Microsoft Wants to Kill All PBXes

By Doug Barney

Unified messaging is a 10-year-oldconcept that has yet to really take hold (how many devices do you use and howwell do they integrate? Seriously, write me at barneymailto:[email protected], and let meknow).

Voice over IP (VoIP) is a newer concept that is already startingto gain steam big time. Never one to let a successful trend go unexploited,Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, WA; microsoft.com) is combining unified messaging andVoIP — and is hoping to own both. When you put the two concepts together, youget unified communication — a term that Microsoft and its hardware partnerNortel (Santa Clara, CA) are pushing.

Cisco (San Jose, CA) also has serious skin in the game. Here’s how the two heavyweightsline up.

Microsoft has key bits of software, including its VoIP platformin the form of Office Communications Server 2007, the client Office Communicatorsoftware, and video conferencing through Live Meeting. The key to all of this isthe fact that these pieces work well with Exchange, today’s most popularmessaging platform.

What does Cisco have? How about an absolute dominantposition in networking? This one is going to be fun!

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/oct07/10-16UC2LaunchPR.mspx