Convergence Technology
As the economy begins to rebound and companies start to grow again, they are doing it more intelligently by managing their costs. One of the emerging technologies that allows companies to grow more cost effectively is convergence technology. Companies are recognizing the benefits of this new technology and are implementing strategies that require workers to understand it. For job seekers who are flexible enough to acquire specialized training in this area the opportunities can be dynamic. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the career area that includes network systems analysts and data communications specialists is expected to grow by 57% between 2002 and 2012. Convergence technicians fall in this area.
What is “convergence technology”? It depends on who answers this question. It includes, but is not limited to, wireless, wireline, security, Voice over IP, and data networking technologies, all coming together to provide a seamless and secure communications solution to solve a business or home need. True “convergence” includes overcoming interoperability issues between technologies and between vendors, including linking legacy and state of the art solutions. In other words, individuals and businesses must be able to use multiple vendors’ products (due to planned purchases or mergers/acquisitions) and integrate different vendors’ equipment and technologies to work seamlessly with each other. Convergence technology includes the interoperability between disparate systems and technologies.
In the past, businesses, service providers, and individual consumers thought of voice, video, images, and data as separate entities; technologies and systems whose paths would never cross. Video arrived via the airwaves and coaxial cable, while voice, image, and data arrived via separate phone lines or network cable. In fact, within most companies those technicians providing voice solutions and those providing data solutions often report through entirely separate groups. However, with recent advancements in bandwidth availability, multimedia software, network routing, and data cabling technologies, all communications often travel on a single network infrastructure. The term for this form of single network integration is convergence.
In the “real world” of today and beyond, where convergence technology will eventually be ubiquitous, a workforce trained in convergence technology will be able to create solutions by interfacing legacy telephony equipment and Internet Protocol (IP)-based telephony equipment from multiple vendors. Additionally, these technicians will be able to support the expanding types of data and voice traffic that such networks require. This is documented in a Gartner Group white paper, “In a converged environment, support may be needed for more than just a voice connection; it’s voice and data, and how they impact each other.”1
The convergence technician designs, builds, tests, secures, and troubleshoots communication infrastructure and devices in the convergence technology arena, both for business and home use. Technicians for both telecommunications equipment vendors and for enterprise-sized corporations must learn how to integrate old and new communications equipment and smart devices, as well as old and new technologies, to provide workable and affordable business solutions. Additionally, technicians must increasingly deal with a variety of technologies and vendors to design effective communications, always with an underlying emphasis on security of those communications.
Managing convergence technologies and their interoperability issues requires the technician to acquire new skills.Workers can no longer develop skills and work in specialty silos such as pure telecom, pure networking, pure information technology (IT), or even pure security. Instead, they must have a firm understanding of several technologies functioning together in a secure system. New curriculum in convergence technology that addresses both the business and home market is currently being developed by the National Science Foundation Regional Convergence Technology Center based at Collin County Community College in Frisco, Texas. Other prime partners in this center are El Centro College in the Dallas County Community College District and Tarrant County College, Northeast Campus to prepare these convergence technicians to perform in the new workplace.
Sources:
1. www.cng.nec.com/Downloads/WhitePapers/NECGartnerWhPprEnglish.pdf
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