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July - 2012 - issue > CEO Spotlight
The Freedom to meet Next Generation Video Conferencing
Krish Ramakrishnan
CEO-BlueJeans Network
Sunday, July 1, 2012
There is an unprecedented energy we have never seen the likes of in the video conferencing industry today. We are at this intersection of mobility, interoperability and cloud capability which primes the entire industry for meteoric growth. With mobility, you increase the number of people you’re able to video conference with. Interoperability breaks down the barriers of software and hardware requirements and allows for more conversations. And finally the cloud lets you do all this without investing in costly servers and the eventual maintenance that comes with that. Blue Jeans is at the forefront of this upheaval and we are intending to disrupt that space even further.

There are a number of reasons why we are so bullish on this market: the growth in remote and mobile workers, corporate incentives to reduce travel and carbon footprints, a mature technology infrastructure that makes videoconferencing feasible, adoption of smart phones and tablets by consumers and workers alike, plus the fact that there is simply no substitute for face to face interactions.

Cisco research estimates that "two-thirds of the world's mobile data traffic will be video by 2016" and that "mobile video will increase 25-fold between 2011 and 2016." While we are as excited about videoconferencing as anyone, the first step to seeing this prediction come true is to get all of today's leading videoconferencing solutions on speaking terms.

Perhaps the biggest trend that is moving videoconferencing is workers bringing their personal smart phones and tablets within a company's IT umbrella. Known collectively as BYOD, these devices almost uniformly have cameras and an Internet connection. Blue Jeans is a cloud computing company, so our users are no longer dependent on wall systems or specific hardware in order to make a video connection. No matter the device or the application, you're able to connect with anyone. If you thought the world was already getting smaller, well get ready for the next big leap.

Large room systems, which have been the stalwarts of the videoconferencing industry for some time now, are not representative of today's worker. They are the equivalent of old-fashioned corded telephones that require every participant to be at a very specific location. With video today, you have to go to where the room is. Tomorrow, video goes where you are.

There was a time when this particular brand of frustration was common; when the lack of interoperability got in the way of explosive growth. Did you know that for a time CompuServe email could only be sent to other CompuServe accounts? That's the inflection point in the videoconferencing industry today, and why Blue Jeans is so ambitious in our attempt to disrupt the videoconferencing status quo.

It's summertime and I do not know about you but I would rather be outside enjoying the weather and spending time with my family. Since nearly every computer today has a camera and a connection, I don't have to stay tied to an office. Many businesses are realizing this. Companies are learning that the value of an employees' contribution does not have to be related to that employees' physical presence in an office, and that they are free to hire the best and brightest employees, regardless of their location. There was a time when email was considered the Web's killer app. For all the reasons above, I think the time is right for videoconferencing to join email as the killer app for the Web's next generation.

Headquartered in California, BlueJeans Network strives to make video conferencing as easy and pervasive as audio communications, enabling more effective collaboration at work, at home, and on the road. The platform extends high quality video collaboration beyond the boundaries of specialized conference rooms.
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