Unified Communications

Enterprises are starting to use the BlackBerry in a new way: as a means of taking their desk phones mobile.

Westan has developed a channel partner program as part of its push into the unified communications space.

Cisco Systems will take its TelePresence virtual meeting systems into home offices later this year, bringing telecommuters nearer to their corporate colleagues and society one step closer to science fiction.

Procera Networks is announcing a packet-inspection box for carriers that can sort traffic at 80Gbps and shape it in order to support different QoS levels for customers.

Global IP telephony vendor, Interactive Intelligence, is ramping up its reseller push to drive into the SMB space.

Microsoft's Response Point is PBX software that runs on Embedded XP inside of hardware sold by three Microsoft partners -- Aastra, D-Link, and Quanta -- with more partners to come later in 2008, according to Microsoft. You can engage a VAR to install the system or do it yourself without much effort.

Fonality takes a different approach with PBXtra, which, like cousin Trixbox and Critical Links' EdgeBox, incorporates the open source Asterisk. PBXtra is not only the most affordable system in this roundup, but is unique in being a managed product. Customers get a low-end Celeron tower PC that's set up without incurring any installation costs, and a Web interface that lets users customize the system (such as recording voice prompts) without IT help. Fonality remotely monitors the system, provisions the phones, and backs up data off-site.

Allworx's trio of product lines include two VoIP telephone handsets, three combination telephony and network servers, plus five software packages that are separately licensed for unlimited use. The PBX contains many standard features, including unified messaging and site-to-site access; the five separate applications add specific advanced functions, such as call queuing or conferencing, allowing you to purchase only the capabilities you need. Each server eases administration with automated backup.

Critical Links' EdgeBox line includes three Asterisk-based appliances: Office (40 users), Business (100 users), and Enterprise (300 users). The 2U rack-mount servers vary in disk space (80GB to 250GB), connectivity (such as integrated Wi-Fi), and redundancy options.

Here are five questions for enterprise network managers to bear in mind when considering UC deployment:

VoiceCon 2008 wrapped up in the US last week and the conference was jam-packed with news, announcements, and observable trends so we will spend the next several editions reviewing a few highlights. In his keynote address, Mike Rhodin, Lotus Software general manager gave five predictions about global unified communications and in a follow-up interview, Larry got the chance to find out how IBM will invest up to US$1 billion to help meet the changing business communications requirements.

You hear a lot these days about two topics: mobility and collaboration. Unified communication and collaboration (UCC) is getting promoted by vendors ranging from Microsoft and IBM to Cisco, Avaya and Nortel.

The cold-war between Microsoft and Cisco for the much coveted "unified communications" market has escalated to all out war, with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates predicting "the death of the PBX."