The ultimate vision for the future of the network is towards true convergence of applications (including data), voice and video. To help achieve these goals, the common belief is that it is often better for companies to utilise a single communications network that provides greater efficiency through ease of use, therein reducing the time taken to manage the network.

By offering a technology vision and segment-specific architectures for building an infrastructure, it is now possible to build a network that will meet the communication needs of any business, no matter the size, location or type of organisation.

Successfully developing and deploying an intelligent communications network is very much dependent on the way in which networking protocols and technology evolve from connectivity to intelligent systems over the next three to five years. The resulting network will optimise business processes, enhance service delivery and dramatically improve application responsiveness.