Microsoft has a ways to go with VoIP but competitors should beware

Convergence & VoIP This newsletter is sponsored by Altiris Six steps to pain-free hardware upgrades Desktop hardware upgrades are traditionally costly, complicated and time-consuming - but now it's time to break with tradition. Discover six steps to a successful hardware refresh. Click here to watch this Webcast Network World's Convergence & VoIP Newsletter, 08/29/07 Microsoft has a ways to go with VoIP but competitors should beware By Steve Taylor As we disclosed last time in our VoiceCon 2007 highlights, Microsoft has announced the addition of voice “quality of experience” monitoring to its unified communications and VoIP feature set. The timing of Microsoft’s announcement was somewhat ironic since it came in the same week that Cisco’s CEO John Chambers and Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer held a major press event that discussed how the two companies’ relationship is formed around both cooperation and competition. Microsoft’s announcement clearly reinforces the notion that it is a formidable competitor to Cisco and to other IP telephony equipment suppliers when it comes to VoIP and unified communications. Microsoft’s Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 Quality of Experience Monitoring (QOEM) Server is designed to monitor voice and video quality and issues, and it features real-time updates, along with alerts and detailed analysis of network performance based on the user’s endpoint. According to Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president at Microsoft’s Unified Communications: “A new era of business communication is upon us, defined by software, not hardware — and sound quality will be one of the key product differentiators.” Get more out of your IT dollar Business Services Management lets you get more out of your IT investments by aligning business goals and your core infrastructure. Network World Editor-in-Chief John Dix and IDC Research Manager Stephen Elliot examine BSM's benefits and how enterprises are starting to take advantage of this strategy. Attend now! Backing up Gurdeep’s claim, Microsoft has released a white paper that touts its superiority over other solutions. Since the software will only provide QoS monitoring and management to Microsoft-specific deployments, the initial release will be somewhat helpful to enterprises that deploy OCS with their PBX, but IT managers will still need to rely on other management tools for elements that aren’t connected to OCS 2007. Our analysis: While the addition of voice and video quality management adds another arrow in the Microsoft quiver, we don’t think Microsoft has a complete VoIP solution – at least not yet. But as we’ve said before, traditional suppliers like Nortel, Siemens, Avaya and Cisco need to keep ahead of the feature curve if they don’t want to be entirely displaced by Microsoft. And on the issue of cooperation vs. competition, we’ll come back to that again next week.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. For more detailed information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter, connect to Webtorials, the premier site for Web-based educational presentations, white papers, and market research. Taylor can be reached at taylor@webtorials.com This newsletter is sponsored by Altiris Six steps to pain-free hardware upgrades Desktop hardware upgrades are traditionally costly, complicated and time-consuming - but now it's time to break with tradition. Discover six steps to a successful hardware refresh. Click here to watch this Webcast ARCHIVE Archive of the Convergence & VoIP Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007