While I was participating in a web conference from my home office, I started thinking about how much and how fast things have changed in the last decade around communications and how we use collaboration tools in the office, at home and on the road and most importantly the number of devices available to me so I CAN collaborate over distance.

One thing that stays constant in this industry is change, especially when it comes to devices. Let’s take a walk down memory lane and see if you can remember any of these once “have to have” mobile devices. The Nokia 9000, The Motorola “Flip phone” and The “Razor”, Palm Pilot, dare I say the Blackberry and of course at the start of 2007 the IPhone came on to the market — and we all know how that is playing out — this being a rarity. More recently, Samsung is challenging Apple with the Galaxy and DROID OS is becoming more prevalent than IOS. Last I checked, there was an estimated 1.3 million Read More »

Tags: Android, codec, collaboration, h.265, IOS, IP Phones, iphone, mobility, SIP, standards

As my colleague Murali Sitaram shared in his recent blog, our Oct 16 announcement focused on providing customers with choice — more options in how they deploy robust collaboration offerings based on their specific needs and requirements. As customers evaluate the options — private, public and hybrid cloud — and ultimately deploy, many will turn to Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) partners to find valuable options to meet their business needs.

Cisco HCS partners are cloud providers, systems integrators, and resellers who offer a hosted collaboration solution that is certified as Cisco Powered by Cisco. This offering includes our Cisco Collaboration portfolio in a “as-a-service” cloud-based offering.

Our strategy is to Read More »

Tags: as-a-service, Cisco HCS, Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution, cloud, cloud partner, collaboration

“But didn’t you just release Cisco UC 9.0?”

I have heard this often since Oct 16 when we announced Cisco Unified Communications Release 9.0 “in the cloud”, or more specifically in Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS). The question has led to positive discussions around Cisco’s focus on providing customers their choice of deployment model without compromise.

Cloud collaboration is an integral part of Cisco’s Collaboration strategy. We are committed to delivering feature parity for Cisco Unified Communications on premises and in the cloud. After a new Cisco UC release is made available for on premises deployment, then within Read More »

Tags: Cisco Contact Center, Cisco HCS, Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution, Cisco TelePresence, Cisco Unified Communications., Cisco WebEx, collaboration

I recently wrote about “Collaborating with the New Generation” after being enlightened by a panel discussion with a group of Millennials. In the theme of looking forward and new generations, Forrester Consulting completed an in-depth online survey about the next-generation workspace with 325 senior-level IT decision makers in the United States, Europe, and China.

Not surprisingly, the workspace is evolving in much the same ways employee habits are. As employees look for more flexibility in devices and where they work, enterprises are implementing mobility, collaboration, virtualization, and security solutions that align to these needs. What does it mean to you? Read More »

Tags: byod, collaboration, desktop virtualization, Forrester Research, Millenials, mobile security, mobility, multiple devices, vdi

In this global economy, the people you deal with are more dispersed than ever. Yet at the same time 75% of business executives consider in-person collaboration an imperative. The survey that revealed that figure is an interesting read, and validates experiences that we’ve all encountered first-hand. How many times have you experienced communications that were misinterpreted or failed to engage participants effectively, negatively impacting relationships, projects, and business outcomes? As the pace of business gets faster and more complex, how do you: get everyone on the same page; scale resources to be in more places at once; and maintain face-to-face relationships with widely dispersed colleagues, customers, agencies, partners and advisors?

Visual collaboration is the next stage for many businesses as they put in place collaboration strategies to drive even higher levels of productivity for their business. However, for some organizations the up-front costs — to deploy the technology, train or acquire the right IT skill set, and provide the needed consistent level of inter-connectivity — can be barriers preventing them from accelerating business impact through video.

With our October 16 announcement, customers now have more choice in how they consume visual collaboration with Cisco TelePresence-as-a-Service (TPaaS). Cisco TPaaS places the Cisco TelePresence infrastructure in the cloud, powered by Cisco’s best-in-class architecture and network and managed by trusted Cisco certified partners. With this as-a-Service offering, there are even more flexible options for the deployment of telepresence and the acceleration of business impact through video. With Cisco TPaaS delivered from the cloud, organizations experience a predictable OpEx model, simplify operations (including interoperability with legacy video solutions), reduce risk of technology obsolescence, free IT resources to focus on core and strategic initiatives, and gain capabilities to scale based on business demand.

Expanded Cisco TPaaS service options help users:

Meet any time with an in-person experience. New “rendezvous” meeting options provide a personal conference bridge which can be used to meet securely with your colleagues, customers and partners — no scheduling required.

Work the way they want/need to work. With cloud-based Cisco TPaaS, it is simpler and quicker for businesses to scale video and telepresence to those specific people who can create the greatest impact using video. Companies simply provide or lease the video and telepresence endpoints needed to meet users’ varying needs — from immersive in-room solutions to desktop to employees’ personal mobile devices. A qualified Cisco partner handles the rest.

Customize and control their meeting environment. New active meeting management options enable real-time meeting controls to help users create the appropriate atmosphere for the topic and attendee profile. For example, hosts can quickly and easily manage participant add or drops, creating personalized messages, changing the layout, muting background conversations, securing meeting access, extending a scheduled meeting or capturing a meeting roster.

In our November 14 webcast, our Cisco product experts will provide more detail on Cisco TPaaS and other cloud collaboration announcements, and also provide some guidance on finding the right deployment model for your business. Hope you can join us.

Mark

Tags: cloud, collaboration, opex, TelePresence-as-a-Service, the power of in-person, TPaaS, visual collaboration