After some networking activities, speakers from Continuous Computing, Intel Corporation and Mavenir Systems spoke for several minutes each. All the presentations touched on major industry trends which were identified by Continuous Computing as Convergence, Consolidation, and adoption of standards. There are several conclusions that they reached regarding the future of the mobile market which are relevant for any major player, including companies in the Korean peninsula.
The market is converging in several ways in both wireless and wired networks. Common solutions for data, voice, and video are being developed. In this rapidly changing environment, it is difficult to predict what model will be accepted, making time-to-market more essential than ever since the first-mover often gains tremendous advantage. As TEMs strive to quickly bring products to market, purchasing integrated solutions rather than individual systems will become the industry trend. Continuous Computing's system approach in particular is wellpositioned to deliver on these requirements.
Consolidation of industry players such as AT&T and Bell South ; Nokia and Siemens; and Alcatel and Lucent has prompted a renewed appreciation by telecom equipment manufacturers (TEMs) for the need to focus inhouse resources on core competencies that deliver true differentiation and value, and to outsource everything. As a result, these manufacturers are outsourcing key parts of their infrastructure business to best-of-breed companies like Continuous Computing so that the TEMs can focus strictly on higherlayer application development.
In the past, TEMs tried to do everything in-house using proprietary designs, which restrained innovation and kept overheads high. With the evolution of standards like CompactPCI, AdvancedTCA, SIP, and others, TEMs recognize that there is greater benefit in embracing standards-based solutions from companies such as Continuous Computing. In fact, everything Continuous Computing develops is based on open standards, which facilitates interoperability among hardware networks and reduces carriers' operational expenditures.
Additionally, each speaker discussed his/her organization's relationship with Continuous Computing. Intel's Kevin D. Johnson, Director of Service Provider Marketing for the Embedded and Communications Group, discussed Intel's role in supplying chips for AdvancedTCA and CompactPCI products.
CP-TA's Vice Chairman Rohit Chhabra discussed CP-TA's initiatives in driving towards interoperability. He also discussed the organization's recently announced Interoperability Compliance Document and the Test Procedure Manual for AdvancedTCA. The former defines a set of interoperability requirements to build interoperable communications platforms. The latter defines test procedures for those requirements. Together these two documents will allow vendors to design and deliver interoperable open specificationsbased products. Mavenir' s Kathy McEwen, Senior Director of Marketing and Product Management, discussed the company's newly announced customer relationship with Continuous Computing; specifically, that Mavenir has selected abroad range of Continuous Computing products, including Trillium Diameter, H. 248 and SS7 protocol software, to help drive the company's mOne broadband Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) platform. These NGN-Ready Trillium products from Continuous Computing allow companies like Mavenir Systems to deliver multimedia capabilities across networks, access devices efficiently and conomically, and obtain full mobility, authentication and service assurance.
In addition to discussing the industry trends, CEO Mike Dagenais also noted a few differentiators in the market. First, he spoke about the integration of hardware, software, and professional services. Continuous Computing is the only company 100% focused on providing integrated systems and services that enable telecom equipment manufacturers to rapidly deploy Next Generation Networks (NGN). He also mentioned network convergence. Continuous Computing accelerates deployment of Next Generation Network applications such as 3G Wireless and IMS.
