Although analogies bring me back to the tedious SAT days, this one struck my interest:
Ribbit: Traditional Phone Company
as Google Docs: Microsoft Word.
To give credit, this analogy was coined by Ted Griggs, Founder and CEO of Ribbit, now owned by BT, in an interview. While cloud telephony providers may argue about which company name should occupy the “Ribbit” place in the analogy, the theory stays the same. Especially this month, with the Google and Microsoft battle continuing to heat up, this analogy really hits home!
The vocabulary of cloud computing is ripening in the vocabularies of many SMBs. Yet, the vocabulary of cloud telephony still remains relatively fresh. Instead of going back to the basics to describe every new move in the world of cloud telephony, sometimes a simple analogy to cloud computing does a better job in driving home the message.
Grigg’s analogy jogged my memory of an interesting blog post back in September, by the Founder and CEO of Ifbyphone. Irv Shapiro, in an article called Thoughts About Clouds, compares the history of the computer industry to that of the telco industry.
The computer industry shifted from timeshared expensive mainframes to personal computers, which led to client server computing. Ultimately, the expenses of supporting complex personal applications led us to “move applications back to the data center and ultimately to the clouds.” Likewise, in the telco industry, the original centralized offices and switching stations shifted to PBX boxes (which decreased in price). However, due to the expenses of supporting such systems, telephony too has moved to the shared infrastructure of the clouds.
Shapiro’s thought process, in essence, follows the logic of this analogy:
Mainframes: personal computing: cloud computing
as Telco central offices/switching stations: PBX systems: cloud telephony
Grigg’s analogy focuses on the comparison between what the clouds of computing and telephony do, while Shapiro focuses on the historical processes that led to their developments. In essence, Griggs continues the analogy where Shapiro left off. Not only did the clouds emerge in similar ways, but they continue to parallel one other in their current aims.
If Griggs and Shapiro are correct in their analogies, then who are the players in the battle for cloud telephony?
Related posts:
- End of the Year Thoughts about Cloud Computing… and Cloud Telephony
- 3 Healthcare Companies Join the Telephony Clouds
- Ifbyphone Acquires Cloudvox, Changes the Game of Cloud Telephony
- New Screencasts Teach the Basics of Cloud Telephony
- Do Cloud Solutions Always Pay? A Mathematical View
