Cloud Computing and Video Conferencing: What's Next

One of the most interesting areas in technology these days is telephony, with all its flavors: voice, video, and video conferencing. And, as far as we've come, we're about to see another wave of innovation in the space.
Not only is cloud computing the mode by which these services are delivered, but also, the way they're morphing gives us clues about what it going to happen to cloud computing itself.

Let me begin by sharing an experience that illustrates just how far we've come and how fast the journey has been. Ten years ago I was on the phone with AT&T sorting out something about our service, when the rep said "I notice you make a lot of calls overseas. If you signed up for our international calling plan, your per-minute costs would go from $1.50 to $.11."

That's when I knew a revolution was occurring. When a vendor offers a way for you to save 90% on the cost of its service to you, an enormous marketplace shift is underway.

Today, I routinely make Skype video calls overseas at no charge beyond my basic Internet connectivity. By the way, the quality of the calls is far better than the landline equivalent. Imagine that: Great quality. Video. Delivered for free.

And, by the way, a few years ago, when I first started using Skype, I found a lot of people inside businesses were reluctant to use it; they seemed to regard it as "personal," or "consumer-grade." Today, that reluctance has disappeared. Indeed, over the past year I've noticed that people seem to prefer Skype to regular telephony, viewing the opportunity to do video calls as providing a superior communication mode.
So I was very interested in some developments over the past few weeks.

First, Google has integrated Google Voice into its e-mail client. Motley Fool discussed this at length and speculated on its effect upon Skype. Essentially, this boils down to "can Google Voice attract users away from Skype?"

Second, speculation mounted that Cisco might buy Skype before its upcoming IPO. Techcrunch discussed this possibility here.

And then Cisco launched its own personal videoconferencing service, Umi, designed to offer higher-quality video. Of course, many people noted that its $500+ equipment purchase price, along with a $25 per month fee, might make it more suitable for small businesses rather than individuals or families.

The Big Market Shift

To me, these developments dramatically illustrate the impact of digitization and monopoly markets.

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Skype offers living room TV action

Skype have annouced a partnership between themselves, LG & Panasonic to bring Video Conferencing toTV's this summer. Read more here - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/06/skype_tv/

http://bit.ly/5NMFEA

Russia not the first to see Skype as a security threat

In partnership with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's political party, a Russian business lobby group wants to enact "legal safeguards" against foreign VoIP services like Skype and ICQ. Domestic telecom revenue is, of course, a factor, but Russia may be looking to join China in spying on Skype conversations.

VoIP services like Skype and Vonage radically changed the US communication landscape years ago and ignited a telecom race to catch up. The most powerful business lobbying group in Russia, partnering with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's political party, is hoping to avoid the same fate with "legal safeguards" for home turf competition. Lobbyists also
cite national security concerns, hinting that Russia should join China by spying on conversations over Skype and similar services.

Called the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) the 1,000-member strong business lobby organization recently announced that it wants government restrictions on IP telephony services from foreign countries like Skype and ICQ. RUIE believes that the VoIP
market is now growing faster than traditional telecoms, estimating that by 2012, 40 percent of Russia’s voice conversations will travel through Internet tubes. Unsurprisingly, the group—composed of telecom executives and other members of private and state-run businesses—wants to "protect domestic producers in [the telecom market]," reads a loose Google translation of RUIE’s official statement.

RUIE also warns that "without control by the States, security concerns [will inevitably be riggered]." As Reuters reports, delegates at the meeting state that "it has been impossible
for police to spy on VoIP conversations." Perhaps these statements are red herrings intended to shift focus towards anything but the assault on Russian telecoms’ bottom lines. But these statements touch on the issue of Skype and spying on foreign consumers—after all, the company has done it before.

A server misconfiguration in October 2008 allowed researchers to discover that Skype was providing China with text communication logs. Created in a partnership between Skype and TOM Online, Skype's partner in China, the logs revealed typical things like the monitoring of
"sensitive" topics, but also that specific users were targeted for further monitoring. "Millions" of records found on publicly (and briefly) accessible servers contained IP addresses, usernames, and landline phone numbers, as well as details of users outside of China
who communicated with TOM/Skype users in China.

According to researchers, many of the leaked logs contained none of the typical hot-button topics like Taiwan independence or opposition to the Communist Party of China. Apparently, if you ever talked about flagged topics in China or with one of its residents, you qualify for
TOM/Skype's list of folks to spy on. At the time, an eBay representative would only talk about the
security breach that led to the leaked logs, stating that swift, ironic action will be taken to protect the privacy of these spy logs. When we asked about the RUIE's implications of working with Russia to spy on its citizens, a Skype representative would only say, "Where technically possible, we work with law enforcement."

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