Unison offers free UC solution

Unison, a New York City voice start-up, will offer a unified communications system for free, the company announced Wednesday. Unison will provide a Linux-based client that will include telephony, e-mail, contacts and presence and instant messaging.

The company will support the free product with sponsorships, and the first companies to get "in Unison" will be Canonical, a London-based sponsor of Ubuntu, and Intermedia, a hosted business applications provider.

Unison's offering consists of its Unison Server, which powers the text and voice communications, and a Unison Desktop, which contains all communication methods in one client. Unison asserts that IT department will save a lot money with the Unison product because it combines email, directory and IM servers in one, and it's free.

"Microsoft's CEO said last year that his two greatest challenges are Linux and ad-supported software," said Rurik Bradbury, Unison Technologies Chief Marketing Officer. "Unison is both of these - fast, powerful, easy-to-use software that is powered by Linux and also sponsor-supported, so it is totally free to use. With our new enterprise software model, Unison will mount a serious challenge to Microsoft's highly-profitable Exchange franchise all over the world, especially in developing countries."

The company estimates that Microsoft's Exchange system costs upwards of $2,000 per user per year at a 50-person firm, sending budgets for communication through the roof. Some companies will at least experiment with Unison, because the potential upside is huge if it functions well. 

Can Unison's sponsors provide enough dollars to enable the company maintain its service? It claims to have a powerful system, without licensing fees Microsoft and other UC providers charge, but how it will maintain performance without generating income from its users. Can sponsorships alone prop up a free UC solution? We'll see.

The software is available to download at www.unison.com 

For more:
- you can see the press release here 

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