Hosted VoIP

A recent report from market research firm IDC predicts that the VoIP equipment market will push network support services spending to $1.27 billion in 2010.

According to IDC’s (News - Alert) “Worldwide VoIP Support Services 2006–2010 Forecast and Analysis” report, the boundaries between telephony and IT will continue to blur as network equipment vendors move from proprietary hardware and software solutions and toward software running over dedicated servers (i.e. hosted software and solutions).

“Traditionally, networking vendors have experienced very little competition for support services due to the proprietary nature of their products,” a press release announcing the report’s availability states. “But, as the market shifts toward software solutions running on general purpose servers, a slew of third-party support services providers and systems vendors have an opportunity to provide support services for the hardware.”

Matt Healey, senior research analyst for IDC’s Software and Hardware Support services program, explained that as the IP PBX (News - Alert) market shifts from proprietary systems to hosted software applications, “the model for support services will begin to look more like the model for other mission-critical software applications.” This, he said, will result in the need for VoIP vendors to take responsibility for supporting the software and hardware in partnership with a systems vendor or a third party.

In order to capitalize on the emerging opportunities, server vendors should look to partner with network equipment vendors, the report concludes.

Furthermore, as this market shift advances, VoIP equipment vendors will need to evolve from a hardware-centric support model to a software support model.

For more information, visit www.idc.com.

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Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.