Cisco

Digium AsteriskNOW News and more...

August 25, 2008

As I hinted last week, I would have some "interesting" news to tell after my visit to Digium's brand new headquarters along with colleagues Greg Galitzine and Dave Rodriguez. Before I get into the MAJOR news being made by Digium, let me cover what else I learned on my trip. It had been 3 years since I last visited Digium down in Huntville, Alabama.

After getting a grand tour of the new Digium building we sat down in a state-of-art boardroom complete with a high-end Polycom IP conferencing unit, theater lighting, and a projector with motorized retractable screen. The boardroom was named the Mark C. Smith Boardroom to honor Mark Smith, who was the founder and chief executive officer of ADTRAN and Mark Spencer's mentor.

Posted in Asterisk, Cisco, Nortel, Polycom, TMCnet, VoIP

The IP-PBX Energy Wars...

August 4, 2008

So today I get a new report from the Tolly Group stating that the ShoreTel Unified Communications system is significantly more energy efficient than the Cisco Unified Communications Manager. ShoreTel apparently topped Cisco in using less energy to drive VoIP communications in specific large, medium and small enterprise-class scenarios.

This energy usage comparison reminded me of Nortel's "The 'Nortel' Tax Relief Plan", which aims to "stop paying the 'Cisco Energy Tax' and save up to 40%". Tony Rybczynski who works for Nortel and writes a TMCNet blog called The HyperConnected Enterprise sparked some controversy with some of his blog posts promoting the fact that Nortel is more efficient than Cisco. He even cites one customer that put a stop order on a $2 million dollar Cisco order once they did the energy efficiency calculations.

Is that what it's come down to?

Posted in Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, SIP, ShoreTel, TMCnet, VoIP

Cisco Manager Meets Jurassic Park

July 10, 2008

You remember the scene in Jurassic Park where the there was no power or working phones on the island so they head to the control room? Lex Murphy, the young hacker girl, gets on a computer, works some computer wizardry and gets the power and phones back online and is able boot up the door locks and other systems - though its not enough to keep the raptors from getting to them.

Well, there's a funny Youtube parody video that solves the apparent "IP phone" outage simply by restarting the Cisco Manager services.

Ironically, the girl says it's a UNIX system, while Call Manager is Windows-based.

Preview snapshot:

Click Play Below

Posted in Cisco, Reviews, VoIP

Unified Communications Growth Soars

June 23, 2008

Infonetics sent me over a summary of their latest report on the unified communications (UC) market. Infonetics Research reports that the unified communications market, which includes unified messaging and communicator software, jumped 20% sequentially in 2007, following a 19% increase in 2006. Similarly, the IP contact center (IPCC) market grew 24% in 2007, after a whopping 26% increase in 2006. Infonetics' report, Unified Communications and IP Contact Centers, shows that together, UC and IPCC sales grew 22% to hit $1.05 billion worldwide in 2007, and healthy growth is expected through at least 2011.

Interestingly, Microsoft jumped to first place in worldwide communicator revenue market share in 2007.

Posted in Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP

Shoretel Rumors

May 1, 2008

SHORETEL UPDATE: 4/24/09

Could it be - with ShoreTel continuing to provide PBX solutions - that the rumors I reported about them nearly a year ago were false? Is it now clear that Rich's sources that sparked this article were wrong?

Shoretel seems to be going strong. In fact, while this article was written a long time ago, but thanks to its high ranking on search engines, it still sparks the occasional new comment from avid Shoretel fans.

You can read the comments below for other people's thoughts. There are many avid fans of the Shoretel platform that have come to Shoretel's defense.

Posted in Asterisk, Avaya, Cisco, ShoreTel, TMCnet, VoIP, Vonage

Cisco and Microsoft in Clash of the UC Titans

April 24, 2008

According to a new study by analyst firm Infonetics Research, Cisco and Microsoft are locked in a "battle of the titans" for the unified communications (UC) market, with both vendors currently favored by buyers as Unified Messaging and Communicator suppliers. As almost an aside, the news release on the study says, "Avaya and Nortel also fare well as current UC suppliers." I'm sure Avaya and Nortel are thinking -- and to quote Rodney Dangerfield, "I get no respect."

According to Infonetics, "It's no secret that Microsoft is predicting the death of the PBX, to be replaced by a software-based communication approach like OCS 2007; but we didn't find many people convinced that this is yet the way to go. What we're seeing instead is companies keeping their IP PBXs, and layering unified communications applications on top. Microsoft is seeing early success by leveraging their leadership in e-mail messaging and desktop environments.

Posted in Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

Sagem-Interstar adds Cisco UCM 6.1 SIP trunking T.38 FoIP support

March 17, 2008

Sagem-Interstar, a Fax over IP (FoIP) solutions provider today announced new Cisco UCM 6.1 support using SIP trunking and T.38 real-time fax support. T.38 dead? No way! Today, Sagem-Interstar’s XMediusFAX Fax over IP (FoIP) solution adds Cisco Unified Communication Manager 6.1 support.

Check out the news release after the jump...

Posted in Cisco, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP

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