of the curve.

In contrast, I am meeting next week with a successful insurance company that is 'very risk averse' in both financial and technology terms, and is just now starting to look at how to evolve their TDM telephony system, focusing predominantly on hard phones. They are just not ready for OCS-style telephony and UC.

So Nortel's unique value proposition is to help our customers meet their immediate telephony needs, while helping them evolve at their own business-driven pace, towards a suite of best-in-class UC applications, whether based on OCS, Sametime or Nortel's. Furthermore, we provide communications integration software (the Nortel Agile Communication Environment) and services that accelerate the business through communications-enabled business processes across multi-vendor networks.

Contrast this with the likes of Cisco and Avaya, which talk about software and openness, and then push the customer into a vertically integrated silo'd approach.

The first "speedcabling" competition took place earlier this year in Los Angeles. This new geek game is based on unravelling the rat's nest of wires found beneath most computer desks, as people connect an assortment of storage, scanner, printer, camera etc etc to their PCs.

But this may be a short-lived "sport" as wireless USB, complemented by WiFi and to a lesser extent Bluetooth, emerge as solutions to everyone's below-the-desk Hyperconnectivity challenges.

Briefly Wireless USB (technically USB3.0) is a hub and spoke technology, creating a cluster of up to 127 devices. To achieve up to 480Mbps (equivalent to USB 2.0) at distances up to 3 meters, WUSB uses low power ultra-wideband (UWB) transmission over an extremely wide spectrum (technically from 3.1 to 10.5 GHz), and will coexist peacefully with other wireless technologies such as WiFi and Bluetooth.

How fast can you unravel the rat's nets of cables below your desk?