Cloud-centric and media-centric Telstra CTO says growth opportunities drive high-speed broadband
AMSTERDAM 23 October 2013 – Telstra’s Chief Techology Officer, Dr Hugh Bradlow, says the increase in Cloud services, rise of media-centric broadband and the move toward connected things are the key drivers for high-speed broadband services around the world.
Speaking to the world’s technology leaders at the invite-only Broadband World Forum Executive Summit, Dr Bradlow said that over the next decade there will be a great demand for the connectivity of things, and that everything from your microwave, washing machine and car will have the ability to communicate.
Dr Bradlow said that it is estimated that 99 percent of things are still not connected [Cisco Internet of Everything study] and the potential of Machine-to-Machine connections is only just starting to be realised.
“Imagine if there are already 5bn people and 5bn things connected today, the proliferation of connected things, all with different network demands will define the next network architectures,” he said.
Dr Bradlow added that Cloud-based computing is changing the way IT solutions are delivered with the ability to deliver a wide-range of applications and services to users without complex IT infrastructure and high maintenance costs.
“Cloud services are becoming a popular solution for many businesses around the world,” he said.
“As the applications and services develop and businesses look to simplify their IT infrastructure, Cloud-based systems and solutions will increase in popularity as will the demand for high-speed broadband.”
The need for high-speed broadband services is also driven by the changing way consumers are using the internet.
“In recent years internet consumption has moved from text-based to media-centric with the popularity of video streaming, internet based entertainment, cloud gaming, health monitoring and tele-learning growing.
“Media-centric data consumption places greater needs on both mobile and fixed broadband networks as the content is richer and requires more bandwidth than traditional text-based consumption,” he said.
Dr Bradlow concluded that the discussion of high-speed broadband needs to move beyond what will drive it to acknowledging it is happening and asking how networks need to be innovated.
“Our job is to ensure that the way we deliver the broadband meets the requirements of those services coming to the fore. These requirements will be very different to what we are currently seeing today,” Dr Bradlow finished.
For more information about Telstra, visit http://www.telstra.com.au/
