The reality check is that as we move to an IP world, the likelihood that you are going to have compatibility issues will increase dramatically. Whatever age you are, think about how your video formats have changed. One thing I can promise you is that you have probably gone through three generations of some technology.

Reading industry trades, I came an interesting observation. Mobile networks require swap outs of technology far more frequently than the old traditional network. That point came across to me again as a friend was telling me about trying to sell to an enterprise networks that would not migrate from his frame-relay network.

Security is particularly a stagnant business and for good reason. Once you establish a procedure changing it represents an opportunity for a break. But the change is inevitable in some ways.

We actually had these problems when fiber was first being deployed in the 1990s and the battery connection to security companies disappeared. 

With wireless, the problems are likely to be worse. It’s likely that ultimately 4G brings an era of incremental technology advances. Staying close to what has been the PSTN will be the easiest thing for many legacy systems. 

However, the innovator’s dilemma has taught us that the new technology is going bring some new value that will over take the legacy market.

This is the reason many friends are committed to building new solutions in the M2M space. The likely value of consolidation in this market when using mobile technology is to solve issues where distance and aggregation combine for continual value.

However, besides the technology changes, the laws governing security are dynamic.

And then of course there are current events. Disasters focus the company on its procedures.

Recently, I participated in a security training exercise at a hospital. It was clear to me watching that we are not at the point where the process is being well processed. We are still reacting to disasters by broadcasting information, not enabling comprehension. This is good for the general population amber alerts, but remember the rule that yelling fire in a crowded theatre is not always advisable.The aggregation systems need to deliver comprehension faster and cheaper. Otherwise the security folks are right, customers are not going to migrate from the systems they have.

To learn more about M2M and meet Carl Ford (News - Alert), head to the M2M Evolution Conference. To be held Oct. 4 to 6 in Los Angeles and collocated with ITEXPO West 2010, the M2M Evolution Conference will focus on how telemetry has been changing to take advantage of the Internet, where WAN and LAN systems were points of aggregation in the past today’s machines benefit from the ability to connect worldwide. And as the machines continue to look to network the wireless world represents a large growth opportunity for data communication. Don’t wait. Register now.