Lonely at the Top
We live in disruptive times. Technology is changing faster than ever before, the economy has been tough – plagued with war, scams (Enron, Madoff, etc.), and global recessions. World disasters have...
View ArticleUC Alliance Anyone?
The Tech Sector had a rough month in May. Kevin Kelleher of CNN Money asks (but doesn’t answer) the question Why Are Blue Chip Tech Stocks So Blue? Exhibit A, of...
View ArticleIt’s Busy Out There! UC Summer 2012
It’s been tough! Recessions, wars, scandals, and natural disasters collaborating to keep wallets closed. A lot of the UC sector was forced into hibernation mode, but the frost appears to...
View ArticleCisco Dramatically Simplifies UC&C Licensing
This week, Cisco made some announcements regarding UC&C licensing with Rel 9.0. The company is offering three levels of licensing, and all levels have access to Cisco Jabber, and Pro users...
View ArticleThe Cloud Maker at Cisco
Cisco is a major UC premise equipment vendor that isn’t going direct with a cloud offering. SEN and Mitel have been offering direct services for a while, and this year...
View ArticleCisco Collaboration Summit ’12
Empower. Engage. Innovate (reminds me of Explorer. Expedition. Excursion) is the theme of Cisco’s Collaboration Summit taking place this week. This is largely a channel event. Last year’s attendance...
View ArticleUCaaS MQ – Does Platform Matter?
Gartner recently published its UCaaS Magic Quadrant Report for North America. The Gartner MQ reports are about the closest thing this industry (and many other industries) have to the Academy Awards....
View ArticleA Merry UC Christmas
Dear Santa, It’s been a while since I have written to you. I know you are busy filling the wish lists of deserving children everywhere, but this year the telecom...
View ArticleCisco Figures-Out Consumer Sales
What’s all this talk about Cisco exiting consumer businesses? Just because Cisco killed Umi, Flip, and now sold off Linksys to Belkin, don’t come tthink that Cisco doesn’t like consumers....
View ArticleMatch the EC13 Vendor to its Tagline
Pop quiz, here’s ten UC taglines spotted at the recent Enterprise Connect (#EC13) conference. Can you match the vendor to its tagline? Vendors Taglines 1 8×8 A Amplify Teams 2...
View ArticleThe Googrilla Grows
I recently published the Googrilla in the Midst which posits that the influence and impact of Google Apps is largely underappreciated and untapped by the UC community. We are reasonably...
View ArticleGiants Competing
For the past several months, the UC conversation shifted toward a Microsoft v. Cisco debate. Cisco enjoys a market share lead over Microsoft in UC, but Lync is experiencing rapid...
View ArticleThe Prophecy of Meraki
I like to prognosticate around the end of the year, but sometimes the signs (omens) just can’t wait. I am referring of course to the Prophecy of Meraki, or Cisco’s...
View ArticleNo UC Encore from Andy Miller
“Elvis has left the building” is a phrase that was used by public address announcers following Elvis Presley concerts to disperse audiences who lingered in hopes of an encore. Make no mistake, Andy...
View ArticleCisco Pulls a Rabbit out of its WebRTC Hat
Pigs must be flying because H.264 is free. What? No pigs flying? Hmmm – maybe this isn’t free. Cisco, in a bold attempt to end the WebRTC codec debate, has...
View ArticleThe Week Ahead with WebRTC
The great codec debate for WebRTC may finally come to a close this week. There’s lots of ways to look at the issue – open vs. closed, defacto vs. disruptive,...
View ArticleReflections on Cisco Summit
At the end of October I attended the Cisco Collaboration Summit 2013. It was my fourth conference of the month, followed by November commitments, so my backlog prevented me from...
View ArticleIBM and SIP Phones
IBM sold off its low end server business to Lenovo. Lenovo was born when IBM sold off its PC and laptop business. Why would a computing company want out of...
View ArticleA Room With A View
Somewhere within the hard phone v softphone debate is an emerging class of collaborative endpoints. These are devices and/or accessories that facilitate collaboration. It’s a new and growing category...
View ArticleCisco Intercloud
The week after Enterprise Connect, at Cisco’s worldwide Partner Summit conference, Cisco announced Intercloud. Cisco will invest $1 B in the next two years to build its expanded cloud business, and we...
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