VoiceCon Keynotes
The two biggest, and most anticipated, keynotes of VoiceCon happened today, Cisco and Microsoft, and they both met the expectations.
First Charles Giancarlo (Cisco’s Senior VP and Chief Development Office) took the stage. Somewhat of a departure for Cisco, Charles focused on the benefits software can bring to VoIP and Unified Communications by using his collage-age daughter as an example of user needs that are provided by software - such as mashups and social networking.
Using this as a background, Charles provided some slick demos, showing not only a mobile & Mac communications client, but also how a mashup with Google maps can help locate other users. In addition Charles demonstrated the Telepresence system that was announced last year, and I have to say I am impressed. Though it is expensive, and probably only going to be available to corporate VPs, it is an extremely compelling set of functionality, and does solve the traditional problems that exist with video conferencing.
Following Cisco was Microsoft, with Jeff Raikes (President of Microsoft’s Business Division), who unsuprisingly was discussing the benefits of software for the voice and unified communications space. Using a word processor as an example, and the fact that Microsoft employees back in the 80s used to hand write documents before giving them to another employee to type, he expressed that people at that time would of been shocked and never imagined that every Information Worker now has their own word processor on their desk.
Using this as an analogy to convey that even though today some people may be somewhat skeptical of Microsoft’s ability to deliver a voice solution, Raikes made the following prediction - “In the next three years, the average voice over IP solution will cost half what it does today”, and that enterprises will be moving to a software model.
It is early to tell, but Cisco obviously has a lot to be worried about by Microsoft’s entry into the market and it’s push to reduce the overall cost of voice. Cisco though does have some amazing technology and products available, so the next few years will be an interesting time.
Technorati Tags: Cisco, Microsoft, VoIP, Voice Over IP, Unified Communications
