Investor and entrepreneur David Walsh, from Bronxville, New York, considers the future of web real-time communication.
Web real-time communication, or WebRTC, is a prime example of a technology that started small, expanded in its applications steadily and often in stealth mode, then drastically upended the traditional stack. Investor and entrepreneur David Walsh, from Bronxville, New York, who’s one of the top pioneers in commercializing WebRTC, considers what 2020 and beyond may hold in store.
WebRTC is a free, open-source project that provides web browsers and mobile applications with real-time communication using application programming interfaces. It allows developers to embed audio, messaging, and video communication to work inside webpages and mobile apps by permitting direct peer-to-peer communication and eliminating the need to install plugins or download native applications. The first WebRTC cross-browser video call occurred in early 2013, the same year in which David Walsh, as CEO of GENBAND, established the basis for Kandy.io, which today continues to lead in WebRTC innovation, with so-called communications platform as a service, or CPaaS, capabilities.
“We immediately understood the potential of WebRTC to disrupt just as VoIP disrupted at the turn of the century,” reveals Walsh. “We placed a large bet on WebRTC and were among the first companies to bring low-code or no-code developer tools and services to the market,” he adds.
According to Walsh, open-source was the way to go in the beginning. “We knew, however, that until investment was made in bringing the highest level of quality and security to WebRTC-based services and solutions, its market would be limited,” reveals the Bronxville, New York-based expert.
Walsh has been working with the world’s largest telecom companies for over 30 years and was a pioneer in VoIP and other internet-related technologies early on. When Walsh led the development of IP services for one of the world’s largest fiber-optic networks, his team, headed up by another pioneer in IP-data networking, John Longo, created a $1 billion business by developing IP-peering technologies. “Looking to the future, I believe that WebRTC will continue to dominate in the CPaaS market, even though many seldom refer directly to the technology itself,” says Walsh, speaking from his office in Bronxville, New York.
“WebRTC is changing everything,” Walsh goes on, “and now that it can be easily integrated into any website or application, an entire world of capability is opening up.”
The technology, he suggests, is frictionless. “Expect most, if not all, websites and apps to have RTC embedded in them within five years,” says the expert.
David Walsh, from Bronxville, New York, has returned to his entrepreneurial roots and is currently invested in, and helping to build, a new crop of disruptors. “There’s nothing more exciting than taking new technology and disrupting entire industries with it, bringing it to market, and then watching it flourish in the hands of innovative developers,” reveals the investor and entrepreneur.
“Right now, we’re innovating at the speed of light,” adds Walsh, wrapping up, “and if you thought the last 20 years had been interesting, just wait until we reach 2030, then 2040.”
