Videoconferencing a “game changer” in economic growth

Deltek Sr. Analyst Kyle Ridley reports.

The National Association of Counties (NACo) held its 76th Annual Conference and Exposition in Multnomah County, Ore. July 15-19, 2011. Several county officials, vendors and IT professionals attended the event in an effort to discuss policies and issues affecting counties nationwide and collaborate on ideas for shaping a bright future despite tough economic times.

In a session on how IT can prepare counties for future success, Dr. Norman Jacknis, director of Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Public Sector Group, touted the benefits of Internet videoconferencing. Jacknis proclaimed videoconferencing as a “game changer” that’s only at the start of its global impact. In a recent forecast from the Cisco Visual Networking Index, business videoconferencing is reported to grow sixfold from 2010 to 2015 at a compound annual growth rate of 41 percent. Additional highlights from the report include:

• Global Internet video traffic surpassed global peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic in 2010, and by 2012, Internet video will account for more 50 percent of consumer Internet traffic
• 1 million minutes of video content will cross the global IP network every second in 2015
• Internet video is now 40 percent of consumer Internet traffic, and will reach 62 percent by the end of 2015, not including the amount of video exchanged through P2P file sharing
• Internet video to TV tripled in 2010. Internet video-to-TV will continue to grow at a rapid pace, increasing 17-fold by 2015. Internet video-to-TV will be over 16 percent of consumer Internet video traffic in 2015, up from 7 percent in 2010
• Video-on-demand traffic will triple by 2015. The amount of VoD traffic in 2015 will be equivalent to 3 billion DVDs per month
• High-definition video-on-demand will surpass standard definition by the end of 2011. By 2015, high-definition Internet video will comprise 77 percent of VoD

For the complete blog, go here.