IBM's purchase of a cloud startup called Cast Iron is clearly a validation of something that we heard continually at VoiceCon Orlando whenever the subject of the cloud and communications came up--enterprises are going to look to a hybrid model, with some capabilities on premise and some in the cloud, and something (IBM/Cast Iron, maybe) knitting it all together.That focus on hybrid solutions was the consensus in the Summit session on cloud that we ran at the show (watch the video here). It's also the value proposition for the Cast Iron technology.
One of the points made in the GigaOm article that I linked above is that IT people--and this now includes the communications specialists) have got to learn the language of the cloud--virtual machines and the like. It means that communications specialists need to make a study of their enterprises' datacenter strategies.
One of the biggest challenges in the world of Unified Communications or whatever we're going to call the post-PBX era, is that the "touch points" between communications and the rest of the IT infrastructure are vastly increased. When IP-PBXs debuted, voice people had to learn data and data people had to learn voice. In the new world, communications people are (or should be) assumed to know IP networking as well as real-time application performance. From there, they need to be aware of the enterprise's datacenter strategy, business unit processes and the information technology that supports those processes, security, policy, compliance, and probably more that I'm leaving out.
Like the earlier transition, this is a lot to load on top of people who have their hands full just keeping their current responsibilities under control. But it's coming.
