Polycom, Aruba now lead the Cloud Video Conferencing technology

Aruba Networks and Polycom announced on August 26, 2010 that they are teaming up to deliver video features to users via cloud computing. Aruba will provide its Virtual Branch Networking (VBN) solution to its users -- typically through its cloud-based offerings -- who can then utilize Polycom's telepresence, videoconferencing and voice communications solutions.

Aruba said the joint solution will reduce the time, cost and network engineering needed to deliver the unified communications products to remote users working at home, in branch offices or on the road. Aruba said the cost involved in joint Aruba-Polycom remote access points can be as low as USD 99 per site. Aruba noted that its Virtual Intranet Client can deliver remote access points for virtually no cost to PC users while delivering security service economically to branches.

I believe, that the Aruba-Polycom technology definitely much better than Cisco-Tandberg partnership solutions. The International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) will be first end user in Asia Pacific to attain the advantage from this collaboration. IIUM has deployed its campus wide wireless infrastructure based on Aruba Network technology since 2008, which centrally managed all together 6 branch campuses. Early of this year, they have engaged with Polycom video conferencing solution as part of their digital education infrastructure.

According to IIUM technical expert; Mr. Jaiz Anuar and Mr. Hairulnizam (from IT Division), IIUM now aiming to provide a future infrastructure for virtual lecture which can be accessed by students via wireless network cloud. Both of them agreed that, the teaching methodology have to change parallel with the technology advancement. Since the Aruba-Polycom partnership focused on proliferating new collaborative communications solutions, it will help the university to realize its intention in establishing mobility campus by providing holistic ICT services for the achievement and continuation of excellence in IIUM. The experts say, many new initiative can be done in the future on Video over WLAN.

Mobile Education is the Future. In other words, the whole ecosystem of learning and communication will undergo a rather serious upheaval — much the same way campuses did when laptop computing became the standard. This will present challenges both in terms of infrastructure and pedagogy, but it will also provide rich opportunities for reinventing the academy and for rediscovering learning.

Communication preferences will also continue to evolve. Just as we have moved from letter writing to e-mail to texting, we will move next into video chat and voice texting. The Pew Foundation’s most recent study shows that “Almost a fifth of American adults – 19% – have tried video calling either online or via their cell phones. These figures translate into 23% of internet users and 7% of cell phone owners who have participated in video calls, chats, or teleconferences. Video calling has become increasingly available as camcorders have spread through the online environment, cameras have been built into smart phones, and as video-chat services like Skype, Google Talk, and Apple iChat have become a feature of the online and smart phone environment. Teleconferencing is also becoming more embedded in the business environment.”

In addition, we will see a fairly rapid evolution of software solutions for both tablets and smart phones that makes it unnecessary to have a large-form computer for all essentially learning tasks. This include better productivity apps and improved multitasking. We will also see a proliferation of integrated and add-on input peripheral devices. More important, cloud-based services like Google Docs will eliminate most of the need for standard productivity software downloaded to devices.