Nortel, Microsoft unveil roadmap

IT directors are very big on roadmaps. Roadmaps help them plan out their budgets and are an attempt to control innovation, which has always been a little less than controllable. Microsoft and Intel are also big on roadmaps, because they keep their clients--the IT directors--informed about which direction technology is heading. Microsoft and Nortel this week announced their roadmap for the Unified Communications Server that's now in beta and is expected to be rolled out later this year. The big news seems to be that there will be a box, the UC Integrated Branch, to bring VoIP to branch offices; presumably, the home office is running Nortel Communication Server 1000 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. The branch box is due in the fourth quarter. Beyond that, a lot of hand-waving. The announcement came in an odd venue that's worth noting: Studio 8H, in New York's Rockefeller Center. It's where NBC produces Saturday Night Live. I really hope they didn't sit at the Weekend Update desk.

For more information about the Nortel/Microsoft roadmap:
- read this press release from Nortel and
- read this article from GigaOm

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