Unified communications, a topic that gets a lot of play in information technology (IT) news, gets defined in a variety of different ways. Some define UC as a systems-based approach to integrating instant messaging, presence (who is available when and in what manner), Web conferencing and telephony. Others focus on UC as a method or system for integrating messages of different types (voice, images, video, e-mail, fax) into a single “inbox.”

 

At its core, UC has to do with integrating (as the word “unified” implies) disparate communications systems, media, applications and devices for increased efficiency and convenience. Regardless of how one chooses to define “unified communications,” there is little doubt that — as both a technology and a topic — it is having a big impact in the IT space.

 

A recent report from industry research firm Gartner (News - Alert) acknowledged the importance of unified communications by including it on a “top ten” list of technologies and trends that will be of particular importance to most organizations during 2009. Gartner referred to the items on its list as being “strategic,” in the sense of having potential for significant impact on an enterprise during the next three years.

 

“Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt,” Gartner noted in its report.

 

More specifically, Gartner included UC as something that will impact organizations’ long term plans, programs and initiatives. Items were included on the list that have reached “strategic” importance because they’re well-established and are broadly used, or because they offer significant advantages for early adopters.

 

During the next five years, Gartner predicted, the number of communications vendors with which any organization works will be reduced by at least 50 percent. The consolidation will be driven by two main factors: increased capabilities of application servers, and a shift toward off-the-shelf servers and operating systems for communications applications.

 

In other words, as Gartner sees it, UC’s influence will be characterized by organizations seeking to simplify IT by working with fewer vendors, choosing hardware that can scale relatively easily, and picking solutions that are built on industry standards to future-proof investments. This makes sense both in a general business sense, and in particular given the current economic climate in the U.S. and elsewhere.

 

Gartner further predicted that formerly distinct markets in the IT industry — each of which now has distinct vendors — will converge. A “massive” consolidation in the communications industry is just around the corner, the firm projected.

 

“Organizations must build careful, detailed plans for when each category of communications function is replaced or converged, coupling this step with the prior completion of appropriate administrative team convergence,” Gartner advised.

 

Other technologies on Gartner’s list were virtualization, cloud computing, servers (“beyond blades”), Web-oriented architectures, enterprise mashups, specialized systems, social software and social networking, business intelligence, and green IT.

 

To learn more about UC, please visit the Unified Communications channel on TMCnet.com, brought to you by Iwatsu (News - Alert).