As we are now well than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses are continuing to adapt to ever-changing realities. Initially, adapting involved shuttering offices and canceling work-related travel and events. Today, however, COVID-induced changes are a bit more nuanced. In fact, large enterprises with advanced technology and work from home policies may notice little difference when comparing pre-pandemic operations to today’s.
The question I am regularly asked is, “What use is OTN, when services are all IP, and routers handle connectivity directly across optical fiber connections, or wavelengths on optical fiber (IPoWDM)?”
“Smart” is the buzzword for strategic industries operating in Energy, Utilities, and Transportation. We are also starting to see this “Smart” nomenclature used in local authorities, defense and public services.
Enterprises are using Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solutions like Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and Contact Center as a Service Solutions (CCaaS) like Five9 and Genesys to improve communications, simplify operations, and accelerate IT agility. As the COVID-19 outbreak clearly demonstrated, UCaaS and CCaaS solutions are ideal for delivering enterprise communications services to remote workers, mobile users, and small/home offices.