The telecommunications industry has come a long way in 25 years. Soon, PSTN (public switched telephone network) communication systems could become obsolete and go the way of the dinosaur. Today, VoIP (voice over internet protocol) is rapidly becoming the de facto standard for business communications on IP networks for the 21st century. Amir Zmora, independent consultant at TheNewDialTone and vice president of Alliances & Partnerships at AudioCodes recently described the impact of WebRTC (web real-time communication) on UC (unified communications) on the Upperside Conferences blog as “bringing all your communication channels to one screen” where WebRTC takes this one step further: “It creates more islands of communication as it makes it easy to add UC capabilities in other applications – business applications, customer care, team collaboration, and verticals.” –Amir Zmora The e-book below features VoIP history, UC (unified communications) drivers and trends, and the potential future of WebRTC. “Knowing how to think empowers you far beyond those who know only what to think.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson | #BeFutureReady Resources: Dell Business Phone: Enable BYOD and reduce costs with secure, enterprise-managed phone capabilities on smartphones and tablets. Sonicwall Solutions: Get high performance and comprehensive Voice over IP security. This post was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies.

1. From Unified
Communications
to WebRTC

2. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
2
Contents
• Introduction- VoIP 3-8
• UC 9-15
• WebRTC 16-23
• Closing thoughts 24-26
• Contributors 27

3. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
(VoIP) Voice over
Internet Protocol
3

4. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
4
If it was not for the invention of the telephone, the Internet, Internet Protocol (IP), and the audio
transceiver — IP telephony, might not have been as evolved as it is today. VoIP (Voice over Internet
Protocol), often defined as IP telephony, is rapidly becoming ubiquitous in the business world.
Tim Basa, Executive Vice-president of Sales & Marketing at Bullseye Telecom believes the primary
motivations to make the switch to VoIP is significant cost savings, scalability and portability. In fact,
Basa adds that VoIP is less than half the cost of POTS - $141 to $66 per line average spend. And all that
is required is a stable broadband internet connection. But beyond cost, it is the ability for business (of
all sizes) to easily and efficiently scale with VoIP - flexible communications and mobile
communications.
INTRODUCTION
“We are at such an exciting time. The
Internet of Everything is basically upon us
and companies (of all sizes) need to be
ready — future ready now.”

5. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
• The Internet
• The audio transceiver
• The telephone
• Internet Protocol (IP)
5
Four inventions laid the cornerstone for the successful
communications system that we have today.

6. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
6
We’ve come a long way since 1995, when 486-based PC’s and 28.8 K modems ruled the
digital realm.
In the world of inventions, an integral nugget was deposited 27 years ago,
when Vocal Tech Inc co-founders Alon Cohen (an Israeli-born
entrepreneur) and Lior Haramaty designed and patented (US Patent
5825771), the first audio transceiver. Their invention inexorably changed
the telecommunications industry and played a huge part in making VoIP
possible today.
VoIP beginnings:
• 1994 – VocalTek’s Cohen and Haramaty patent the first audio
transceiver.
• 1995 – VocalTek creates the first Internet phone software and Intel
and Radvision began working on VoIP standards (H.323 standards).
• 1996 – The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) begins
working on the H.323 standards.
• 1999 – The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), RFC2543 is released and
becomes a key catalyst for the future of VoIP.
A Little History

7. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
“VoIP will become more pervasive. By 2017 I estimate
that 75 percent of new business will not even look at
public switched telephone network (PSTN) as a viable
solution. Video plus screen sharing will be used by more
and more employees. Many more devices such as desk
phones, computers and mobile smartphones will support
Video. Most important is that joining a videoconference
via a cell phone or a desktop is becoming as simple as
joining an audio-only call today...”
7
Alon Cohen
EVP at Phone.com

8. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
8
Though an increasing number of companies are moving away from Public Switched Telephone
Networks (PTSN) and diving into VoIP alternatives with advantages that offer greater scalability,
lower cost, and value-added features – PSTN vs. VoIP murmurs still linger, reminding us that
emergency calls (911), power outages, and natural disasters could leave us in the middle of an
ocean with a boat stripped of its rudder and sails.
Josh Lowenthal, COO of Freeconferencecall.com, believes that some areas of VoIP will grow
dramatically and some will hit the ceiling:
The PSTN vs. VoIP Debate
“For mission-critical use and collaboration, quality, and
connectivity doesn’t measure up to PTSN…. When you have
a natural disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane, VoIP
is unreliable.”
Though Josh believes that the future of VoIP could be very transformational, he also believes that
the biggest problem is commercial:
“Skype will never be interchangeable with Viber, thus limiting
its potential. Consumers want multiple choices to bind these
together. However, it doesn’t appear that any plans are on the
horizon for these VoIP services to do so — which means PSTN
will be irreplaceable.”

9. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
Unified Communications (UC)
9

10. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
10
One trend that is kicking up speed in the VoIP realm is that
of unified communications (UC) and it is a trend that is
transforming the way mid-sized to enterprise businesses
are operating today.
Corporate
Email
Information
Management
Instant
Messaging &
SMS
Collaborative
Solutions
Screen
Sharing
Video
Conferencing

11. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
“Mobility is one of the key factors that influence the success of UC. According to IDC
research, it is estimated that the number of people accessing the internet through
mobile devices will far outnumber the ones using PC or laptop. By the year 2015, the
number of Smartphone users is believed to be around 2 billion.”
11
Deepak Singanamalla
Top Challenges and Benefits of Unified Communications in the Manufacturing Industry
The drivers behind UC
Alon Cohen of phone.com describes the most common driver for UC as
workforce efficiency and convenience. Cohen states at his blog that people
want to work efficiently and effortlessly, and this includes access to other
people in an efficient and easy to use way. Cohen terms UC as a productivity
tool.
Dell: Today’s employees expect to communicate and collaborate
at any time, from anywhere...

12. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
“The factors of scalability, flexibility, and cost predictability are
now taken as a given with customers pushing for the Martini
effect…anytime, anyplace, anywhere but with the addition of on
an device”
12
Steve Day
Head of Business Development at Network Telecom (UK)
The drivers behind UC (continued)
According to a new report published by Transparency Market Research (TMR): Unified
Communications Market, the global UC market is expected to reach US $61.9 billion in
2018.
The primary growth drivers for global UC is a rising mobile workforce, the growing
penetration of mobile devices, BYOD (bring your own device), virtualization of
organizations, and the demand for cloud computing.

13. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
Reliability
Cloud-based UC
services should
provide enterprise-
class reliability.
Security
Service providers
should have a secure
network that protects
both voice and data
communications.
Flexibility
Employee mobility
and flexibility lead to
higher productivity.
Quality
Service providers
should stand behind
its network quality in
its service level
agreement.
13
iCore Networks recently wrote in their Whitepaper: Boost Workforce Mobility and
Productivity with Unified Communications that four trends are driving enterprises toward
hosted communications:
The drivers behind UC (continued)
Hosted communications
“Companies that provide hosted VoIP and Unified Communications
(UC) services can deliver on these core communications requirements
today because of the recent strides in Cloud technology, virtualization
and IP-based communications.”

14. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
“While many outsourced unified communications (UC) systems will be
okay, a minor violation can become a huge lawsuit.”
14
Michael Bremmer
CEO of Telecomquotes.com
The Challenges
Michael Bremmer, believes that the biggest challenge with UC will be that of governmental
regulations; due to UC boundaries that are constantly being refined through the courts.
As an example: Bremmer stated that one company may offer group health plans that may fall under
HIPPA requirements, so their technology most likely will need to be compliant.
“Challenges in the UCC market remain, including the lack of vendor
product interoperability and the complexity of many UCC solutions, but
the market should experience continued growth as businesses
continue to experience the benefits that UCC provides to end users
and the business as a whole. ”
Blair Pleasant
President of COMMfusion LLC & Co-founder of UCStrategies.com

15. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
“The first generation of unified communications was true to
it’s name: it was all about bringing disparate technologies
together. We couldn’t focus on things like user experience
and productivity because the base technological hurdles
were still so huge. And while UC remains complex, I believe
the industry has already begun a shift in focus toward
enabling true productivity and collaboration empowered by
these technologies, where workers can seamlessly transition
between IM, voice, web, and video meetings as needed ”
15
Sean O’Brien
Executive Vice-president of Strategy & Communications at PGI

16. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
WebRTC
16

17. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
17
WebRTC stands for real-time communications that
is capable of enabling browser audio and video
conferencing.
Voice
Calling
Collaboration Networking
Healthcare
& Education
Video
Conferencing
Contact Center

18. 18

19. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
19
Campbell Williams, states the technology that seems to be getting most attention is
WebRTC, which promises potentially to do for browser-based voice and browser-
based real-time communication what session initiation protocol (SIP) has done for
more client-based communications.
“WebRTC promises to put that into any browser from a communications
perspective. So for example, I could be logging on to my company portal
and from here I can pick up voice mails, video calls, I can dial my
colleagues, I can see who’s available and who’s not, and rather than
needing a client application I’m doing everything through a browser. ”
Campbell Williams
Group Strategy and Marketing Director at Six Degrees Group
Doing everything through the browser

20. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
20
“SIP trunking and WebRTC are promising communications
technologies each in their own right. Marry the two, and things can
get really interesting.”
Beth Schultz
Managing editor of No Jitter

21. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
“WebRTC will eventually transcend VoIP SIP as the primary technology
for person to person and group voice/video communications.”
21
Andy Abramson
Comunicano, Inc., CEO and Founder of VoIPWatch
Will WebRTC transcend VoIP SIP?
Andy Abramson, CEO and founder of PR firm Comunicano and author of Web
log VoIPWatch, is considered to be one of the eight most influential voices in the growth of
“Internet Telephony” (along with Alon Cohen who co-designed and patented the first audio
transceiver). He believes that companies like Dell, Google and Microsoft will all be selling
VoIP services far more integrated into essential IT services.
Abramson states it will be as common as buying dish soap at the supermarket:
Darc Rasmussen also believes that WebRTC could transcend VoIP:
“Instead of purchasing, maintaining and operating expensive ‘PBX’
environments to route and control VoIP communications, WebRTC
promises a future of instant, point-to-point communication and
collaboration.”
Darc Rasmussen
Chief Executive Officer of IR

22. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
“This will allow for companies to expose voice and video
channels directly through their website and software
products. Imagine being able to talk to a company
directly through a phone embedded in the company’s
site. We are already seeing organizations such as
Amazon (Kindle’s MayDay) expose support capabilities
right in their products. This capability will become more
accessible to any size company as these new standards
proliferate and communication providers make it easier
to integrate UC capability into a company’s existing
infrastructure and processes.”
22
Rich Weborg
CEO at OneReach
Embedded support channels in more places
Rich Weborg believes that WebRTC will become more ubiquitous (supported in
all browsers) and finally allow people to be detached from their phones.

23. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
23
Be Proactive and #BeFutureReady

24. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
Closing thoughts
24

25. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
25
Is WebRTC Ready Yet?
Browser Support Scorecard

26. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
26
“A backup or recovery system is important in case a disaster
happens. For example: to ensure communication isn’t
interrupted if the network goes down, the system should be
set up to reroute calls to another location or phone line. ”
Wes Hayden
CEO, Virtual Hold Technology.

27. This eBook was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and
analysis about the evolving world of tech. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are my own
and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies
• Wes Hayden, CEO, Virtual Hold Technology
• Josh Lowenthal, Chief Operating Officer at
Freeconferencecall.com
• Sean O’Brien, Executive Vice-president of
Strategy & Communications at PGI.
• Darc Rasmussen, Chief Executive Officer of IR
• Rich Weborg, CEO at OneReach
• Campbell Williams, the Group Strategy and
Marketing Director at Six Degrees Group
• Andy Abramson, Comunicano, Inc., CEO and
Founder of VoIPWatch
• Tim Basa, Vice-president of Sales & Marketing
at Bullseye Telecom
• Michael Bremmer, CEO of
Telecomquotes.com
• Alon Cohen, EVP at Phone.com and Expert on
VoIP mechanics.
• Steve Day, Head of Business Development at
Network Telecom (UK)
27
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