Microsoft gains favor against Cisco in UC, say analysts

As Microsoft and Cisco battle it out to be the unified communications champion, analysts are starting to give Microsoft the edge in the race for leadership and vision.

Microsoft has long embraced UC from an email and "software-centric" approach, while Cisco has leveraged a PBX and voice focus.  Enterprises have moved beyond simply thinking about voice and VoIP and now have expanded requirements to focus on presence as the lever to integrate communications into businesses processes to boost productivity. Presence is easily embedded into a broad range of applications.

Cisco hasn't been sitting still, first buying WebEx, then beefing up the online collaboration suite with everything from video to third-party widgets. The lines between the two vendors have become increasingly blurry as feature sets and functions become similar.

However, differences matter. Users are frustrated that Cisco and Microsoft UC solutions aren't interoperable, frustrating companies that want to mix and match and don't want a single-vendor solution.

For more:
- SearchUnifiedCommunications.com rates Microsoft up against Cisco in UC. Article [1].

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