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Cisco and Microsoft held a webcast recently and issued a press release,
re-emphasizing the importance of the alliance between the two companies.
Specifically, the two companies stated that they have not performed as well in
their job as they could in detailing the collaborative operation going on
between the two companies behind the scenes. Their competition on new fronts has
arguably been much more high-profile.
The two companies announced seven key 'areas of collaboration' across the
various markets they serve: IT architecture, security, management, wireless and
mobile, unified communications, connected entertainment and small and
medium-sized business (SMB).
They listed specific initiatives and examples of their collaboration in these
areas, much of which is at the tactical level or in the early planning stages.
Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft and John Chambers, CEO, Cisco hosted a webcast.
“It was hard to avoid the sense that they were holding hands while kicking each
other under the table,” Jan Dawson, VP-US Enterprise Practice, Ovum, commented
in a press release.
“We, along with others, have suggested that a war between Microsoft and Cisco
is breaking out, especially in the unified communications market. Cisco's
purchase of WebEx was the latest major salvo in this war, but the two companies
are increasingly shaping up as the two major competitive forces in this market.
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| Onlookers felt that
CEOs Steve Ballmer and John Chambers were holding hands while kicking each
other under the table |
But customers on the whole want to mix IP telephony infrastructure from Cisco
(or its competitors) and messaging software from Microsoft (or its competitors),
and don't want to be forced into an all-or-nothing approach from either vendor.
VARs and systems integrators who are selling UC solutions to customers today are
already seeing the need for interoperability between these solutions, and are no
doubt putting significant pressure on Microsoft and Cisco in this department.
“The announcement by the companies is therefore driven by the fact that even
though both companies are absolutely committed to winning in this space,
customers won't buy from either one of us unless we interoperate,” said Charlie
Giancarlo, Executive VP, Cisco during the same webcast. Interoperability also
means following and driving industry standards, which will present an
interesting challenge for these companies, both of whom have reputations as
builders of proprietary systems first and foremost.
These announcements were useful as a statement of intent from both companies
about their plans to interoperate, but don't go much further than that. The
behavior of Cisco's and Microsoft's salespeople on the front lines and their
engineers in the backrooms at both companies will be what really drives market
perception of their ability to work together. Page(s) 1
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