The promise of unified communications [1], from a universal in-box to ubiquitous presence, are only beginning to be fulfilled, but the early stage of development hasn't kept a major fight to industry dominance from starting to take shape.
Both Microsoft and Cisco have been working in VoIP for some time, but the battle really began to take off when Microsoft debuted Office Communication Server 2007 early in the fourth quarter of this year. While Cisco and Microsoft have trumpeted the interoperability of their products, it's the separate visions and product roadmaps that will make news for some time to come.
Cisco's integration of unified communications with the network infrastructure may well come into conflict with Microsoft's unified communications basis of application integration. While the cooperation talk is happy, it's clear that battle lines are being drawn.
For more:
NetworkWorld has the complete article here [2].
Related articles:
Microsoft gets into unified communications Report [3]
Unified Comms jams traffic Report [4]
Verizon unifies biz VoIP Report [5]
Links:
[1] http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/unified-communications-coming-smb/2007-10-15
[2] http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2007/121207-microsoft-cisco-voip-battle.html?zb&rc=voip
[3] http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/microsoft-gets-unified-comms/2007-10-18
[4] http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/unified-comms-jam-traffic/2007-08-30
[5] http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/verizon-unifies-biz-voip/2007-08-23