Leading Broadband Application Providers BBP 2010
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LEADING BROADBAND APPLICATION PROVIDERS BBP Leading Broadband 2010 Application Providers As broadband becomes widely available, more of our work and play moves to the Internet. These companies are making it possible. A BBP Staff Report obody wants broadband for its own sake. Every- LEADING BROADbaND APPLICATION one (or almost everyone) PROVIDERS AT A GlaNCE wants broadband for communication, infor- IPTV Middleware and Supporting Applications . |. 86 Nmation, commerce, entertainment, col- Video Communications . |. 87 laboration, productivity, health care, Online Gaming Services and Solutions . |. 89 education, security, home automation Over-the-Top Content Services and Solutions . |. 91 … the list goes on. Social Networking Services and Solutions . .| 92 A decade ago, broadband offered a Remote Storage/Backup/Access Services and Solutions . .| 94 faster way to surf the Web, send e-mails Online Collaboration Applications . .| 95 and buy airline tickets from home. As a Solutions for the Digital Home/Building . .| 96 critical mass of broadband users devel- E-Government and Web-Based oped, new applications and new devices Government Applications . .| 98 appeared. Video has become an integral Telemedicine Applications . | 100 part of nearly every broadband experi- Infrastructure as a Service and Cloud Platforms . | 102 ence and has fundamentally altered the Smart-Grid Applications . | 106 way we use the Internet. We aren’t just watching TV shows on the Internet, though there’s plenty of that going on. software on centralized files, instead of sets off a networked sensor.) The “Inter- We’re also using broadband video to sending files back and forth, helps us net of things,” in which most communi- take music lessons, attend webinars, stay collaborate. With Web-based applica- cation takes place between unattended in touch with family members and con- tions, we have more up-to-date informa- devices, is expected to become far larger tact tech support. tion, fewer delays and fewer errors – not than the familiar people-based Internet. High-definition and 3-D video are opening up even more possibilities. Tele- to mention higher productivity and, in WALLED GARDENS medicine is one thing when it’s a video some cases, energy savings. OR DUMB PIPES? phone call between a general practitio- Another big change: With reliable, Many service providers have greeted the ner and a specialist, and quite another always-on broadband connections, proliferation of broadband applications thing when a remote examination of a many applications can operate unat- with alarm. These applications – and the patient is as good as, or better than, an tended and notify us only when we need subscribers who insist on using them – in-person examination. to know something. (Think about a se- seem to threaten their network invest- Not all broadband’s benefits are re- curity camera that turns itself on and ments. Some providers have threatened lated to video. Working with centralized streams video footage when an intruder to stop investing in their networks if they cannot control the use of high- bandwidth applications. About the Authors But perhaps the uncontrolled use of The 2010 Leading Broadband Application Providers list was researched by Kassandra high-bandwidth applications is exactly Kania and Marianne Cotter under the supervision of editor Masha Zager. To alert us what justifies investment in advanced to new broadband applications, send an e-mail to [email protected]. networks. The more broadband applica- tions there are, the more likely we are 78 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2010 LEADING BROADBAND APPLICATION PROVIDERS to find at least one irresistible enough to to construct fiber-to-the-home and file, many other broadband application persuade us to subscribe to broadband. other high-bandwidth networks. providers appear in the category lists. If the application is important enough • Those that provide application plat- However, even the category lists don’t to us, we might even pay a premium for forms. For example, Facebook and come close to enumerating all the useful higher speed or guaranteed quality of Salesforce.com offer not only their broadband applications now available. service. own applications but platforms for We encourage readers to continue ex- Yankee Group analyst Benoît integrating other applications; Syna- ploring the applications that are becom- Felten distinguishes between network- cor’s platform allows ISPs to deliver ing available every day – and to let us associated applications, which rely on consumer broadband applications; know about any they find particularly a network’s service platform and usu- Jamcracker enables the delivery of interesting. ally are offered by the network owner, business broadband applications. and network-dissociated applications, BROADBAND AppLICATIONS which run on the open Internet and re- Another criterion for the list was BY CATEGORY quire only “dumb pipes” in the access diversity of company size. Microsoft, Video communications, including network. Service providers tend to pre- Google, Netflix and Facebook are house- telepresence. Videoconferencing con- fer network-associated applications, for hold words. But along with companies tinues to gain ground as businesses which the value proposition is clearer, that have created new categories of ap- come to accept that it reduces the need but both types are necessary. An attrac- plications, seized the lion’s share of a for travel. Industry analyst Frost & Sul- tive walled garden allows the service market or bought up dozens of indepen- livan found that the North American provider to retain as much revenue as dent software vendors, we also included videoconferencing services market grew possible. But walling the garden too se- an assortment of less familiar companies by 18 percent in 2009, reaching $184.2 curely locks out many potential users. that offer innovative products. million. Between 2009 and 2016, Frost This article features some applica- Finally, we focused on companies tions that are offered only by service & Sullivan expects a compound annual that operate in the North American providers, others that are available only growth rate of 18.4 percent, to $599.6 market and have deployed their prod- over the open Internet, and many that million. are available in both direct-to-consumer ucts commercially (though some are still According to Frost & Sullivan, in- and white-label versions. Service provid- in beta testing, a stage that once lasted a creasing globalization and cost pressures, ers can choose to resell the applications few weeks or months but now can take along with a growing focus on green ini- that have the widest appeal (whole-home years). tiatives, are driving videoconferencing DVR, for example) and profit from other In addition to the companies we pro- adoption. As companies seek to establish applications by providing the “dumb pipes” that attract enthusiasts. WhaT IS A BROADbaND APPLICATION? CRITERIA FOR LISTING Thousands of broadband applications An application is typically defined as “a computer program designed to and services are in use, and new ones ap- perform a specific task, as opposed to the operating system program that pear every day. Deciding which of them runs the computer itself ”. Unfortunately, this distinction is no longer clear, to include on this list was difficult. especially in a broadband network on which many layers of software are To keep the length of this feature running on many types of devices . manageable, we focused on a few types We’ve interpreted the term liberally to include not only software that of application providers: “performs a specific task” but also software that enables new business • Those whose applications drive strategies by making resources available via broadband . We include pro- growth in bandwidth demand. We viders that occupy a variety of niches in the ecosystem – some license their selected certain categories, such as software to users or resellers, others use their software (or others’ software) telepresence, because we believe their to provide services directly and still others provide platforms for distribut- impact on bandwidth demand could ing services . be significant. We also stretched the definition to include specialized devices where • Those whose applications encourage appropriate . Many application providers listed here provide integrated construction of high-bandwidth net- hardware/software solutions because they require specialized devices works. For telco deployers, IPTV is (meters, cameras, sensors) that few users are likely to own . the primary application driving the On the other hand, even though file transfer could be considered the buildout of high-speed networks. single most compelling reason to subscribe to broadband, we do not in- Applications specifically targeted to clude services that simply facilitate transfer or sale of digital media files property owners, city officials and (YouSendIt, iTunes) without additional features that distinguish them from utilities are also listed because they utility software or e-commerce sites . influence these deployers’ decisions AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2010 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 79 LEADING BROADBAND APPLICATION PROVIDERS Some of the rosy predictions for “The current challenge in the industry is IPTV have been slow to materialize. IPTV has not yet leapt ahead of cable the shift from the Internet to an array of mobile technology in terms of features, and