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Let The VoIP Development Begin!
Here is a better quality video of one of our standing room only sessions at TMC's VoIP Developer Conference. Traffic is getting even busier at the conference and my team is scrambling to make room for a much larger crowd than we anticipated. Wow! Let the VoIP development begin!!!!
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VoIP and SIP
I saw a great article about Pingtel and their participation at TMC's VoIP Developer Conference. Specifically this article talks about a session that is to take place Thursday of this week. If you are interested in open source PBXs, SIP and other developer topics you can click to read more about VoIP and SIP.
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Videos of VoIP Developer
I have a few videos of TMC's VoIP Developer event. This is the hallway outside just on of our sessions while another session not on video is standing room only and yet another session is moderately full. The break is taking place right now and you can't even get into the area to make more photos. A real madhouse I tell you.
TMC's VoIP Developer Conference Video 1
TMC's VoIP Developer Conference Video 2
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VoIP Developer Needs Even More Space
Tom Keating asked for photos of TMC's VoIP Developer Event. It is so packed, it is amazing. I didn't get a chance to post photos before but have them now.
Suffice it to say; even though we moved this show from a hotel last year to a convention center this year, we need even more space.
I understand we have more space next year which is great because if this show continues growing at this pace, we're going to have to constantly scramble just to keep up.
Enjoy the photos:
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VoIP Developer Is Packed
TMC's VoIP Developer Conference is a madhouse. It truly is. The conferences started about 20 minutes ago and we have been scrambling to get more chairs to put into the sessions to keep up with all the people.
We have been overwhelmed with traffic.
One of our sessions has a packed room, chairs out the door and standing room only behind the chairs!
All in all this is a fabulous sign for the VoIP market and these developers will be coming up with some amazing applications I look forward to seeing in the future!
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Vonage 911
Here is the latest E911 news courtesy of Vonage and TCS. What is important about this release is that these two companies are working together to educate the PSAPs who in many cases have old equipment and can benefit from an introduction to IP.
I've written before that if the PSAPs become IP enabled there are a wealth of new life-saving services these offices can take advantage of like the ability to have data sent to the office in case of a 911 call. For example it would be feasible to have medical data instantly uploaded over an IP call when 911 is dialed.
In the case of an alarm, a schematic of a house can be sent with the zone that triggered the alarm. This schematic can be downloaded by the police cruiser on the way to the home.
IP is a true enabler for next-gen emergency services.
---------------------------------------
VONAGE® AND TCS LAUNCH VOIP E9-1-1 PUBLIC SAFETY OUTREACH CAMPAIGN
TCS' Deployment Experience Provides
Vital Connection to Public Safety Communities
ANNAPOLIS, MD and EDISON, NJ - August 2, 2005 - Vonage, the leading provider of broadband phone service, has joined forces with TeleCommunication Systems (TCS) (NASDAQ:TSYS), a leading provider of precise location and wireless data technology, to provide the vital introduction to thousands of Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) throughout the United States.
Beginning in mid-August, Vonage will be sending VoIP Enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1) kits to introduce Vonage's E9-1-1 services to PSAPs nationwide. TCS deployment professionals will follow up within a few weeks of initial contact to collect relevant PSAP data. The program is designed to provide the PSAP community with information regarding Vonage's approach and process for E9-1-1 rollout within the FCC's 120-day deadline, and how the public's safety needs will continue to be met in the interim.
Jeffrey A. Citron, Chairman and CEO of Vonage Holdings, Corp. stated, "Our ongoing relationship with TCS and their proven E9-1-1 deployment experience with wireless makes this communications and outreach program a natural extension of our broader 120-day rollout plan for E9-1-1."
Greg Rohde, Executive Director of the E9-1-1 Institute said, "This partnership demonstrates the encouraging progress that is being made by industry to enhance public safety. I applaud their efforts."
"TCS has served the Public Safety community via wireless E9-1-1 for years. We are looking forward to the direct interface with a majority of the PSAPs we currently serve, as we bring a viable E9-1-1 VoIP solution to Vonage customers. Our joint effort will establish Vonage as the VoIP
E9-1-1 industry leader; we are proud to work with them," said Maurice B. Tosé, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer for TCS.
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Secure VoIP
Not all security issues originate from outside the network. A growing number of threats are coming from inside networks. In fact some security analysts have found that there are more successful attacks coming from within than outside your network. Cyber criminals working inside a company can steal the identities of coworkers on a large scale. Usually these criminals are difficult to spot. They don't look like criminals.
This concept is not lost on crime syndicates who equip members of their organizations with fake identification and send them to apply for and obtain jobs in Fortune class corporations. Once inside, these criminals have access to the inside of networks -- on the "soft" side of the firewall, and from there can unleash an array of internal attacks on a company's computer network in an effort to steal identities.
Other times such syndicates direct their efforts towards the corporation and in some cases are able to steal money from banks and other financial institutions. When they are caught it is often too late to get the money back.
Enter VoIP
Internal and external hackers are always looking for new ways to get confidential information they can use to make money from. Techniques such as VoIP eavesdropping allow a hacker to listen-in on phone calls. Conversations with banks where PIN codes are used can be saved for later analysis. Think of unprotected VoIP networks as a hacker gold rush.
VoIP encryption is one way to deal with the problem and if you read Internet news sites like TMCnet you probably have noticed a growing trend by companies to encrypt voice packets. The problem is that encrypting voice packets in a way that an enterprise cannot unencrypt them causes problems for law enforcement agencies as well as the corporation. Skype is an example of a product that cannot be centrally unencrypted. HIPAA and Sarbanes Oxley are two laws that require corporations to record certain employee conversations in order to be in compliance with the law.
Phil Edholm the CTO of Nortel Networks told me a while back how concerned he is about peer to peer encryption of SIP messages as these messages can contain viruses and other malicious code. Encrypting SIP messages on a peer to peer network can lead to absolute disaster if you aren't careful. If all of these problems aren't bad enough, there are issues relating to latency caused by encryption you also have to deal with.
Encryption -- unless centralized is a bad idea for enterprise VoIP. In this world where security is so important to all of us, any sort of p2p VoIP security protocol that governments can't break is bad news for the population as a whole. Rich Mendoza the Managing Director of SIP Solutions at BorderWare tells me that the firewall, not encryption is going to have to deal with VoIP security issues and you know what? He thinks we will need specific firewalls for various applications such as e-mail. If Rich is correct, the more applications you have the more firewalls you will need.
As Rich tells me, general purpose firewalls don't generally do the deep packet inspection needed to protect organizations using VoIP. He goes on to say that service providers aren't in the packet censorship business this is why we have desktop applications for antivirus, anti-spam and anti-spyware (he forgot anti-adware -- how can anyone live without this?) We need endpoint applications to protect VoIP calls.
BorderWare's sells firewalls so they are obviously biased towards firewall use. Their appliances sit behind your general purpose firewall and when deploying you just open up ports 5060 and 5062 on your general firewall so that the VoIP firewall can handle the job of dealing with the VoIP traffic.
Another application of these firewalls is deployment by service providers to their customers so that the softswitch is segregated and customers can't get to other customers on the same softswitch.
This past December 2004 I wrote the following about VoIP E911 in Internet Telephony Magazine:
VoIP E911
I have said it before and I will say it again if we don't get our act together soon as an industry we will have some serious headaches to contend with. The positive press friendly to VoIP that we witnessed for a year will vanish the moment someone is injured or worse because there is a problem with VoIP and E911 connectivity.
The current state of 911 over today's VoIP providers is not good. The incumbents aren't as much of an issue as the newer carriers who transfer 911 calls to lower priority administrative lines in PSAPs. E911 over VoIP can be much better than PSTN 911. We need to come together as an industry and discuss the challenges and standards issues and make sure that e911 over VoIP becomes a reason to adopt and not a reason to pass on VoIP.
I consider this a stumbling block that needs addressing on our way to achieving VoIP 2.0. Companies like Vonage, who use technology from an innovative company called Intrado, are taking bold steps to ensure the safety of their customers. They should be commended for their efforts and others need to follow.
Few service providers listened. These providers are now scrambling to meet the FCC deadline for 911 compliance.
Now I'm at it again. I am telling you that if you are a service provider or an enterprise putting VoIP on your network. Understand the security implications of not having a VoIP aware firewall in the mix. Understand full well what you are doing.
If you are unsure, come to Internet Telephony Conference & Expo this October to learn everything you need to know to roll our VoIP safely and securely. We have extensive and in-depth education on this topic. Remember that if a 911 call doesn't work on your network because of some sort of attack, someone will be held responsible. The same goes for sales calls and revenue that may be lost. Be sure you know as much as you can and do as much as you can to ensure a successful and secure VoIP deployment.
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Skibare Rants
Skibare rants like crazy (Sunday July 31st Raving on VoIP---Random Thoughts ) page and
First, VOIP has not made anyone a dime if they invested in VOIP..........the gateway suppliers, the Network providers, the Optical Cienna's or the Bankrupt Suria Ghouls Network providers trying to KILL EACH other day to day with pricing wars for Bits and Bytes of Data Transport! Sonus, Cienna, Tellabs, ADCT, Carrier Access, Level3, Broadwing, Global Crossing, ATT, the list goes on and on and on and on..........
The definite exceptions here are systems integrators who are selling to enterprises, SMBs and service providers in massive numbers. Think EDS on down. Furthermore as a whole there is a massive amount of spending being done in the VoIP equipment market. There are lots of competitors though. Many softswitch companies, gateway companies, session border controllers, etc. maybe too many.
The money is there for sure, the question is who can make profit in the future.
If Google buys Skype as you suggest it will be an amazing change in the market and Vonage will have a much more serious competitive threat but that doesn’t mean Vonage will go away.
The enormous amount of money being spent by Vonage on marketing is brilliant as they are now the largest VoIP service provider today. Net2phone had a massive head start and didn’t spend the money on marketing and you might argue were a bit too early. The result is that Net2phone has a fraction of the brand recognition that Vonage does. In the consumer space marketing is everything and Vonage has shown they can out market every other service provider. Not just by spending more but by having compelling marketing messages and great branding.
You make some good points. I hope the future is brighter than you suggest.
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