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Zoom is now critical infrastructure – that’s a concern

brookings.edu

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Re: Zoom is now critical infrastructure – that’s a concern

#81

Post by AdamJacobMuller »

citizenkeen wrote: post #72
quietbritishjim wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And unlike many other services, the network effect is quite low because I can easily install multiple video conferencing software or even run some in the browser. If someone organising a meeting asks to use something unusual, I'm normally not that bothered.

My wife sees doctors at four different clinics. Each has chosen a different remote meeting solution. It's non-negotiable - to see your doctor remotely, you need to use their software. And that's just in one field. I'm not concerned about Zoom monopoly at all.

With COVID my grandfather has been doing telepresence visits with his doctors, for COVID among other reasons.

Mostly they were using a 3rd party solution like webx/zoom/etc but one doctor (automated in an online form) noticed his number was tied to iMessage and offered to just FaceTime him at his appointment time. Super easy for him (at 94) to self-manage vs any other solution where we (my mother or myself) need to be around to set things up for him.

Not sure how they are doing this exactly, if this is something Apple specifically enabled for healthcare or whatever, but its a fantastic experience.

Whatever solution they were using did have an "no I have an android and a 'use my computer' option" not sure what path they led down.

Re: Zoom is now critical infrastructure – that’s a concern

#82

Post by hirako2000 »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #65
TeMPOraL wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It goes in many combinations. Where I work now, it's Teams internally and Webex externally, with Zoom being explicitly banned, with at least two strongly worded e-mails reminding us to make it double plus sure we don't have the Zoom client installed. At the same time, outside of work, I was videocalling people on Skype, and my wife had classes delivered via Zoom.

Not sure what' worse, Zoom or Teams. Seems like "pick your poison". A coworker once looked at Teams console. I had logged over 700 errors. Often we cannot hear people, although their tech is completely fine. It's just Teams being bug ridden and excluding people.

Seamless integration with office360, with that they can afford to have issues.

Re: Zoom is now critical infrastructure – that’s a concern

#83

Post by notahacker »

MattGaiser wrote: post #76
impendia wrote: post #71

I don't buy it. The same factors that made Zoom easy to adopt, make it equally easy to switch to something else. And "when Zoom goes down, teachers can’t teach"? Come on. I am a college professor. In my class this fall I met my students on Blackboard on Day 1 and Zoom on Day 2. If one of them goes down for the day, we'll switch to the other.

You are used to a flexible organization. How about one where IT has locked down the computers mindlessly?

Most of them probably have their IT team's preferred enterprise vendor's teleconferencing system set up as the exclusive videoconferencing tool long before Zoom became flavour of the month...

Also, their employees probably have smartphones.

Re: Zoom is now critical infrastructure – that’s a concern

#84

Post by brobdingnagians »

aassddffasdf wrote: post #15
brobdingnagians wrote: post #5

Like backing up data, having a contingency plan is important. Even if you like zoom because of certain features, having a backup service you can use in case of emergency is important. If everyone knows beforehand "which link to try if zoom is down today", then it is merely an inconvenience instead of an emergency.

Umm Slack can be used to coordinate a hop to another channel.

Yep, that's what I do, and work is easy to coordinate, but some other social events or organizations with inexperienced non-tech people don't have slack and don't think to check their email. It is easier for them to have a pre-specified backup option.

Re: Zoom is now critical infrastructure – that’s a concern

#85

Post by rorykoehler »

MattGaiser wrote: post #76
impendia wrote: post #71

I don't buy it. The same factors that made Zoom easy to adopt, make it equally easy to switch to something else. And "when Zoom goes down, teachers can’t teach"? Come on. I am a college professor. In my class this fall I met my students on Blackboard on Day 1 and Zoom on Day 2. If one of them goes down for the day, we'll switch to the other.

You are used to a flexible organization. How about one where IT has locked down the computers mindlessly?

Surely no company that cares about security enough to lockdown machines like that would choose zoom?

Re: Zoom is now critical infrastructure – that’s a concern

#86

Post by choward »

freeone3000 wrote: post #25
youeseh wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those that haven't tried Jitsi - my friends and I catch up on it almost daily. It is awesome. The phone app is great too. You can setup a room that people can jump in and out of, which is pretty convenient. If you're looking for that office feel for your small team, then Jitsi might be worth a shot. And, I think you can host your own server if you'd like to!

Jitsi makes one of my friend's MacBooks fan too loud so we can't use it.

I know it's not ideal and not everyone has one, but couldn't your friend wear a headset so the microphone isn't right next to the fans?

Re: Zoom is now critical infrastructure – that’s a concern

#87

Post by choward »

renewiltord wrote: post #44

A bit tired of the "critical infrastructure" argument. People are very quick to put all sorts of things into the category. He mentions network effects as the only real moat in the article. If Zoom fails at being a product, people will move away.

I agree. I thought there would be evidence in the article but I couldn't find any. The Internet (with net neutrality) is critical infrastructure. But some tech company's product definitely isn't.

Re: Zoom is now critical infrastructure – that’s a concern

#88

Post by thebean11 »

nicoburns wrote: post #4

> But in many of the verticals in these sectors—such as banking or mobile phone services—no single company dominates the market. I don't think that's true of video-conferencing either. Zoom is probably the most popular (and technically superior), but there is also: Microsoft Teams, Webex, Google Meet, Slack, and many others, including open source options like Jitsi. And they all pretty much do the job.

Yeah, when Zoom went down the other day at work we just used the Google Meet link directly from the gcal invites.

Like any mission critical infrastructure, it's up to organizations to have some redundancy. Nothing new.

Re: Zoom is now critical infrastructure – that’s a concern

#89

Post by varikin »

impendia wrote: post #71

I don't buy it. The same factors that made Zoom easy to adopt, make it equally easy to switch to something else. And "when Zoom goes down, teachers can’t teach"? Come on. I am a college professor. In my class this fall I met my students on Blackboard on Day 1 and Zoom on Day 2. If one of them goes down for the day, we'll switch to the other.

That works when the teacher is technically minded. My wife is staff for an art department at a community college and many of the professors don't even know how to create spreadsheets. Having them switch from D2L to Zoom to Hangouts from day to day is not an option.

In the long view, the younger teachers are more able to learn the new technologies and switch new technologies. But we have to support the professors that are 5 years from retirement now.

Re: Zoom is now critical infrastructure – that’s a concern

#90

Post by thebean11 »

renewiltord wrote: post #44

A bit tired of the "critical infrastructure" argument. People are very quick to put all sorts of things into the category. He mentions network effects as the only real moat in the article. If Zoom fails at being a product, people will move away.

Yup, this article misses the difference between a mission critical category of tools vs a single mission critical piece of infrastructure. If your organization has a backup solution like Meet (which is easy to do) Zoom stops being mission critical.

I think at work we have three IT-approved solutions: Zoom, Meet, and Slack calls (which are admittedly much more limited).

> organizations aren’t going to want to pay for licenses to non-Zoom videoconferencing platforms that they may rarely or never need.

Yeah..so what does this have to do with Zoom? If my organization refuses to pay for anything but Meet we have the exact same issue.

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