The idea is that a user wanting to contact an exec can search through friends' (or friends-of-friends-of-friends') address books and request an introduction. "It's most useful for connecting to people outside your organization," says Morris. "But the best route to them might be through someone within your organization."
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Still, vendors will have to show hard ROI before these technologies will be adopted by enterprise users, and that could be difficult with so many free alternatives. The long-term evolution of Web 2.0 in business is likely to trace a path similar to that of instant messaging, which has comparable social characteristics to wikis, blogs and social networks, and initially followed a parallel adoption curve in business.
IM was brought in by people who used it in their personal lives, with the most enthusiastic users towards the younger end of the age scale. Though many people resisted it at first, IM quickly became an enterprise staple: Three quarters of all organizations in our survey use it, with half saying they find it very useful or critical to their business.
So far, so much like any other technology: Home users are driving innovation in most areas, so it's no surprise to see the enterprise lagging. But unlike the PC a generation ago, IM has managed to colonize the workplace without going native. Despite frequent warnings from security vendors that unrestrained use of consumer IM technology can violate privacy policies, give attackers a backdoor into the network, even send executives to jail, most companies happily use the same free services as teenagers. CFOs like the price, and users like keeping the same software they use at home, not to mention staying in touch with friends who use the AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft services.
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.
