About the Author
Welcome to the Enterprise blog at Nortel. My name is Phil Edholm, at Nortel I am responsible for technology vision, strategy, and architecture across the enterprise product portfolio. This includes our data networks, voice/unified communications, and applications (call center, IVR, messaging). I have been doing this job for about 6 years, driving the transformation within the enterprise group. At Nortel, a few of the things I have driven are the ICA concept, the Bay merger, and VoIP. I came to Nortel in late 1995 to develop convergence. While my background before was in data networks, I felt that moving to include real-time communications knowledge was critical to the convergence future that was coming.
Prior to Nortel, I spent a number of years in other technology companies, including Sytek, Hughes LAN Systems, Protocol Engines, Blyth Software, and XNET Technologies. Prior to moving into technology companies, I built networks (and factories) for General Motors. In fact, GM paid my way through University at GMI (now Kettering University), where I received dual degrees in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. In the past I have been a member of IEEE during the broadband and 10BaseT days, a founder of the Frame Relay Forum, and a number of early networking technologies.
A few career highlights have been 3 Great Debates at VoiceCon against Cisco (per the crowd, won them all) 
, identified as the originator of “Edholm’s Law of Bandwidth” by the IEEE, and was recognized this year by Frost and Sullivan with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Growth, Innovation and Leadership.
While I love technology, I also have a life outside. I have lived in California most of my life, though I was born in Germany and spent a year in Norway when I was young. I grew up in Redding, CA, when it was a small town. My parents were both educators and I was blessed to travel a lot when I was young. I live in a small town called Pleasanton in the Bay Area, and have been married over 29 years and have 2 wonderful children. In addition to technology, I enjoy skiing (especially snow), travel, a little tennis, and doing things with my family. I have a few vices; wine, cooking, and home theater. I find understanding other technologies is important as convergence brings networking, communications and entertainment together.
