Still, companies like Prager, Sealy & Co. can't abandon their CMSes just yet, and the most popular collaboration platform remains Microsoft SharePoint. SharePoint is also at the center of Microsoft's online Office Live strategy, best described as "software-plus-service." Rather than a Google-style suite of online apps that would compete with its own products, Microsoft sells SharePoint and Outlook as services, with a subset of the full functionality soon to be available at no cost. Users still need a client-side application to edit documents, theoretically giving them the best of both worlds—and preserving Microsoft's Office revenue stream.
A Social Enterprise Network?
Of all Web 2.0 technologies, social networking is the one that gets vendors and venture capitalists most excited. At least 17 startups are pitching social networking technology to business customers (see table below), while countless social networking Web sites are chasing individual users. But it's also the one about which our readers are most skeptical: When asked to rate the value of technologies, 68% said that public social networking sites were of no use at all; (see poll results charts). Only 5% rated any kind of social networking as very useful (four on a scale of five) or better.
Still, one type of company finds these public sites very exciting: Recruiters.
"We have great expectations for Facebook," says Jason Blessing, general manager of the SMB division at recruitment service provider Taleo. "The thing we really like is that it has a heritage from the top universities, and it's a place where the Gen-Ys or millennials like to hang out." His company rolled out a Web service that its SMB customers use to advertise jobs through Facebook's API, letting users recommend their friends (or friends of friends of friends) for specific positions.
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.
