3Com predictions for 2009 Trend 1: The impending economic slowdown will provide an unprecedented impetus to the demand for Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) solutions in 2009 With the economic slowdown and the industry’s efforts to educate businesses on the benefits of UCC gaining traction, 2009 could mark the start of a broad-based adoption of UCC solutions as business start to look hard at cutting costs. UCC, by consolidating voice and other services onto standard data networks, provides IT with an intuitive and meaningful way to reduce operating expenses. The demand for UCC will likely stay after the recession lifts, not only because businesses will be convinced of its benefits after trying it out, but because the need for UCC is backed by sustainable industry developments. For instance, with the emergence of virtualization, embedded software on open platforms and the software-as-a-service model, there is increasing focus on services and applications delivered over a robust network infrastructure. The rules are also changing in that people are no longer interested in operating systems and hardware platforms for computing and networking, but rather in how they can get simple, reliable and secure access to services that drive the business. Ultimately, UCC, by removing the friction of communication and collaboration between teams and individuals, will increase business agility and response times, and facilitate business innovation. These are traits we need in both bad and good times. Trend 2: Demand for high-bandwidth multi-media services will surge as Asia Pacific continues to develop Asia Pacific is home to the world’s most important emerging economies, which are continuing their rapid urbanization despite the dimming economic outlook. Building developments, both commercial and residential, are mushrooming. With many of these projects targeted at well-heeled and IT savvy professionals, developers are making multi-media access facilities a feature without second thought. The hive of building activity means that the demand for fiber optic technologies that can reach into homes and offices to deliver scalable, high bandwidth interactive multimedia services for buildings, campuses, and cities can only go up. This growth will be further backed by Asia Pacific governments jumping into the fray by taking nation-wide initiatives to build out FTTx fiber infrastructure as a catalyst for economic growth. In addition, new battle lines will be drawn for the service provider industry as commercial and residential development managers start to lease wholesale bandwidth and content to create new real estate revenue streams by offering interactive multimedia services themselves. All these will drive demand for simple, reliable, and cost effective ways of enabling large scale interactive multimedia content delivery using point-to-multipoint passive optical networks based on Ethernet. Trend 3: 2009 will see the start of broad-based adoption of the 802.11n protocol to deploy novel wireless applications With mobile devices becoming more pervasive and finding application across verticals, mobile technologies that enable high user volumes, high bandwidth voice services, seamless roaming and adaptive mesh creation, as well as industry-specific services like RFID asset tracking, will become important for businesses and consumers. The 802.11n protocol is the foundation to enabling all these capabilities, and we expect technologies based on the protocol to be explored and deployed liberally throughout Asia Pacific in the coming year. Giving the protocol momentum would be its ability to help organizations better manage and secure access points, as well as its expected ratification at the end of 2008. We expect uptake to be especially fast in verticals like logistics, manufacturing and retail, which can immediately leverage advanced 802.11n wireless connectivity to provide high performance and reliable wireless control and tracking solutions. 3Com itself is devoting much effort to the development of networking solutions based on the protocol – we are working with third party solution partners to integrate services like utility billing, RFID-based location and asset tracking of life-critical medical devices and drugs, high-value or security-sensitive equipment, logistics pallets and shipments, and even people. Quest for value will drive demand for UCC, multimedia and speedier wireless in 2009 As recession rears its ugly head, Asian enterprises are likely to rethink their 2009 IT budgets. Fortunately, most of them are still sold on the value of technology, and will continue to invest in it to boost business. Research firm Gartner in its recent report said that despite the dismal economic climate, IT recession is unlikely and that at worse, the industry will grow by 2.3 percent in 2009, down from 5.8 percent previously forecast. Gartner sees Asia’s emerging broadband market, IT replacement cycles, and the growing interest in software as a service buffering the overall IT spending slowdown. While we cannot predict how deep and long recession will be, one thing is certain: companies, no matter what the size and financial position, will drive the quest for value, favoring solutions that will help them improve efficiencies without huge upfront costs. With cost efficiency high on the enterprise agenda, we foresee three technologies that will continue to gain ground in 2009, these are Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC), multimedia applications and soon to be ratified 802.11n standard which expands wireless capabilities in speed and range. Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) The need for anytime, anywhere connectivity will remain despite prevailing economic conditions and Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) provides enterprises the impetus to enhance internal and external communications by consolidating voice and other services onto standard data networks thereby providing IT with an intuitive way to reduce operating expenses. We see the demand for UCC to continue after the recession lifts, not only because businesses will be convinced of its benefits after trying it out, but because its demand is backed by sustainable industry developments. For instance, with the emergence of virtualization, embedded software on open platforms and the software-as-a-service model, there is an increased focus on services and applications, like UCC, delivered over a robust network infrastructure. The rules are also changing in that people are no longer interested in operating systems and hardware platforms for computing and networking, but rather in how they can get simple, reliable and secure access to services that drive the business, anytime anywhere. The biggest draw of UCC in these uncertain times is its ability to help enterprises realize significant savings on travel, IDD and dedicated point to point connectivity costs through secure, cost effective IP-based connectivity. Ultimately, UCC, by removing barriers in communication and collaboration between teams and individuals, will increase business agility and response times, and facilitate business innovation. These are traits enterprises need in both bad and good times. Multimedia Content Asia’s demand for multimedia services will continue to increase in 2009 as users in emerging broadband markets such India and China begin demanding faster access to the Internet. Elsewhere in Asia, new property developments in both commercial and residential sectors will continue to make provision for speedier broadband access in order to support the need of well-heeled and IT savvy professionals. The hive of building activity means that the demand for fiber optic technologies that can reach into homes and offices to deliver scalable, high bandwidth interactive multimedia services for buildings, campuses, and cities can only go up alongside government-based nationwide fiber to the home (FTTH) deployments. In the service provider sector, new battle lines will be drawn as commercial and residential development managers start to lease wholesale bandwidth and content to create new real estate revenue streams by offering interactive multimedia services themselves. All these will drive demand for simple, reliable, and cost effective ways of enabling large scale interactive multimedia content delivery using point-to-multipoint passive optical networks based on Ethernet. Faster, More Secure Wireless With mobile devices becoming more pervasive and finding application across verticals, mobile technologies that enable high user volumes, high bandwidth voice services, seamless roaming and adaptive mesh creation, as well as industry-specific services like RFID asset tracking, will become important for businesses and consumers. The 802.11n Wi-Fi protocol expected to be finalized in 2009 will be key to enabling all these capabilities, and we expect technologies based on the protocol that are already available to be explored and deployed liberally throughout Asia Pacific in the coming year. Giving the protocol momentum would be its ability to help organizations better manage and secure access points and provide users with a more speedy access and wider range. Expect uptake to be especially fast in verticals like logistics, manufacturing and retail, which can immediately leverage advanced 802.11n wireless connectivity to provide high performance and reliable wireless control and tracking solutions. Because these industries’ growth and survival depends on service efficiency, solutions that will help them continue to deliver value despite prevailing economic conditions will be high on their priority list. Without a doubt, 2009 will be a challenging year for enterprises of all sizes. The good news is there are technologies that can be leveraged to help drive unprecedented efficiencies without creating a significant dent on operational budgets. This will help organizations create market differentiation and tide them over till the global economy recovers. ### About 3Com Corporation
3Com Corporation is a $1.3B global converged network infrastructure supplier that helps customers achieve business success by delivering solutions that provide exceptional value. Through its TippingPoint division, 3Com is a leading provider of network-based intrusion prevention systems that deliver in-depth application protection, infrastructure protection, and performance protection. For further information, please visit www.3com.com, or the press site www.3com.com/pressbox.
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