Are there hurdles to bringing mobile IM into your enterprise? Yes. We spoke with leading IM vendors, including AOL and IBM, and uncovered complications that have inhibited widespread business use. Key vendors and operators are focused on selling to consumers, while enterprises rightly perceive difficulty in securing and managing mobile IM communications. But there are ways to address the security, compliance and management realities enterprises face.
If you can lay the groundwork now and plan on a rollout in 12 to 24 months, the picture will improve considerably thanks to cellular operators. These providers plan to host an expanding variety of enterprise-class IM services, much as they currently provide wireless e-mail systems for business use.
Longer term, operators are deploying complex IP multimedia infrastructures based on IP Multimedia Subsystem. IMS lets IT combine communications sessions, such as those for IM, voice and video, and provides access to user presence and location information. Look to operators to make IMS interfaces available for enhanced service offerings that let users seamlessly move from IM to a VoIP or interactive video session. All the companies we interviewed said they're looking at IMS, but none indicated specific development efforts, so it's unlikely we'll see IM services based on IMS before 2008--and even that may be optimistic.
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Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
