In a multi-point TelePresence press briefing on Friday 31^stMay Cisco Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Managing Director, Ken Boal, and VP for Global Technology Policy, Dr. Robert Pepper, teamed up to deliver the Australian and New Zealand specific findings of the annual Cisco Visual Networking Index.

The latest forecast paints a picture of a world which is consuming the Internet at an astronomical rate with the Cisco VNI predicting that in 2017 there will be more than 19 billion devices connected to the internet! Dr. Pepper and Ken Boal were quick to point out to the attending media from ANZ that these 19 billion devices will increasingly be made up of devices that many people never thought would be Internet-enabled. As we move into the era of the Internet of Everything, more and more items will be connected to the Internet. Livestock, wearable tech and household appliances were just some of the examples given.

The forecast also highlighted an interesting global trend that will have major implications for service providers across the world -the phenomenon of "peak-hour" Internet traffic. This concept is one that mirrors the trend already experienced in the electricity industry which sees daily peaks  when people start heading home from work and greater peaks around events such as extremely hot or cold days. In the context of the Internet, these peaks might be around a sporting event, election or major TV series finale. It will be interesting to see how service providers react to this growing phenomenon.

Interestingly, the VNI findings show that this trend will be more prevalent in Australia than anywhere else in the APAC region with a "busy hour" to "average hour" ratio of 3.4 in 2017. That is, for every byte of traffic in any given off-peak hour, there is 3.4 bytes of traffic in the busiest hour of the day. The New Zealand market also reflects this trend with a ratio of 3.2. The APAC average will be 'just' 2.9.

One of the most interesting discussions to come out of the VNI briefing is the predicted increase in the use of Wi-Fi and the decline in the use of a fixed wired connection.  In New Zealand, by 2017 roughly 60% of internet traffic will traverse Wi-Fi, with the corresponding prediction in Australia standing at 59%. One of the key drivers for this is the growth in Wi-Fi 'hotspots' and offloading. Globally, there will be 10 million Wi-Fi hotspots in 2017; this allows service providers to 'offload' some of the traffic over the cellular networks to the Wi-Fi locations that are becoming more and more prevalent in cities and major rural centres.

We're interested to see how the growth of the Internet continues to disrupt business models and create opportunities for innovation when we look at the data again next year.

For further information, please see the slides we presented on Slideshare here.