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.

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.

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