Phil Packman, General Manager, Security Engineering & Customer Advocacy
Putting aside any security fears of Skype for a moment, with Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype it is only logical that we can expect some convergence in this space. And why not?
With many companies like BT already using Lync extensively for voice and video communication, you might think it would make sound business sense to have some bringing together of the technology, even if this only meant that Lync interfaced more seamlessly with Skype.
With Lync gaining a major market share as one of the market leaders in enterprise messenger clients and Skype having market share in the personal/residential market, a possible merger raises some interesting questions around the more traditional voice over IP network players whose technology is aimed very much at the enterprise market.
Whatever the strategy for Lync and Skype going forward it strikes me that if done properly it will make it much easier for people to communicate from their smartphone, laptop, desktop and even TV. And it will allow them to ubiquitously communicate with whoever they need to via email, IM, voice, video or all of the above. Maybe multimedia, converged communications in personal and business life is really about to happen.
Now from an enterprise security perspective this brings all sorts of challenges to the forefront. Issues like federating ubiquitous communications; preventing data loss and of course inappropriate use — a balance between flexibility, security and policy. It raises the question of privacy on personal communications over corporate infrastructure (something many organisations have still not got properly squared away).
There are issues that some countries are looking at banning communications like Skype. What does this mean for the global enterprise? And will employees need to know and understand the global legal landscape when opening a Skype call on company infrastructure to their family in Ethiopia for instance?
Lastly the issue of my work life balance — my smartphone already means that I am on line 24/7 for email, so will a combined IM and voice platform now mean my personal and work calls blur as well?
For me, the potential harmonisation of these products means that there will be an impact for business. For some it will be positive, for others it will compound the challenges of IP based communications that they are already trying to address.
Either way we should look at this as progress; don’t fight it but rather work out the challenges to fix upfront and explore the opportunities and innovation that this type of convergence could bring.