PBX is over says Gates

The period of doubt and uncertainty is over: According to Bill Gates, Microsoft's OCS means the death of the PBX. In a speech at the launch of Office Communications Server, Gates laid out the logic by which  Microsoft software marks the end of  traditional telephony systems. He compared PBX systems to mainframe computers--useful enough in their time, but ultimately neither as nimble nor as useful as smaller, more flexible software-based systems. Gates did acknowledge the disappearance of the PBX won't happen overnight, but will be a gradual process as software improves and product cycles mature.

If you doubt that the PBX is truly over, wait for the words of Jeff Raikes, Microsoft's Business Unit president. He says the cost of an OCS solution will plunge by at least 50 percent over the next 3 years. Resistance is futile.

For more:
Network World has a report on the speech here

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