Interop Las Vegas recap

[1]If you couldn't make it out to Interop 2009 in Las Vegas this week, we've compiled a roundup of the news out of the show that relates to IP communications. Besides the HP and Microsoft announcement, detailed below, there weren't any groundbreaking releases on unified communications or VoIP. Cloud computing was a hot topic again, though the definition and implementation of the technology remains, well, cloudy. If you did make it out to Interop, and saw something exciting related to IP communications that we missed, shoot us an email [2] or get in touch with us on Twitter @fiercevoip [3].

HP and Microsoft [4]: The companies signed a four-year, $180 million deal to develop an end-to-end UC solution for large enterprises. The companies said their new UC products will interoperate with their respective hardware and software products already on the market.

Much was made of the deal from HP's perspective, as reports cast the agreement as a play to compete directly with Cisco in enterprise UC. Network World points out that Microsoft has similar deals with Nortel, Cisco and others, so the lack of exclusivity takes some of the sheen off of the announcement, though it also posits [5] that HP may be trying to edge out struggling Nortel as a Microsoft partner.

Speaking of Nortel [6], the Toronto-based telecom equipment giant said in its keynote at Interop that it is "going back to basics" and designing high-quality, innovative network solutions for large enterprise customers. Nortel launched a new secure router and a data center core switch at the show. 

Skype keynote [7]: Stefan Oberg, general manager of Skype for Business, wants IP-PBX vendors to play nice and interoperate so Skype for SIP can reach more business end-users. He said the company currently is building a group of channel partners to sell Skype solutions to business and also is developing enterprise-grade service centers to provide local tech support for these business accounts. He said much work remains to educate the marketplace about Skype's business offerings. 

Separately, Polycom announced its SoundStation IP conference phones now are interoperable with several VoIP platforms [8], including offerings from Avaya, ShoreTel, Alcatel-Lucent and Mitel. 

And finally, Verizon Business announced more "cloud-based" capabilities [9] for its Verizon Private IP service.

- Pete [2]