Web-based real-time communications (WebRTC) as both a concept and an operations platform, is rapidly gaining in terms of not only its possibilities, but also its actual application value. To that end, several companies are looking to bring together some extra help to get WebRTC up, rolling, and onto as many systems as possible.
WebRTC already has some very high-profile backers in the form of Google and Mozilla, whose Chrome and Firefox browsers, respectively, recently demonstrated their own use for the WebRTC platform by showing how easily the two browsers can connect in a chat session. Opera is also getting involved on the browser level, as is Ericsson's Bowser browser, but the support for WebRTC has a lot more than just browsers going for it.
Cisco is looking to get into the fray, and as one of the biggest makers of networking equipment for both enterprise and consumer users, that's no small amount of support. Bistri's line of products looks to use WebRTC, as well as HTML5 and Adobe Flash for those remaining browsers that can't yet handle WebRTC standards. Even AT&T has been spotted getting in on the WebRTC rush with its new Call Management API, which will work with Ericsson's IMS Innovation Platform, dovetailing nicely with Ericsson's Bowser browser initiatives.
That's quite a bit of support for WebRTC, even if it does have some competition in terms of major players like Microsoft, who is actively working on a standard to counter WebRTC's rise. In fact, there are so many supporters for WebRTC in general that there's a whole trade show devoted to their operations: the WebRTC Conference and Expo, which will be running June 25 through June 27 at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta, Georgia.
The conference will be covering a wide array of topics, from the economic impacts of WebRTC to the way it will change communications. There are also plenty of more procedural topics in line, like issues related to WebRTC standards and assorted educational topics on just how to use WebRTC. Plenty of other WebRTC supports will be on hand, including Alcatel-Lucent, Digium, AudioCodes and several others.
There's no getting around it; WebRTC is rapidly gaining ground as a communications technology of the future. What's more, it's a future that's rapidly turning into the present as more and more ways to use WebRTC emerge and take their places in the standard toolkit of everyday operations. With more companies entering the fray themselves, that's likely to lead to more developments as old developments are further refined and wholly new developments emerge which are then capitalized on to form still more new developments.
More of these will come along as the technology develops, and while their exact forms will be a mystery for a while, the inherent underpinnings of WebRTC should be readily apparent in all of them.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman
