The technologies that will shape corporate networks

Telepresence and cloud computing are likely to drive enterprise network needs in the short term, according to president and CEO of AT&T Labs - the telco's research hub.

Keith Cambron told silicon.com high-definition videoconferencing will be increasingly important for businesses, not just as a way of burnishing their green credentials through "the avoidance of travel" but to boost staff collaboration and productivity.

"Around the world, international firms have expertise that is dispersed and the businesses are so dynamic, they need to put teams together on an impromptu basis," he said.

"If they can do that on a few hours' notice and get [staff with diverse expertise] together and start collaborating on a problem, then it's a tremendous acceleration in business productivity and that is what our customers are telling us where the value is in telepresence."

Cloud computing is also rising up the corporate agenda, according to Cambron - not least because the economic downturn is making businesses think twice about making big infrastructure investments.

"In this period of economic pressures, companies who have real business demands where they need to put applications in quickly may not be sure if they'll need that application three years from now or what the impact that application [will have, so] they're hesitant to make the capital investment to build out their datacentres," he said.

"If they develop enough of a long term need for it they can always bring that back in house... If it turns out that that application is going to be replaced or not needed in two or three years then they've saved the capital and the investment," he added.

Cambron also claimed more and more corporations are looking to outsource network management, in order to reduce costs and focus on their core business.

"We've closed major deals with customers like Shell Oil and IBM where they just decided that networking was distracting them in some sense from some of their core businesses and they asked us to manage their entire networks. That's what we do for a living, we've got economies of scale and so for those particular companies that's worked out well."