Differences

I am gaining interesting insights into differences in technology adoption as I travel to various parts of the world. Today I am in Beijing where I have met with customers, prospects, analysts, and journalists. One theme that has been expressed is that China looks to the US and Europe to lead the way in networking technology. In other words, a telecom provider here can get a glimpse of the future by looking at what their Western counterparts are up to. I find that a little ironic because I know many US telecom providers are focussed on South Korea because of the widely deployed broadband there. I'll learn more about Korea when I pass through Seoul next week.

Another common theme is that China is not quite ready for the idea of UTM, or Unified Threat Management. My explanation is that China is still concentrating on bandwidth, connectivity, and deployment issues. Business has yet to deploy IPS, in-line AV, or web filtering. As those additional security functions become more in demand the cost savings from doing all content filtering in a purpose built appliance will start to take hold.

Three more cities to go here in China before I am on to Hong Kong (I know that is a Chinese city as well, but...) and Singapore.