The topic of convergence has been front and center in the telecommunications industry for the past five years. The term itself has many meanings and interpretations. However, for the purposes of this white paper, we discuss the convergence of IT and networking technologies as an enabler of personalized and blended services.

Despite the challenges that service providers face in today's market, they possess a unique set of assets that can be leveraged to improve their competitive position. Toward this end, many service providers are executing customer-centric market strategies aimed at transforming their networks to next-generation IP networks for delivery of a superior customer experience.

The key to achieving this goal is developing an environment that allows service providers to leverage not only their own network assets but also third-party applications and services to support the following strategic objectives:

• Reduce time to market for new services
• Lower development costs
• Reduce service deployment/introduction risks

This white paper discusses the convergence of IT and networking in the telecommunications industry.