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RedSky Technologies' Brian Schwartz Discusses Communications Development

TMCnews Featured Article


August 15, 2008

RedSky Technologies' Brian Schwartz Discusses Communications Development

By Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC


RedSky (News - Alert) Technologies provides enterprise VoIP customers with automated E911 solutions that capture, manage and deliver detailed location information necessary for effective 9-1-1 emergency response.

 
I recently had a chance to interview Brian Schwarz, VP of Engineering at RedSky Technologies ahead of his presentation at the upcoming Communications Developer Conference, collocated with INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO West, happening September 16-18 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
 
What has been the biggest communications development of the year?
 
I would say Google with the Android (News - Alert) SDK.  While it has yet to materialize in consumer-ready handsets, Android holds the promise of opening up the mobile application market space to a new set of developers.  This won’t be restricted to high-end phones like those that can run Windows Mobile, or applications that are supported by the service providers themselves.  The concept of open-source development for large numbers of low to medium-end mobile handsets is going to change what we think of as a mobile phone.
 
How is open source changing your business?
 
The biggest impact of open source to our business has been the ability to quickly deliver value-added applications that leverage open source, rather than focusing on the lower-level communications technologies. 
 
Will the iPhone be a change agent in our sector?
 
The iPhone has been the disruptor technology that has brought a new set of challenges to the mobile device market.  The biggest impact of Apple isn’t going to be the iPhone itself, but how the overall cellular device market responds competitively to this disruptor technology.  The overall mobile phone market is still dominated by low to medium-end phones that are significantly less costly than the iPhone.  The challenge to the device industry as a whole is how to make all the phones as user-friendly and powerful as Apple products, but at a price that can capture the market.
 
Who wins in a  Nokia (News - Alert), Apple, RIM war?
 
Apple will win the consumer space, but RIM will still dominate the Enterprise marketplace because of tight integration to back-end applications.
 
How has UC changed our market?
 
I don’t think it has yet – I think we’re still in the early development stages of unified communications.  The power is going to really be apparent when UC takes on additional capabilities of presence and location, then leverages this into value-added applications.
 
Is Microsoft’s (News - Alert) entry positive for communications?
 
Overall, yes.  Microsoft is going to be able to open up access to the corporate user in a way that no other vendor has been able to, in a way that is integrated with business applications.  The challenge is going to be integrating Microsoft products and strategies into an already complex telecommunications environment.
 
Will ubiquitous wireless broadband help communications development?
 
Not in itself.  With a market that is dominated by low to medium-end phones, whose applications are controlled by the service providers themselves, wireless broadband just enables “more of the same”.  The combination of the disruptor technology of the iPhone, however, along with the promise of open source application development with Android, is going to really enable ubiquitous wireless broadband to provide to mobile users with the capabilities that are going to make them want to pay for the costs of ubiquitous wireless broadband.
 
How have mashups and Web 2.0 changed the space?
 
The power in these technologies is primarily in the speed to develop new capabilities and the iterative approach to application development.  In the same way that Agile development advocates incremental feature capabilities, mashups and Web 2.0 allow developers to focus on new incremental capabilities, rather than reproducing lower-level capabilities that already exist in the cloud.
 
What are you talking about at the Communications Developer Conference and why should people come hear you?
 
My session focuses on SIP application development.  In participating in the Next Generation 911 (NG911) project, we’ve encountered some of the challenges associated with developing complex applications that utilize SIP for more than just a common protocol for IP voice enablement.  We’ll discuss the protocols, tools we used, the challenges we met, and how we resolve them in a real-world application that enables 911 calling with embedded location support.

Rich Tehrani is President and Group Editor-in-Chief of TMC. In addition, he is the Chairman of the world�s best-attended communications conference, INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO (ITEXPO (News - Alert)). He is also the author of his own communications and technology blog.







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