Many observers think the introduction of the Cius tablet means Cisco has Apple and its iPad in its cross hairs. It's far more likely that the company's goal is to solidify and extend its position in the rapidly expanding unified communications market. 
Unified communications and collaboration can be an extraordinarily important tool in keeping an organization up and running and accelerating service restoration in case of a problem. It is important, however, for emergency planners to understand that UCC relies on public networks.They also must avoid the single points of failure that UCC systems can make more common. 
An exhaustive InformationWeek survey suggests that businesses just are not getting it when it comes to unified communications. But they do understand the benefits it provides. The challenge is to sell the concept as well as the individual services and their benefits.
IT and telecommunications staffs have their hands full with today's issues. But at least two technologies -- high-speed short-range networking and bendable displays -- will impact unified communications in the relatively near future. 
Companies mentioned this week also include ON24, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, ShoreTel, Juniper Research, ESPN BrightCom, HP, Alcatel-Lucent, Avistar, SoTel, Broadcore, Siemens Enterprise Communications, Tech Data, Avaya, Nortel Enterprise Solutions, Plantronics, IBM, Microsoft, ShoreTel, Skype, Juniper Research, ESPN and BrightCom.
Perhaps the most fundamental decision an organization faces -- besides the basic choice of whether or not to deploy UC -- is whether to build it upon the telecom or LAN infrastructure. UCStrategies' Marty Parker offers an excellent brief tutorial on the topic, which will have both technical and workforce ramifications.Carl Weinschenk
Unified Views
The goal of unified communications is presence-based communications across networks, platforms and devices.Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Stay Connected to
Unified Communications Edge
Copyright © 2010 NarrowCast Group, LLC. All rights reserved.