The Next Phase of the Age of Communications

The power used to be in the computer. Now it’s in the communications networks that connect them together.

By Phil Dance, Managing Director, Technology Exploitation, BT

In today’s world of next-generation communications services like streaming video-on-demand, location-based services and more, it’s clear that the role of the communications providers—the carriers—is only going to grow. Fifteen years ago – in the pre-Internet age – computers ruled. Now, arguably, the connections between computers rule.

Demand is growing at a phenomenal rate, from business and from consumers. Services like YouTube, iPlayer, Google Apps and iTunes are turning the world multimedia.

Just 10 years ago, we would have thought it odd to even dream about the dramatic shift in how we watch television. But now we don’t think twice about time-shifting using a DVR or simply streaming last night’s new episode of our favorite show. We’re essentially getting broadcast quality television when and where we want it.

Businesses too are incredibly dependent upon email and intranet information, and their employees depend upon broadband and mobile data to stay in touch whether they’re at home or out on the road.

All of this means that we’re starting to see increased pressure on communication networks to keep up with the volume of traffic. People expect the networks to keep up with their expectations and demands, whether it’s watching a seamless, stutter-free streamed TV program or downloading a large presentation file into their email inbox. You have to remember that the Internet was really built for very basic 64Kbps services, and new services need new, more powerful and stronger networks to carry all the extra traffic.

Next-Generation Communications
BT’s next generation network is called 21CN, and our aim is that we and other carriers will exploit this to create innovative new services for people and businesses across the UK and globally. We are also committed to enhancing the local loop, the connections between the telephone exchanges and the local distribution points (Fiber to the Cabinet or FTTC), if not the household or business themselves (with Fiber to the Premise or FTTP). FTTP will deliver headline speeds of up to 100Mbps while FTTC will deliver speeds of up to 40Mbps. We are also investigating technologies that can increase those speeds to more than 60Mbps.

But there’s a similar and arguably bigger revolution coming in the world of business, and that is cloud computing. Cloud computing can be tricky to define, but many people regard it as the third age of computing. The ‘big iron’ mainframe of the ’60s and ’70s was replaced by the client-server model in the ’80s, and now that client-server model must give way to the cloud model, which is looking like it will become the dominant model for computing over the coming years. Why is this?

These traditional ways of computing required lots of capital expenditure (hardware, software) and, on top of that, businesses would also often need to invest in expensive maintenance contracts, and more often than not expensive consultants and specialist contractors – plus have a host of integration and compatibility problems to overcome. The complexity meant that implementation timescales were measured in many months and maybe years.

But cloud computing doesn’t require large up-front expenditure, and it runs on somebody else’s infrastructure. The licensing model allows for users to be switched on and off and the pay-as-you go approach of accessing applications means that you get only what you need when you need it. It is also potentially much faster to implement and is inherently more flexible.

And if this seems all very much of the future, it isn’t: a growing number of large corporations are trialing this approach, including Taylor Woodrow and Telegraph Media Group in the UK.

Another big advantage of this model is that people can be more mobile. The predominance of the mobile worker’s laptop, which is increasingly creaking at the seams with software designed to manage and synchronize and make secure data on that machine, can be left to let the user do what they want to do unhindered. And in an age where people need to work in a more flexible and mobile way, whenever and wherever they need to, that must be a good thing. And it doesn’t need to be a laptop – even a smartphone will be able to access files and attachments and email over the cloud.

Cloud computing is likely to be the dominant model of the coming decade at least, and this means that the network becomes even more important. Networks and computing power will be distributed across individuals in the organization and not be centered on major links between central major sites.

So all this is seeing a shift in emphasis from pure computing to communications – or rather to converged computing and communications where the two are working as one single, cohesive entity. The challenge for BT is to exploit this – and that is exactly what we are doing.