Cisco Study Reveals To Me.....

In reviewing the results of a recently announced Cisco IT services study reveals to me that many of the concepts including unified communications, the use of video in communications and streaming media, three technologies I've been heavily involved with and a consumer of are simply too challenging, even for IT professionals, on a variety of levels.

The challenges are from my perspective are best summed up this way:

1) Network strain and drain-we don't have the capacity
2) Integration-it doesn't work with what's already there easily
3) User Experience-It's not easy to use, requires lots of care and feeding
4) The concept of "No IT Guy Required" is just a dream, not a reality

Another interpretation from the study announcement:

Cisco is trumpeting their video solutions, and using travel reduction as the key. I am suspecting they make a move downward into the SightSpeed, Skype, ooVoo space this year, creating an "on-ramp" to their Telepresence solution using h.264 SIP based video. If you note, they are saying Telepresence less, and video communications more. To me that's what is called an indicator in a subtle shift in positioning and likely a leaning in the direction of something more to come.