Looking Ahead: What’s in Store for Messaging
As the company that introduced managed messaging for business, USA.NET has a special stake in analyzing emerging technology trends and business developments to create a coherent vision for the future of messaging.
USA.NET’s immediate-term vision involves leveraging the convergence of messaging and the propagation of Web-enabled devices like wireless phones, PDAs, pagers and email software clients. Figure 4 illustrates how USA.NET’s message store technology connects a variety of messaging devices across an integrated platform. Under this model, the message store serves as the hub of the integrated IP platform, and the store is connected to message-generating devices like pagers, wireless phones, Webmail sites, software email clients (e.g. Microsoft Exchange and Netscape Messenger), hybrid IP devices in the home and even telephones and PBXs.
A layer of software around the message store provides the all-important, value-added services like security, encryption, virus scanning and anti-spamming technology.
As communications technologies continue to converge around an IP platform, USA.NET is busy turning this vision into reality.