What's NXT for CIOs?

I was in Chicago (really one heck of town) for the NXTcomm conference as a judge for the Eos awards in telecom excellence. For those of you who have lost track (and nobody would blame you) NXTcomm is the new SuperComm, the re-joint venture between the US Telecom Association (which represents the local incumbent carriers) and the Telecommunication Industry Association (representing technology manufacturers). During the downturn in the telecom economy the two organizations split up and put on their own shows. But after experiencing mixed success independently, the duo is back together. So what's NXT for CIOs keeping an eye on the role wide area networking will play in their enterprise computing environment? Well, the concepts were not particularly new (it is still about convergence and integration of services) but the solid evidence of achievement is catching up with the rhetoric of yesteryear. Web 2.0 related traffic (see story below) is predicted by Cisco's John Chambers to place a huge demand on both public and enterprise networks by the end of the decade. The traffic that comes from blogs, digital downloads and multimedia file sharing will stress the capacity of service providers that do not plan now to accommodate the data deluge. Enterprises will join young consumers in pouring Web 2.0 traffic onto the Net, if the keynotes at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston (also held this week) is any indication at all of trends in the corporate space.

Hang on for the journey and enjoy the issue. -Patty