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WebRTC / What you need to know about WebRTC

With video conferencing continuously evolving, the new buzzword on the market is WebRTC. Just as with any new platform, the marketing hype around the term makes it hard to discern the potential rewards of the technology. In this article, we will explore WebRTC, find out its benefits for enterprise executives, WebRTC developers and IT decision-makers, and try and predict its impact in the video communications realm within the next year or two.

1. What is WebRTC?

WebRTC is an API that provides live voice, video and text communications capabilities. It’s all about putting real-time capabilities into your browser without the need for Flash or other downloadable plugins. To see how WebRTC is different from other well-known enterprise video platforms such as Skype, WebEx, or Cisco Jabber, we need to discuss the API in greater detail. Here’s what makes WebRTC unique:

a. It’s browser-based

As distinct from traditional apps that are installed on a computer or server locally, WebRTC-enabled web software has direct API access to the mike and camera using common Javascript API calls. Therefore, WebRTC is device, platform and operating system agnostic.

b. It’s fundamentally secure

Unlike traditional security applications that require users to install updates manually, many of the major browsers automate that step. So, next time you launch your browser, you’re getting the latest version with all the latest defect fixes. Being browser-based, WebRTC supports only secure real-time transfer protocol, which means the risk of denial of service attacks is automatically minimized.

c. It uses advanced video and audio codecs

Despite the ever-growing availability of bandwidth, the growing trend of remote workforces coupled with huge demands of HD-video may exceed the bandwidth capabilities of corporations, causing dropped packages and a choppy audio and video experience. WebRTC enables the use of advanced codecs, which means clearer communication in circumstances that would render traditional communication environments useless. In addition, it supports variable bit rates, constant bit rates, and narrowband communications.

d. It pushes for better session authentication.

Traditional video communication environments rely on third-party relay media hosts to manage sessions so that you can traverse firewalls. WebRTC supports peer-to-peer sessions using NAT (Network Address Translation), thus eliminating the need for third-party communications servers. This has always been a problem for SIP-based VoIP systems.

2. What the Video Communication Field Might Look Like in the Next Couple of Years

After the governing body makes its decision, we’ll probably see the big players mentioned before (such as Apple, Cisco, Google, and Microsoft) making the required changes to their products become compatible the new standard. At the same time, we will see other companies inside the video communications realm developing products like media gateways to specifically enable legacy video communication infrastructures that accommodate WebRTC-enabled communications. Startup businesses and also greenfield video projects will have an edge in that they will require investments in these kinds of third-party servers. Within this transition, it’s important to keep in mind two simultaneous trends that may have an important function in the growth of WebRTC: remote workforces and BYOD. According to WorldatWork, 16 thousand U. S. -based employees work at home at least one day a full month, a number that grew by almost 62% between 2005 and 2010 and continues to grow annually. Video communication is this trend’s key enabler. Since WebRTC removes lots of the current restrictions commonly associated with video conferencing, work basically becomes a matter of “what”, rather than “where”.

BYOD is worth a mention too. Since more and more employees use their own personal smartphones, tablets, and notebook computers at work, the financial overhead for the organizations goes down, which again plays a part in the adoption of video as a primary channel for real-time communications. In addition to the reduced expenditure, WebRTC addresses the security concerns many companies have, which is another advantage of WebRTC.

As businesses are more easily able to expand video conferencing to be able to remote workers using a myriad of mobile websites, the need for burstable bandwidth, computer processing, and storage will be in higher demand, which in turn will drive the adoption of true cloud services further. Video services providers like Oxagile, which have previously invested in the development of privately owned cloud infrastructures leveraged the foundation of many leading companies (e. g. Avaya/Radvision, Cisco, Polycom), are usually in a good position to handle this upcoming increase in the adoption of cloud services. While some systems integrators within the video communications space might be nervous about the shakeup happening within the market, Oxafile is excited to be on the verge of witnessing the democratization of the video realm. With virtually any major disruptive technological innovation, there’s always a specific learning curve needed to make the required enterprise changes. But, without a doubt, those who embrace these kinds of inevitable changes and also prepare ahead of time are usually setting themselves up with exciting times in the future.

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