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As telecom, BFSI, IT/ITeS, and manufacturing gear up to deploy new technologies, these verticals will continue to contribute to the growth of the network integration business. The government could be another vertical to sustain growth levels. And retail is another. Across all these verticals, SMB will be a huge focus area.

As technology develops rapidly, regulation and regulatory methods need constant updating. This is known to become an issue several times-take the instance of the ongoing obscurity over VoIP. If clarity is generated on such issues, the industry will grow much faster. However, it is not always easy to adjudicate on regulatory issues, as consensus needs to be developed.

Increasing compliance requirements and voluntary corporate governance norms can see increasing alignment of IT investments to business objectives. This can have a positive effect on the network integration business in 2008.

Performance management focusing on efficient IT service delivery for increasing the competitive abilities of the organization and increasing focus on corporate governance is one of the main areas that can direct IT investment decisions.

Emerging Areas
IP networks are now being increasingly used to drive a large number of varied industry-specific solutions. The versatility of an IP medium, combined with the routing and security features of MPLS, makes them high potential solutions.

MPLS VPNs, which were hardcore leased circuit inclinations till now, are now also considered for voice carriage solutions. The demand for international MPLS is also growing on account of the class of service and flexibility it offers.

Unified Communication (UC) and mobility will strengthen as the new wave, just like the Internet, or email rocked the world. The UC is driven by a combination of factors, including reduced communication media cost, stability in WAN networks, focus of organizations on robust and available LAN infrastructure, acceptance of IP telephony, and SIP-based communication. The other big trend is mobility with content and capacity which is revolutionizing the way business is done, powering users with the freedom to work from anywhere.

Wireless is a low-cost investment with high RoI. It's better to migrate high-speed links to metro ethernet and go for WAN optimizers after understanding traffic applications of the network.

The primary challenges are to do with network coverage and capacity planning. These can be tackled by deploying multiple base station sites in each city and advanced modulation techniques.

Among many solutions, the proven ones are building enterprise Intranets over the public Internet using secure technologies. Also, while planning network infrastructure, there are some important things that should be taken into consideration: detailed planning for network migration or expansion since networks is now the lifeline of the company; utilize consulting services to get quality advice from people who have relevant experience and expertise; and no revamp unless there is a clear RoI for network enhancement.

Challenges Ahead
Security and manageability have been two major problem areas in regard to network integration. The enterprise faces numerous challenges including managing and controlling communication costs, building technical domain expertise along with retaining them and managing technological changes while protecting investments, and providing continuum to the existing infrastructure. As new technologies emerge and branches are added, the task of maintaining the networks becomes challenging.

Shortage of staff in this also becomes a concern. The other big concern is how to keep pace with changing technology, and going for the right solution/architecture that allows organizations to seemingly accommodate new technologies to meet future business requirements and also safeguards the investments already made.

Enterprises are looking at minimizing capital expenditure and prefer to work with solution providers on an SLA-based service model.

Additionally, the benefits derived out of outsourcing processes to a service provider on a remote infrastructure management model are gaining strength. Enterprises today wish to focus more on their core business, resulting in better efficiencies and infrastructure management.

For a geographically vast country like India, the penetration of broadband connectivity is still a major challenge. Poor IP infrastructure setup in rural areas makes it difficult for various stakeholders to reach out to each and every individual.

Wireless broadband has the power to reduce this digital divide in a much faster time than anticipated. The incurred cost and installation times are much lower than that of wireline options. The state needs to recognize the strengths of this particular medium and support service providers in expanding their rural presence.

Reducing costs associated with managing and maintaining separate voice and data networks and equipment, and increasing customer satisfaction through more flexible communications and faster response times are some key demands among enterprises.

Developing a clear strategy to facilitate the move from disconnected silos of voice, video and data capability to the delivery of new collaborative applications based on converged communications networks are some of the options that enterprises are looking for. Shorter project implementation time, increasing alignment of IT investments to business objectives are some of the other demands of enterprises.

Implementation Costs to Rise
Budgetary constraints and competitive pressures have forced the industry to drive down costs. Enterprises are asking for lower levels of integration pricing. The concept of end-to-end solutions or one-stop solutions has gained momentum. Enterprises do not have to spend money on different vendors. Also, electronic infrastructure prices have come down considerably, and device functionalities are increasing disproportionately to price. However, the cost of resources and expertise is rapidly rising, as is the trend in other related industries too.

Project implementation costs are set to rise, mainly due to increasing manpower costs and shortages. Overall project implementation costs have increased over the past year because of a large number of deployments in semi-urban and rural areas, as well as because of higher manpower costs across the country.

In the global market for outsourcing, the industry quickly needs to move up the value chain and quality levels if we have to grow our market share at previous levels. Other countries may soon begin to match our cost levels and, frankly, it may be difficult to reduce costs beyond a certain limit.

Driven by Technologies
The IT era will be driven not by what the enterprise can provide, but by what customers, communities, and employees want. The key factor to drive growth will be the change in enhanced user experience in terms of mobility, points of access, universal identity, and availability. The trend right now is to drift from box integration to process excellence and convergence. Organizations are now looking at IT as a service, and not as an internal support function. Customers have reworked their IT strategy by investigating changes in their business requirements, selecting the right technology and implementing changes in a planned/controlled manner.

The growth will be supplemented by technologies. The industry has seen migration from TDM to IP. With technologies like MPLS maturing, many enterprises have migrated from Leased Lines to MPLS VPNs as they offer a far more cost-effective and manageable connectivity media. Enterprises are increasingly focusing on outsourcing the network management in totality.

Among the new key technologies now getting popular in the market are unified communication solutions, tele-presence, digital video security surveillance, and WiMax. MPLS, server consolidation, and data centers are some of the new growth areas.

Other emerging areas are going to be around connecting people not just through computers, but also through connectivity devices like mobiles, TV and high definition screens. TV like experience in high definition is going to extend to not just video conferencing, but also user interfaces.

The devices would be interconnected through rich services from providing the latest applications to rich media. User interfaces will become more natural and touch-based. Email archival, enterprise dashboards with integrated network and security monitoring along with event correlation, workforce optimization, etc will also gain momentum.

From a technology perspective, a majority of businesses have moved toward converged IP network. This puts a good foundation in place for unified communications and collaboration technologies.

The growth in the NI market has primarily been driven by factors such as increased deployments of enterprise applications like ERP, SCM, CRM and core banking; further extension of existing deployments to connect all business stakeholders; immense e-governance; and automation initiatives undertaken by all government organizations.

Baburajan K
baburajank@cybermedia.co.in