Hype Cycle Five Key Phases of Voips Life Cycle - Gartner Inc - Case Study Example

Contents Contents 1 I.Introduction 1 II.Hype Cycle definition 2 III.Hype Cycle five key phases of VOIP’s life cycle 3 IV.Conclusion 7 I. Introduction Gartner, Inc. Headquartered in the United States, Stamford, Connecticut, was founded in 1979, and has clients in eighty five countries; it is among the global principal information technology advisory and research Company, which offers technology-related information requisite for the customers to make informed decisions regularly. The information provided by Gartner is cross cutting and various cadres of staff such as the Chief Executive Officers, technology investors, professional services firms senior information communications leaders, government agencies, business leaders in telecom and high-tech and institutions, and management of corporations. Gartner offers its services to more than twelve thousand organizations through various service provisions including researching, analyzing and interpreting the business of IT within the context of the clients’ demands, Gartner Events, Gartner Consulting, Gartner Executive Programs and Gartner Research. II. Hype Cycle definition The Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies report has been existence for some time yearly offering different industry perspectives on the developments, technologies and trends that Information Technology managers put into consideration in developing emerging-technology ranges. The Hype Cycle targets various users including emerging technology, and strategic planning and innovation personnel through emphasizing various technologies that are bound to impact on various business domains (Jeffrey, 2009). The themes for different years vary due to the advances in technology; in 2012 the theme includes mobile computing, cloud computing and social media. Within the above developments, Private cloud computing, mobile computing technologies, media tablets and social analytics have gained prominence, while more-general cloud computing have experienced less growth. In the long term however, there are other technologies and developments which are envisioned to serve in the new future including real-world Web, context-enriched services, 3D printing, natural language question answering and internet TV. In the longer term such as in ten years period, major technologies envisioned to be applicable include quantum computing, mobile robots, human augmentation and 3D bio-printing. The technologies considered in the Hype Cycle ascribe to the four themes identified in the Gartner’s contemporary publication on uppermost technology trends that matter. These identified themes include the consideration of new digital frontiers, which entails surpassing the customary boundaries of Information Technology, through paradigm shift in the manner and way of working. The other theme is Analytical advances, which entails facilitation of the manipulation and storage of raw data in order to benefit from better insight and value, through expansion of applicability and capability, through diverse areas such as Social analytics, video analytics and predictive analytics. Moreover, the cycles consider the connected world theme which is based on closing the gap between the digital world and the physical world through various means including wireless connectivity and embedded sensors. Finally, Interface trends, is also a vital theme which considers The Hype cycles serve the clients in the Technology planning process, where the Gartner cycles are considered vis-à-vis the specific and strategic needs of the company, as well as the area of operations, where organizations strive to derive maximum advantage from a technology, by catching the technologies as they rise, before they move into mainstream adoption. Among the products which have featured in the Hype Cycles are Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP), and an example of an implementation of VOIP is Skype. III. Hype Cycle five key phases of VOIP’s life cycle VOIP is the technology for transmitting voice conversations over a data network by utilizing and Internet Protocol. VOIP works through digitizing voice into discrete packets, which are then independently transferred over the network, unlike the conventional public switched telephone network which use circuit-based protocols. Accordingly, the technological products undergo five key phases, of which VoIP is expected to undergo, so as to be said that a technology has accomplished the cycle. The first phase is that Technology Trigger phase, where a prospective technology development kicks things off, catapulted by media interest and early proof-of-concept stories, though the commercial viability remains unproven, VOIP is based on various technologies with the core being the telephone and the internet. The telephone was invented by Graham Bell in the 1870s; the telephone has undergone different changes since then. The internet was developed by ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) to offer decentralized communications network in case of global war, VOIP therefore has passed the first phase of the hype cycle, since it was started in February of 1995 by Vocaltec, Inc an Israel company (Roger, 2005). The next phase is the Peak of Inflated Expectations, where risk takers may take action, while risk averse institutions may opt not to take action, since the technology’s publicity is driven by success and failure stories, this was exhibited in VOIP, with the limited adoption of InternetPhone, which permitted users to communicate using their computers, a microphone and a set of speakers, while a number of IP Switch manufactures announced VoIP switching software as a standard in their routing equipment (Doug,2003). The third phase is the Trough of Disillusionment stage where implementations and experiments fail to deliver and interest wanes, while the implementing institutions have to satisfy the early adopters to avoid failure, this was experienced in 1998, when early adopters and entrepreneurs began marketing PC-to-phone and phone-to-phone VoIP solutions, but since there was no economic viability, VOIP phone calls were free financially supported by advertisements before the call was connected. Slope of Enlightenment phase involves better and more realizations and understanding of how the technology can benefit the enterprise, hence attracting progression to the second and third generations with increased funding from companies ready to fund the seemingly viable pilot. This was realized with the formation of different VOIP service provision companies such as Skype, SIP and H.323-based services, including Ekiga, Linphone, Empathy and Google Talk. (Burge, Chére & Gibson, 2012). The Plateau of Productivity is the fifth stage which entails Mainstream adoption starts of the technology, with clearly defined criteria for evaluating provider viability. In the phase also, the relevance of the technology is well comprehended and the technology’s broad market applicability are paying off (Lars, 2012). VOIP is currently at this stage as affirmed by the vast number of users using VOIP and the array of services provided, which includes teleconferencing, videoconferencing and instant messaging (Jackie &Mark, 2008). Moreover, the acquisition of Skype by Microsoft confirms mainstream adoption of VoIP. In addition, the plateau of productivity is affirmed by the increasingly significant call market share and the fact that Skype is the largest international voice carrier, in terms of per minute traffic. The above can be graphically represented as below:- These can be further illustrated as below IV. Conclusion VoIP is based on telephone and internet technologies, which have matured over time. From early insignificant utilization, VOIP has grown to be a major technology in international traffic, and has matured to include a variety of services and implementations, it is therefore currently at the fifth stage in the Gartner’s hype cycle. Reference Burge Elizabeth J., Chére Campbell Gibson, Terry Gibson, 2012, Flexible Pedagogy, Flexible Practice: Notes from the Trenches of Distance Education, Edmonton: Athabasca University Press Doug Kaye,2003,Loosely Coupled: The Missing Pieces of Web Services, California: RDS Strategies LLC. Jackie Fenn, Mark Raskino, 2008, Mastering the Hype Cycle: How to Choose the Right Innovation at the Right Time, Cambridge: Harvard Business Press. Jeffrey T. Pollock, 2009, Semantic Web For Dummies, Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Lars Erik Holmquist, 2012, Grounded Innovation: Strategies for Creating Digital Products Amsterdam: Elsevier. Roger K. Yang, 2005,What Great Telecom Managers Know, Toronto: Avema Corporation. Read More