二零一零年八月三十日
By 蒂姆Siglin 特约编辑
专题文章

Analysis: Would Skype Vault 思科 into 流媒体?

When it comes to "big iron" companies that equip service providers with routers necessary to handle terabits of internet data, the two companies that come to mind are 思科 and Juniper.

Yet both companies have begun to diversify their revenue bases: For instance, Juniper recently purchased Ankeena and is rolling its Media Flow technology into services coupled-loosely, 首先是它的大铁产品.

思科, 就其本身而言, has moved heavily into 视频会议 and telepresence, two markets it's tried to crack for more than a decade, 最近收购了Tandberg.

思科's gone a bit deeper into the consumer space than Juniper, with the 2003 Linksys acquisition slowly providing 思科 a foothold with almost 25% of U.S. 上网消费者.

A rumor this week that Skype may be acquired by 思科, 在Skype今年晚些时候上市之前, 是由TechCrunch最先报道的, 而是被 《百家乐软件app最新版下载》除其他外.

Skype的所有权由eBay瓜分, which currently owns 30 percent of the VOIP provider, and company founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, 谁共同拥有14%的股份. Silver Lake Partners, JoltID Ltd., 加拿大养老金计划投资委员会, and Andreessen Horowitz own the remaining 56 percent of shares. The anticipated price point for 思科 to acquire Skype has already been set, as Skype set expectations in its pre-IPO filings of achieving approximately $5 billion in market cap when it goes public.

The news of a potential 思科 acquisition of Skype has sent a number of analysts looking for the anticipated tie-ins between the companies. 让我提出三个建议, 所有桌面和移动设备为基础:流媒体, 视频会议, 和IP语音.

流媒体
This is the one readers may be the most interested in, but it's probably of least interest to 思科 as a standalone solution. 毕竟, Skype在低延迟方面表现不错, 双向的对话, but it's not been really leveraged up as a broadcast solution.

仍然, with the ability to tap into a reported 560 million Skype users, the possibility that 思科 could leverage its sizable position in home networking to create a video delivery solution isn't too far out of bounds, especially given last week's announcement that 思科 is acquiring content management system solution company ExtendMedia.

IP语音
思科 has a long history in IP语音, starting with its acquisition of Selsius back in 2001. 那时，VoIP系统使用H.323, the same protocol that was used in emerging IP-based 视频会议.

现在, most VoIP systems use Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), a protocol that allows for rapid setup / teardown of phone calls, mimicking a traditional SS7-based phone switch so much that SIP switches are now referred to as "soft switches."

SIP also has the ability to use a variety of audio (or video) codecs, making it ideal for integration between a variety of traditional and soft switches. Skype Connect, the paid business version of Skype, fits nicely into this model.

"Use Skype Manager to set up a SIP Profile for your PBX, 购买频道,该公司的Skype Connect网站指出. “不用再买硬件了. 更重要的是, Skype Manager you can centrally manage every aspect of Skype in your business from a single tool."

换句话说, 随着思科进入终端领域, 使用思科VoIP电话, as well as back towards its core competency in the network core with soft switches, Skype provides a way for 思科 to move rapidly into the desktop- and mobile-device software-based phone.

视频会议
This ability to tie core network products into an end-point strategy is shifting towards video, as John Chambers has made no secret over the past few years that 思科's next growth curve will be riding the video wave.

If software-based phones are of interest to 思科, the concept of a software-based 视频会议 solution would be a master stroke in driving adoption of 思科's telepresence and tele-health solutions.

With 思科's goal of seeing its tele-health solutions installed in hospitals and doctors' offices, the company has had to face the reality that many previous tele-health attempts have faltered due to the lack of affordable end points for the patient.

在之前的许多尝试中, tele-health solutions revolved around a patient visiting a central location to join a consult with a doctor. 但病人似乎更倾向于这样做, if they were going to have to drive to one location, to spend the extra drive time to go for a face-to-face visit.

与此形成鲜明对比的是, the cost of the Skype software-based 视频会议 solution is free, a highly affordable number; in addition, Skype's 视频会议 is already in use by over 8 million Skype users, 所以对产品的熟悉度很高.

Leverage low-cost voice calls on top of this-a service Skype already provides-and 思科 also has a pre-emptive model against Google and others who are entering the VoIP market.

最后, 增加提供培训的能力, 尤其是健康培训, 作为流媒体广播网络的一部分, and it's apparent there might be a winning combination in a 思科-Skype pairing.