Microsoft’s Office Communicator evolved into Lync and has gained traction in competing against other UC products. Considering that Microsoft is a software company and not a communications firm, it’s quite an impressive feat. Lync was one of the most anticipated UC products at Enterprise Connect 2011, and the keynote presentation was one of the most well received.

At my workplace a group of us are Lync users. I love it. It has a clean interface and not excessively featured (ahem, Office), it does a great job with chat and VOIP communications. I also enjoy the ability to easily set up multi-endpoint ringing, transferring to another device mid-conversation, and simple drag-and-drop for conferencing. What a great business tool.

Back then, in March 2011, Microsoft semi-promised a Lync client for all the major mobile platforms: iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, and Symbian. The plan was to release them before the end of the year.

Well, it’s almost December. Will Microsoft make good on this promise?

Yes, according to a tweet by Microsoft Australia. Within “the next four weeks.” (The tweet has since been removed.)

Most consumers probably won’t care about the release of mobile Lync clients, but for a lot of businesses that deployed Lync and have a workforce tethered to the various smartphones out there, this is welcomed news and could certainly boost productivity. More importantly, it’d truly demonstrate Microsoft’s commitment to unified communication.

(h/t BGR)

I saw Sipera Systems at the last Enterprise Connect and was intrigued by its market niche: UC and VOIP security. Enterprises are fast to jump on the UC and VOIP bandwagon, but oftentimes they neglect the security aspect of these deployments. Sipera, backed by renowned VCs Sequoia Capital and Star Ventures, was one of the kind to offer comprehensive security solutions with its SBC and UC appliances and software.

Now Sipera has joined the Avaya family. Obviously Avaya will leverage Sipera’s tech portfolio to improve its own UC and SIP products which shouldn’t be too hard since Sipera and Avaya have been close partners for a while now. What’ll be interesting to see is whether Avaya will still offer Sipera solutions for Cisco products.

Read the press release:

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Basking Ridge, NJ – Avaya today announced it has acquired Sipera, a worldwide provider of Unified Communications (UC) solutions, including Session Border Control (SBC) functionality and a range of UC security applications. Sipera will become a fully integrated part of Avaya.

Sipera strengthens Avaya’s UC portfolio with a set of fit-for-purpose, enterprise-class SBC capabilities for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking that offers customers and channel partners flexibility, security and value.  The company’s open, standards-based solutions work in both Avaya and non-Avaya networks. Combined with Avaya Aura®, Sipera’s solutions will provide customers with secure VoIP, SIP trunks, videoconferencing, cloud-based communications, instant messaging, and collaboration tools for workers in any location using any business or consumer device.

Sipera provides application-layer security that is intuitive, easy-to-manage and can lower the total cost of ownership of UC and Contact Center deployments. Security features include a patent-pending remote worker solution that helps deploy VPN-less solutions and advanced toll fraud protection.

Quotes:
“Sipera’s broad portfolio of open, enterprise-focused security technologies strongly align with our own Avaya Aura unified communications architecture. Together, we will help customers simplify deployment, management and maintenance of secure, multi-vendor UC and contact center environments while providing them with greater flexibility to support remote and mobile employees using the device that best suits their needs.”
Dr. Alan Baratz, Senior Vice President and President, Global Communications Solutions, Avaya

“Integration of our solutions with Avaya Aura is a significant milestone in the evolution of unified communications. With the combined offerings, users enjoy rich, responsive communication experiences that span multiple channels, applications, devices and networks. These communications incorporate security and compliance features that ensure mission-critical information and resources are safeguarded. Together, our solutions simplify and streamline deployment and management of enterprise UC, improving communications flexibility, accelerating user adoption, and maximizing return on investment.”
Jim Timmer, COO, Sipera

“Kelsey-Seybold Clinic is Houston’s first and longest standing Accountable Care Organization. Kelsey-Seybold is home to more than 370 physicians providing more than 50 medical specialties throughout a network of 20 Houston-area clinics.  Robust communication capabilities and security of our integrated voice and data solutions were key considerations in our selection of Sipera’s technology with Avaya’s contact center and unified communications solutions.  We are excited that this relationship is becoming a permanent one.”
Martin Littmann, Director – Information Technology, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic

Tags:
Unified communications, session border control, SIP trunking, security collaboration, business communications, Avaya Aura, Session Manager

About Avaya:
Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centers, data solutions and related services to companies of all sizes around the world.

Certain statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “should” or “will” or other similar terminology. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While we believe these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These and other important factors may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to Avaya’s filings with the SEC that are available at www.sec.gov. Avaya disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Media Inquiries:
Deb Kline
908-953-6179
klined@avaya.com

Last week Gartner came out with its latest Magic Quadrant for UC. So how do things look in the cutting edge field of unified communications?

Well, it appears that everyone is either a leader or niche player.

The vendors deemed worthy enough to float on the upper-right leaders quad: Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent, and Siemens Enterprise Communications.

Most of the others, designated as niche players by the ever politically correct Gartner (as opposed to “non-leaders,” “losers,” or “followers”?) in the lower-left quad, include some usual suspects like ShoreTel, Interactive Intelligence, TeleWare, Toshiba, and Aastra Technologies; but there were a couple of newbies this time: Digium and Huawei Technologies.

Between quadrants challengers (NEC and IBM) and visionaries (Mitel) were only three companies. Notice that the newcomers Digium and Huawei went straight to the niche quad instead of arriving as challengers or visionaries…

And to me that is tragic. Has the UC market place finally settled and its landscape defined?

With Microsoft leading the pack it’s clear that UC is an enterprise software application. Microsoft’s dominance in enterprise software is paying dividends in the adolescent UC market. Plus, its leadership further strengthened with the acquisition of Skype.

I wouldn’t have thought networking giant Cisco to be a close second. My #2 pick would’ve been IBM but alas, Big Blue has never quite figured out “communications” throughout its history.

Interestingly, Mitel is the only visionary in the report. The company has been making waves recently by making its products VM-friendly and exclusive — a “game changer,” according to Dave Michels of Pin Drop Soup:

Today at VMworld in Las Vegas, we learned of a new capability: virtual softphones! Mitel’s US desktop suite, UC-Advanced, includes a softphone (and presence, and IM), and it is now supported on VMware’s View virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). To my knowledge, this is the first time a softphone is truly being supported on a virtual desktop. This is a game changer.

…

So far, this is a Mitel (MCD) and VMware (View 5) exclusive. The companies have not disclosed the secret sauce that makes it work, but it will no doubt be coming to other vendors. VDI is hot! It drives down support and hardware costs while improving mobility. Allowing a softphone to tag along has huge implications, particularly for organizations embracing cloud services. Virtual desktops have the potential to turn all kinds of form factors into legitimate, secure workstations including PCs, thin client desktops, iPads, and ChromeBooks.

Thanks to Eric Krapf over at the No Jitter blog, we learn a bit about the “secret sauce“:

“In the VDI space, the reason why the math works so well is you don’t have a PC for every person in the datacenter; you oversubscribe the resource,” because you don’t have everyone using all their resources all the time, [Mitel CTO Jim Davies] explained. So “even if you solve the latency problem, which is solvable, you still have the math problem.”

Rewriting the softphone application enabled Mitel to solve the latency problem; VMWare created an API for View that lets the Mitel softphone’s media streaming function plug into the thin client on the desktop, while the remaining functions move to the datacenter.

What will the next UC Magic Quadrant look like? I hope to see more dots in the top-left and bottom-right quadrants.

On Tuesday the tech blogosphere had leak after leak about Google+ (“Google Plus” not “Google Add”), Big G’s offense against Facebook’s social media domination. Google has no qualms picking fights against other giants and has already entrenched in several fronts: enterprise apps (vs. Microsoft), mobile OS (vs. Apple), and communications (vs. mobile carriers).

Now it’s ready to take on Facebook. Although Google+ is not yet generally available to the masses, the lucky few (e.g. prominent journalists, bloggers, techies, etc.) that’s had the chance to take a sneak peek seemed to like it. Google, of course, is well aware of its past Wave launch blunder, and the company is definitely taking a more cautious path with Plus.

I think Google realizes that Plus will be a “now or never” project to compete with Facebook. If Plus fails to gain traction, Google might as well wave the white flag in the Great Social Media War.

But Google has some advantages: 1) It learned from the Wave lesson; 2) It has had time to learn from its competition, namely Facebook; 3) It has complete control over the user experience; and 4) It already has several enterprise customers.

Google+’s cool factor may or may not wow the typical user, but what about rolling it into the enterprise along with other Google services, specifically applied in unified communications?

Contact management, enhanced? Check (Google+ Circles feature).

Email management? Check (Gmail).

Document management? Check (Google Docs).

Voice (over IP) communications? Check (Google Voice).

Instant messenging? Check (Gtalk).

Videoconferencing, even with a group? Check (Google+ Hangouts feature).

Mobile chat? Check (Google+ Huddle feature).

Better yet, all of these products from Google are free or cost significantly less than getting your own servers.

Facebook may feel threatened by Google Plus, but what about all these UC vendors, especially those that are going after the burgeoning SMB market?

West is having a field day in this economy picking up sweet deals in the communications and contact center space. In May 2010 it was Holly Connects, soon followed by TuVox in July, and this month it’s Smoothstone.

West is big in the contact center outsourcing market, but it wants to expand by offering more products and services. Holly Connects gave it an IVR platform, and TuVox gave it on-demand IVR speech applications.

Now it sees the red hot unified communications market and wants a bigger piece of that action. Smoothstone fits right in, offering products and services in voice, contact center, UC, and collaboration — cloud-based at that. I’m sure West doesn’t mind seeing “cloud” mentioned in there somewhere. Based on its recent 1Q2011 earnings, UC is where the money is so it’s not surprising to see the company move in to fortify its UC portfolio.

To me West is starting to look like GE, turning into a conglomerate of sorts. West now has a long list of businesses and divisions from its many acquisitions, and with that quite a few product and service offerings. Does it face consolidation and branding challenges? Most likely, but it hasn’t slowed West down one bit.

The official press release:

OMAHA, NE and LOUISVILLE, KY, April 20, 2011 - West Corporation, a leading provider of technology-driven, voice and data solutions, and Smoothstone IP Communications, a leading provider of cloud-based communications solutions for the enterprise, today jointly announced that they have entered into an agreement whereby West will acquire Smoothstone. The acquisition adds to West’s expanding unified communications (UC) business, which includes InterCall.

Smoothstone develops and delivers highly flexible and scalable solutions for clients’ next-generation IP telephony needs. As enterprises upgrade their voice and data infrastructure, Smoothstone offers software-driven applications that exist in the cloud and are delivered through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. Smoothstone applications and services reduce the costs, risks and uncertainties of deploying new IP technology. Smoothstone’s solutions combine to bring the benefits of unified IP communications to enterprises quickly and reliably.

“Smoothstone’s expertise at delivering cloud-based unified communications solutions is unrivaled,” said Todd Strubbe, president of West’s Unified Communications operating segment. “By leveraging Smoothstone’s unique solution portfolio and the benefits of the cloud-based services delivery model, our clients will be able to focus on business initiatives that help drive their competitive advantage rather than on evolving IT infrastructure.”

“Smoothstone has developed cloud-based solutions that enable enterprises to migrate from legacy infrastructures to next generation applications and services, including application-aware MPLS networks, VoIP services, Unified Threat Management, Unified Messaging, mobile integration and advanced Contact Center solutions,” said Jeff Wellemeyer, co-founder and president of Smoothstone. “Our focus has always been on providing enterprise clients with a breadth of solutions and a level of service that they are simply not able to get from any other provider. We are pleased to be joining the West family of companies as we share a common passion for delivering exceptional service to clients. Our team and I look forward to continuing to serve clients and grow this business.”

Smoothstone was the recipient of Frost & Sullivan’s 2010 award for Competitive Strategy Innovation in Hosted IP Telephony and UC Services for North America. This prestigious award recognizes Smoothstone’s best-in-class strategy to manage growth, innovation and leadership in the dynamic IP communications market. Frost & Sullivan commented on the award by stating: “Smoothstone’s innovative competitive strategy has allowed it to service its customers in a very efficient and cost-effective manner. Through its unique technological platform and customized bundling solutions, as well as an extensive partner program, Smoothstone is poised to capture a growing share of this market.”

West will pay approximately $120 million to acquire Smoothstone. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2011 after satisfaction of certain closing conditions, including customary regulatory approvals. Upon completion of the acquisition, Smoothstone will become a part of West’s Unified Communications operating segment. The Smoothstone product portfolio will be available to West’s wide base of clients, adding cloud-based IP telephony to a growing list of West’s unified communications solutions. Smoothstone will continue to offer its full portfolio of applications and services and will continue in its mission to help leading enterprises transform the way they communicate.

Other benefits of the Smoothstone solution include:

• Faster deployment times compared to traditional, on-premises deployments
• Ongoing technology refresh that keeps up with a rapidly evolving UC market
• Ease of integration into business processes and enterprise applications
• Elimination of the burden of managing communications infrastructure and services, allowing resources to be focused on more strategic initiatives

“West’s commitment to the high-growth unified communications industry is clearly demonstrated with this and our other recent acquisitions in the space. West now claims a leadership position in unified communications with a broad, unique and reliable set of products. By leveraging the InterCall global distribution model with our long-term client relationships, West’s opportunity for growth is improved as a result of these acquisitions,” said Tom Barker, CEO, West Corporation.

About West Corporation
West Corporation is a leading provider of technology-driven, voice and data solutions. West offers its clients a broad range of communications and network infrastructure solutions that help them manage or support critical communications. West’s customer contact solutions and conferencing services are designed to improve its clients’ cost structure and provide reliable, high-quality services. West also provides mission-critical services, such as public safety and emergency communications.

Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, West serves Fortune 1000 companies and other clients in a variety of industries, including telecommunications, banking, retail, financial, technology and healthcare. West has sales and operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Latin America. For more information on West Corporation, please call 1-800-841-9000 or visitwww.west.com.

About InterCall
InterCall, a subsidiary of West Corporation, is the largest conference and collaborations service provider in the world and a leading provider of global cloud-based unified communications services. Founded in 1991, InterCall offers telephony, messaging, conferencing and collaboration tools for businesses of all sizes, from large global enterprises to small or regional companies. With a global footprint and broad service capabilities, InterCall’s flexible models for hosted, managed and on-premises communications services help companies get the most out of their business processes.

InterCall’s strong U.S. presence, including four call centers and 26 sales offices, is bolstered by operations in Canada, Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. For more information, please visit www.intercall.com.

About Smoothstone
Smoothstone IP Communications is the leading provider of cloud based communications for the enterprise – including MPLS-based application network management, enterprise voice, unified threat management, advanced contact center solutions, unified messaging and collaboration tools-all delivered as a unified suite of cloud-based applications. Smoothstone’s scalable, on-demand applications and services can be integrated with a customer’s existing network and telecommunications infrastructure, operational processes, and employee activities, enabling a customer to migrate to unified IP communications as their business requirements dictate. For more information, visit www.smoothstone.com or call 1-800-773-3037.

At West Corporation:
David Pleiss
(402) 963-1500
dmpleiss@west.com

At Smoothstone:
Luke Blackburn
(502) 272-2920
lblackburn@smoothstone.com

 

On the heels of its much publicized launch of App Store (for Android), Cloud Drive, and Cloud Player (for Web and Android), Amazon now boldly enters the heated unified communications market with its Cloud Talk app for the Kindle eReader.

The Kindle eReader was Amazon’s foray into offering a hardware product, and instantly became a success to dominate the eReader market. It is now the best selling product from the company and helped ushered in the era of digital publishing as ebooks now outsell printed ones.

One could argue that it’s one of the first tablet devices, albeit with limited features. However, the latest models have impressive technical specs: 6″ display, 8.5 oz., 30-day battery life, WiFi, PDF reader, and WebKit-based browser. There’s also a 3G model where owners can download ebooks from anywhere with a cellular signal. The E Ink display offers a crisp and highly contrasted reading experience even in sunlight, something that many existing tablets have trouble with due to glare from LCD screens.

Essentially, the Kindle has nearly all the bells and whistles to become a full-fledge consumer tablet. Yes, it can easily run apps too. With Cloud Talk for Kindle, the user can enjoy instant messaging, VOIP (free between Kindle users, or cheap rates otherwise), or video conferencing — reliability guaranteed by Amazon’s cloud. (VOIP and video features require additional adapter.)

Can it be a successful communications device?

Let’s see… Swarms of loyal fans love their Kindles as much as anything. Now with Cloud Talk for Kindle, back by Amazon’s truly world-class cloud infrastructure, this sneak attack by Amazon could spell trouble for not only existing tablet makers, but also enterprise UC vendors. Imagine the ability to instantly share via IM your favorite passages, or via VOIP/video to interrupt your Kindle friend’s reading. Granted, the video may be in E Ink black and white, but that could mean more people are comfortable using it because they won’t be as self-conscious of their appearances.

Watch out, Apple/Google/Avaya/Cisco/Microsoft/Polycom/etc.!

Press release:

SEATTLE, April 1, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) –

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced the launch of Amazon Cloud Talk for Kindle. The Kindle is the most popular eReader and Amazon is proud to extend its features with a great application on top of this best-selling product.

“We’re excited to take this leap forward in the personal digital experience,” said Dorothy Nicholls, Director, Amazon Kindle. “With the App Store and our world-class cloud services, Kindle users now get to enjoy a full tablet experience with the new Cloud Talk app.”

“Our customers have told us they want to do more than reading on the Kindle,” Nicholls said. “Now, whether at work, home, or on the go, customers can not only buy books, but also stay connected to their friends and family.”

The Cloud Talk app for Kindle:

• Free from the Amazon App Store for Android
• Common communications features: presence, instant messaging, voice-over-IP (VOIP), and video conferencing (requires additional camera/mic adapter)
• Instantly share your favorite passages using IM, or audio/video
• Compatible with all Kindle models

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle, Kindle 3G and Kindle DX are the revolutionary portable readers that wirelessly download books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and personal documents to a crisp, high-resolution electronic ink display that looks and reads like real paper. Kindle 3G and Kindle DX utilize the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones, so users never need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Kindle is the #1 bestselling product across the millions of items sold on Amazon.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de,www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, and www.amazon.it. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management’s expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com‘s financial results is included in Amazon.com‘s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

SOURCE: Amazon.com, Inc.

Amazon.com, Inc.
Media Hotline, 206-266-7180

 

My first VoiceCon in 2010 was so much fun (oh yeah, I also learned a lot and made quite a few new acquaintances) that I knew I had to plan for Enterprise Connect 2011. It was also my first live on-site coverage for insideCTI (I’d just started the blog a month earlier), so I really didn’t know what to expect. In 2010 my family tagged along for the 8-hour road trip to Orlando to provide moral support (in the form of “We get to visit Mickey!”) and endured a few days of hotel stay with me, away from the comfort of our TV, sofas, and beds. I would go to the conference during the day, return to the hotel for a “home” cooked supper, then start organizing my notes in order to start burning the midnight oil on the blog. Thankfully the hotel WiFi offered decent speeds.

This year I flied solo, road trip and all. Driving myself for eight hours down Interstate 75 was rough — the various segments of road work made it worse — and again I was reminded that I’m not in college anymore. Still, I think eight hours was about the threshold before I’d gladly subject myself to TSA groping. Had the conference been held in Miami then the TSA would’ve had me by my… Well, you get the idea.

The Gaylord Palms Resort (commonly known as the “biodome” to returning conference goers) hadn’t changed much: the same lush plants, the humidity, the bored alligators, and lots of Avaya banners. Yep, no doubt I had arrived at the right conference when I walked in early Monday morning to pick up my media badge.

Before the trip I’d thought that Skype would be the most talked about exhibitor (and David Gurle, VP Skype Enterprise, also a featured keynote speaker). After all, everybody Skypes these days. And that’s both at home and in the office, both audio and video. Skype’s intention of moving into the enterprise market is also well known now. Some may even say that Skype’s one of the first unified communication applications.

But frankly Skype Enterprise didn’t have anything spectacular for this conference. A partnership with Citrix GoToMeeting, a pitch of 24/7 support tied to SLAs, and a closer relationship with Avaya (a sibling company also sharing Silver Lake Partners as an investor). Disappointedly, nothing too exciting, especially when details were hard to come by too. Was it being overly conservative and cautious because of the planned IPO this year?

The debut of the Innovation Showcase was awesome. Not only did I get to learn about new companies (ProtonMedia, Radish Systems, harmon.ie), but Fonolo was one of the winners and I got to catch up with CEO Shai Berger. I hope the showcase becomes a regular part of Enterprise Connect (and winning companies granted better booth locales).

Speaking of innovation, I was introduced to Hookflash CEO Trent Johnsen whose company came in second in the recent StartupCamp 3 in Miami. Always a pleasure to meet a tech entrepreneur outside of Silicon Valley (he’s from Calgary, Canada).

The always professionally dressed and equally professionally equipped Dan York, Director of Communications at Voxeo, was kind enough to meet with me to chat about his company and the conference in general. Too bad he didn’t divulge any juicy news about possible acquisitions, but he did touch upon some things such as Voxeo’s new office, growth in its Beijing office, and a new data center in Asia. He also wondered why Google or Apple — two companies representing Android and iOS, respectively — weren’t represented at any of the sessions discussing UC mobility. I shared that same sentiment. I eagerly await the year when either of those companies shows up at Enterprise Connect…

Data networking giant Cisco proved it’s not just a one trick pony with SocialMiner winning Best of Enterprise Connect 2011. This social customer care solution monitors social media networks and lets a company effectively respond to customers. (Side note: Avaya also has a similar product called the Social Media Manager, and compared to SocialMiner the UX was night and day.)

The highlight of the trip was probably the invitation-only media dinner hosted by Verizon on Monday, at a steakhouse inside the biodome. The dinner was great (had the buffalo steak and bread pudding for dessert), but even better was the opportunity to chat with folks from Verizon and Cisco, not just about UCCaaS but really having regular conversations at the dinner table. Alas, it’s good to know that marketing people are humans too and not androids programmed to divulge only corporate press releases.

Was there a low point? Unfortunately, yes. If anyone found a VirginMobile MiFi hotspot, please return it to me. It’s a blogger’s best friend and I’d lost it sometime on Tuesday, March 1.

But overall, I had a blast this year. Although I didn’t do much liveblogging (I do love liveblogging though) this time, my tweet stream was fairly consistent during the events I attended. And kudos to the good WiFi coverage at the venue this year, most of the time my iPhone 4 was able to last till the end of the day even with heavy tweeting. In fact, lots of people participated in #enterprisecon (I hope Dan’s thumbs are okay) and it made the conference even better!

Enterprise Connect 2012 is March 26-29 at the same biodome. What will next year’s hot topics be? (Please, not interoperability…)

I love the smell of UCIF in the morning… Smells like interoperability. Someday this frustration’s gonna end…

– Telecom Director Bill Kilgore, “Voipocalypse Now”

Interoperability was a hot topic at VoiceCon 2010. All the major vendors wanted something to be done and pointed fingers at each other (more often than not, at Microsoft). Then finally in mid-2010 the UCIF was established by founding members HP, Logitech, Microsoft, and Polycom. Membership grew later in the months.

But glaringly missing still are the likes of Avaya, Cisco, IBM, NEC, ShoreTel, etc. Somebody at Enterprise Connect even asked, Can UCIF succeed without participation from these other major players?

It’s a valid question and concern, and admittedly, I’ve one of those who was bearish on UCIF. Anton Krantz of Microsoft and Robin Raulf-Sager of Polycom, representatives of UCIF, have a much more optimistic outlook.

There are UC customers out there that begs for greater interoperability among its communications components from multiple vendors. Well, let me rephrase that: There are customers that want interoperability out of the box. Presently, the lack of interoperability has actually created a middleware ecosystem for a company like NET (an UCIF “contributing participant”) which develops software to bridge the interoperability gaps among a variety of UC products. Obviously there is a market demand for interoperability.

However, it appears that the market demand hasn’t peaked enough to evoke greater cooperation and collaboration between UC vendors. And that’s probably because UC is still very much an enterprise-centric technology. Although UCIF operates similarly to the WiFi Alliance organizational model, WiFi was a general technology (both consumer and enterprise) and achieved success much quickly.

Progress is being made albeit at a slow pace. In December 2010 the UCIF Board of Directors approved an amended version of bylaws. It addresses concerns about the makeup of board members and makes joining the forum easier. More power is distributed among non-founding members with an increased number of directors. Unfortunately, three months have passed and still no significant membership developments.

On a brighter note, the forum has created a few workgroups to tackle more specific areas of interest within UC interoperability and with marketing UCIF. That’s a positive step forward because I believe the UCIF has more of a narrative problem than anything else. It needs to actively spread the pro-interoperability gospel — advertising, petitions, awareness campaigns, etc. Treat the lack of interoperability as a disease and bring it to the forefront of issues facing enterprises interested in UC.

For UCIF to gather steam may still take a few more years. And those years could prove to be costly for both sides — the vendors and the enterprises.

What’s not to love about SIP and VOIP, right? Cost savings, easier setup, cool features. Yet more often than not your IT department will enforce having virus scanners on the PCs, but does nothing about that shiny IP phone on the desk. As far as the network goes, that IP phone is another data device subject to be victimized by malware and DDoS threats out there.

Richardson, TX-based Sipera Systems has about 50 employees focused on delivering products and services to address security issues surrounding UC and VOIP communications. This is also a company backed by well-known VCs such as Sequoia Capital (funded many, many tech companies we all know today, like Google, Oracle, YouTube, etc.) and Star Ventures (which also invests in video darling and conference exhibitor, Vidyo).

Obviously Sipera has attracted the attention of some powerful Silicon Valley money brokers.

The company is well positioned in the market with the explosion of UC and SIP endpoints. A primary roadblock in selecting UC within the enterprise is security. Moving to UC often gives the IT Director a very good reason to freak out. Enter Sipera with its UC-Sec Appliances to ensure the UC and VOIP traffic is from authenticated sources and encrypted for privacy. According to Adam Boone, VP of Marketing and Product Management, UC-Sec appliances provide application-layer security and comes in a 1U or 2U box that’ll fit in most data center racks.

Furthermore, Sipera now plans to enter the red hot SBC (Session Border Controller) market with its E-SBC offering. This market has seen tremendous growth for companies like Acme Packet and even Avaya now sells SBCs. The E-SBC is unique in that it features the SIP Trunk Integration Module (STIM) that significantly simplifies SIP trunk deployment to two hours or less in many standard configurations. It also fits an enterprise of any size — from 20 to 10,000 concurrent sessions — and priced competitively at 10% of the cost of competitors’ in some configurations.

But Sipera has another weapon in its SIP security arsenal: VIPER Lab. This is its research facility with a team of experts that you don’t want to mess with when it comes to UC and VOIP security. The VIPER Lab’s goal is to advance UC and VOIP security with its research and release useful tools to help others harden their SIP infrastructure.

As UC and VOIP becomes more prevalent it’s likely to attract attention from people with ill intentions. Hackers can now disrupt a business by bringing down a website. Imagine what they can do to your UC and VOIP networks. It’s one thing to lose a website and another to lose the ability to communicate across the enterprise.

Cisco on the rocks, please

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This year it’s Cisco’s Barry O’Sullivan, SVP Voice Technology Group, who got to lead off Tuesday keynotes. The presentation videos and slides were well done, and the message continued to be about video taking over business interactions. The “video is the new voice” mantra echoed throughout the room. (Interestingly, some may disagree.)

More video means more data. More data means more (or bigger) routers. More routers mean more money for Cisco. Video does have its place in the enterprise, but it’s debatable whether most companies share Cisco’s urgency of addressing the infrastructure needs of video right now. No matter, the bottom line is “when” not “if” video applications will explode in our faces.

I don’t blame Cisco for that marketing message (heck, almost every major exhibitor at the show does it) and O’Sullivan did make some interesting announcements, starting with Cisco Jabber.

Jabber was acquired by Cisco in 2008 — yes, a long time ago. Finally the company is leveraging Jabber to be part of its UC portfolio. In the ol’ days Jabber was used to just do IM, but thanks to standards like XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) Cisco Jabber features video, conferencing, voice, and mobility capabilities. It’s the “buddy list” to end all buddy lists.

Of course, this being the Year of the Tablet everyone was most curious about the progress of the Cius. Well, there was good news and bad news. First, the good news: Cisco aims to reduce the street price from the original $1,000 to $700. The bad news: Cisco has to reduce the street price from the original $1,000 to $700. After all, Apple has set the bar high with iPad (and iPad 2 to come out March 11), both in design and pricing.

O’Sullivan claimed that the company was seeing “unbelievable demand for the device” and said the tablet will become the company’s hottest selling product within a year. That’s quite a bold statement considering Cisco’s product portfolio of mainly routers and switches.

Can I hold it too?

As much as I don’t believe in an “enterprise tablet market,” the Cius does have a couple of differentiators. It has a dock to extend its use as a desktop video phone and also to provide a virtualized PC environment. The tablet runs on Android (not sure which version) and an Intel Atom CPU (commonly found on netbooks), and the demo unit at the booth was still in beta. According to a Cisco representative, work is still progressing to improve stability and optimize battery power.

However, I think the announcement that has the most impact was its new appliances for the SMB segment. Let’s be honest — Cisco products and solutions are often considered too expensive for SMBs. For a good number of years Cisco only paid attention to the large enterprises, but recently it’s shifted its market focus to include small- and mid-tiered businesses. Now Cisco is getting serious about this segment by introducing three products that give business owners a lot of bang for their bucks.

The Cisco UC 320W (under 25 users) looks like a router (even has two antennas sticking up), acts like a router, but is capable of so much more. WiFi (802.11a/g/n), VOIP, unified communications. Setup and administration tasks are easily done via the browser. This appliance can enable UC/IP of a business in 20 minutes or less.

For the slightly bigger enterprise there’s the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition 3000 for 300 users across 10 sites. Again, simple to setup and administer. Something like this could last a long time for a business that’s just starting to grow.

These products, if marketed effectively (for example, reshaping Cisco’s image to be more SMB friendly), could give heartburn to competitors in the SMB space. Make it known to SMB owners that they are also “Welcome to the Human Network.”