To implement Principle 2 of AS8015 Plan ICT, Directors should analyse the risks (opportunities and threats) to their organisation from developments in ICT.
In a walk through the May 2006, CEBIT Exhibition in Sydney, the following communication technologies caught my attention. The following is an overview, to provide background and to position these communication technologies, to assist an analysis of the technological risks they pose to a particular organisation - be they a household or large listed company. An analysis also required an assessment of the circumstances of the organisations - the specific needs of those associated with it and the environmental pressures acting on it.
Also of interest, was software to implement business rules and assist with the governance of organisations. In particular offerings from Yasu Technologies, Hyderabad, India and BOC, Vienna, Austria.
$29.95/month for 100MB seems to be the going price – whether you bought a service from Vodafone (UMTS), Internode (ADSL), ANS (ADSL) or Chilli (I-Burst). The connection or setup fee varies - you can pay it in installments via contract or upfront and have no contract. The hardware costs vary and there are desktop/sharable via a routher modems and laptop single user modems.
ADSL uses the spare bandwidth on Telstra's Copper Plain Old Telephone System (POTS). A household requires a splitter to separate the telephone signal from the spare bandwidth which is used to provide data. The output from the splitter is connected to the Telephone and the ADSL Modem.
UMTS is the mobile phone network data service. Vodafone and others offer a data service to your laptop via a modem that plugs into a PCMCIA or USB slot on a laptop. There is an implication that the throughput on the UMTS is not as fast as ADSL or the I-BURST network.
HSDPA is the high speed mobile offering. It is being promoted as being fast enough to watch MPEG4 streaming video. However, this technology has not been deployed in Australia. The datacasting regulations also restrict how it could be used if it was.
Once Internet/TCP/IP has been provided, Voice over IP (VOIP) is the next technology knocking at the door. This is where convergence is happening. VOIP over IP is being suggested as the platform to control Audio Visual equipment such as projectors in conference rooms.
The Portable Media Unit was also interesting they provide the storage and playback for audio and video, through a projector, TV or Computer screen monitor. The device has a remote control.
The opportunities and threats these technologies provide to a particular organistion depends on the particular circumstances of the organisation. These would include existing contractual arrangements with service providers, how well their current communication needs are being met, their assessment of their future needs, the size of the organisation and ofcourse its priorities for the human and financial resources available to it.
