Cisco's Pipe Dreams
Ask Marthin De Beer why he's so focused on video, and he'll kindly explain why the question is a bit like asking a plumber why he's so focused on water.
De Beer's researchers at networking giant Cisco predict that video will account for 80% of Internet data traffic within four years--44 exabytes per month, the equivalent of 11 billion DVDs or 3.5 million years of pet tricks, groin kicks and pirated episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
Since 2005, the South African-born 45-year-old has been charged with upgrading all of Cisco's products to prepare them for the expected video flood, a venture that involves one-third of the company's 24,000 engineers. The result is switches and routers capable of tricks like prioritizing video packets over less time-sensitive data, or building in redundancies that keep video smooth even when packets are lost or caught in traffic jams.
