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Group 02-Skype Assignment

Skype was founded in 2003 and has grown to over 22,000 employees. It was acquired by eBay in 2005 for $2.6 billion and then by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5 billion. Skype uses a hybrid peer-to-peer network architecture and offers services for voice calls, video calls, and business communications. While innovative, it has faced technological challenges around interoperability and server infrastructure that can be addressed through solutions like gateways, cloud servers, and third-party conferencing bridges.

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Noor Mirza
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61 views5 pages

Group 02-Skype Assignment

Skype was founded in 2003 and has grown to over 22,000 employees. It was acquired by eBay in 2005 for $2.6 billion and then by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5 billion. Skype uses a hybrid peer-to-peer network architecture and offers services for voice calls, video calls, and business communications. While innovative, it has faced technological challenges around interoperability and server infrastructure that can be addressed through solutions like gateways, cloud servers, and third-party conferencing bridges.

Uploaded by

Noor Mirza
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Skype Assignment

Submitted By: Group 02

Group Members:

Noor Saeed

Rabeea Salman

Hamna Khalil

Skype:

Founded in 2003, Skype has been, as their mission statement says, “the fabric of real-time
communication on the web” for millions across the globe. Based in Luxembourg, Skype runs
several facilities located in Europe, the US, and recently in China. Staffed with over 22,000
employees, and recently backed by Microsoft, Skype is on the frontline of peer-to-peer
communication.

Three Categories:

1. Skype In

2. Skype Out

3. Skype for Business

Skype & Ebay:

In 2005, eBay Inc. purchased Skype for US$2.6 billion. Due to difficulties and disagreements
between the two companies, eBay announced in April of 2009 it would begin preparations for
making Skype an independent company by 2010. During these preparations, an emerging Silicon
Valley-based venture capitalist firm, Andreessen & Horowitz, made their first investment to
finance Skype. In May 2011, Microsoft purchased Skype for US$8.5 billion.
Technological Problems & their Solutions:

Problem 1: Peer-to-peer architecture rather than the traditional client-server architecture

Solution: Skype employs a “hybrid peer-to-peer (P2P)” network. Traditional client/server


networks, such as AOL Instant Messenger, connect their customers to a company’s server before
connecting them to other users.

There are 3 components to a hybrid P2P network: Nodes, super nodes, and servers.

Nodes are normal users with the Skype client on their computer, used to communicate with
friends and family.

Super nodes are also users of the Skype client, but their computers are not protected by a firewall
or a Network Address Translation (NAT) like nodes are.

Servers are located in Skype’s data centers and are used to store personal data and finances,
authenticate information, enroll new customers, and authorize financial transactions.

In order to improve its efficiency, Skype should deploy Cloud-based servers. This means that
they will no longer need to have servers physically which further translates to reducing
maintenance costs resulting in reduced costs. There are several servers hosting services, some of
the major ones being:

 Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances

 Microsoft Azure instances

 Google Compute Engine instances.

Problem 2: Ineffective Interoperability

Solution: Skype did not interoperate with SIP-based services such as Vonage or AT&T’s
CallVantage, though in 2009 Skype began offering interoperability with some SIP-based phone
systems operated internally within businesses.

There are a variety of third-party solutions available to address this which have been around
since the early days of the Communications Server platform. These options range from basic
signaling gateways or more powerful transcoding gateways with limited scalability all the way
through full suites of conferencing bridges and signaling servers which can either host the entire
conference itself or join an existing Lync conference.

The four available methodologies for addressing these needs can be summarized as:

 Native Endpoint Registration - This means that no back-end interoperability solution is


used. The Lync or Skype for Business environment is used as the sole conferencing
engine and all endpoints (software clients and hardware devices) will connect directly
and natively to these environments wherever they may reside.

 Gateways - The first, and most basic method to address the issue would be to use
gateways to provide an access route for various unsupported room systems to reach the
SfB world.

 Multipoint Control Unit - Lync and SfB users simply call into these meetings which are
hosted on the standards-based MCU, also referred to as bridges, providing a single
meeting place that can bring everyone together. These separate bridges are the virtual
location where everyone calls into to hear and see each other.

 Bridge Cascading - The best single solution is to not have a single solution, but to use
both environments as originally intended and then just connect them to each other. This
approach leverages the strengths of both platforms and retains the native user experiences
on both sides.

Business Model Problems

Problem : Focusing on Improving Customer Service

Solution: Skype in the beginning had no existence of customer service to resolve problems faced
by the customers in using skype. If a problem was raised, the customer has to contact the
company through emails which was a time taking, lengthy, and complicated procedure. Overall,
the inefficiency needed to be catered to.

In order to solve the problem, Skype can use Slack for better communication with their
customers:
 Using Slack

When the curtain comes down on Skype, here are a few good reasons why Skype customers
should use Slack:

1. It takes collaboration to a new level by bringing together teams, tools, and workflows in a
single, easy-to-use platform.

2. It reduces time wasted in meetings, with flexible collaboration in channels and async
meetings.

3. Increases team efficiency with Huddles, an open meeting that employees can join, ask
questions in, and leave.

4. Support the needs and schedules of people in different time zones, and minimize digital
exhaustion, as everyone can connect through the app rather than facing endless real-time
meetings.

5. Connect all of your company’s apps and tools with a vast choice of integrations, including the
option to connect with partners via Slack Connect, which streamlines business collaboration.

6. Can create a knowledge repository with inclusive features and an unrivaled search function
that can quickly retrieve conversations, files and attachments on any project—even years later.

 AI Bots

Another solution is AI bots. Today, most "bots" aren't actually any form of artificial intelligence.
They're branched, piecemeal logic presented in a conversational (like iMessage or Facebook
Messenger) user interface (UI). Bots are just a different interaction mode for existing knowledge,
and it's another opportunity to engage your customers. Conversational UI is a great way for
businesses to make themselves appear on the bleeding edge of innovation.

 Bots can be there when you can't, like while your customer service team is asleep.

 Bots can improve self-service for customers, and reduce expenses for vendors, by
providing a new, repeatable, and inexpensive method of communication.
Over the next 10-25 years, this technology will continue to make huge advances and will be
capable of doing even more of what humans are doing today. It will be smart for customer-facing
teams to keep up with bot progress and stay on the cutting edge here to provide increasingly
better experiences at increasingly lower costs.

Released in 2003, Skype went from a fancy novelty online to a mainstream form of
communication. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, states that Skype is paving the way to “the
future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients
and colleagues anywhere in the world.” Thanks to its extremely innovative system, our friends
and family are closer and this world is even smaller.

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