"But that doesn't change the fact that enterprises must make a business case for adding video across the network," he said. The business case for video remains "a bit fuzzy," he added, while another barrier is the impact that the high-bandwidth video data streams will have on the network.
"It's a double whammy of sorts," he said, this lack of a clear reason to upgrade to video and the hit on network performance.
"This will definitely be a gradual change," Kozup said, not a great leap forward. "I don't think you're going to see a whole lot in the next 6 to 12 months, but as networks become more robust and scalable, some businesses will deploy video on a limited basis to knowledge workers and others, people who can benefit from face time."
Cisco also announced it will beef up security in its IP phones by adding embedded digital certificates into each device, so that when a phone is first connected, it goes through an authentication process, and when calls are placed, the setup is authenticated and audio data is encrypted. CallManager 4.0 will also feature an intrusion detection system, firewall, and audit logging via the inclusion of the new Cisco Security Agent.
Although the video side of the conference won't be encrypted in this release, De Beer said that would be added in a future roll-out.
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