2010 UC thoughts

• Industry
  • Customers will continue to ask for greater UC interoperability and the vendors will continue to under deliver
  • Towards the end of 2010 the growth in Enterprise video will be recognised as a significant challenge for IT departments
  • To cope with bandwidth demands IT departments start to consider and migrate from MPLS to Internet based networks
  • (Bad) Enterprise IT shops will continue to invest time and effort in defining what cloud computing is without delivering to their customers/users.  This does not mean cloud based IT will diminish, far from it IBM, Google, Microsoft and Cisco will collectively sell large numbers of cloud based software.
  • Fortune 500 will continue to play catch up with their Enterprise mobile strategy – blackberry, iphone, droid, windows systems are creating mass confusion within the Enterprise mobile segment and the Nexus One will only continue to add to the need for a strategy that encompasses a multi software, multi device approach
  • It will be the year of touch, multiple tablets will be released in the consumer space and this will inevitability flow into the Enterprise
• Google
  • Chrome OS, Chrome, Apps and Android will dominate the headlines and start to register on the Enterprise strategy and product road maps
  • Search revenue will continue to fund Google’s push into the Enterprise UC market
    • Challenges
  • Can Google integrate their Apps into a mature Enterprise offer
  • Will Google be able to develop a service and channel offer that large scale enterprises can have confidence in
  • Can they find the skills and experience that enables Google to compete in the Enterprise market
• Microsoft
  • OCS 2010 to launch in Q4
  • Bucket loads (millions of seats) of BPOS will be sold in 2010, predominately driven by Exchange and Sharepoint with OCS seen as a nice to have.
  • Plenty of windows7 will sell which will help drive further OCS sales
  • The new OCS 2010 client may attempt to take the sting out of Google Wave and Live Meeting will be on the way out
    • Challenges
  • OCS 2010 launch requires significant channel investment by Microsoft – if they want to complete in the entire UC market they have to bulk up their experience within the voice vertical
  • Customers will continue to challenge MS to deliver the latest OCS features on the BPOS platform
  • Will Tandberg continue to support OCS?  If not, expect a large hole in the OCS video portfolio that will have to be filled
• Cisco
  • Cisco will continue to play catch up in UC, which may take another 2/3 quarters to work out but they will invest and eventually get it right
  • Beginning in Q2 Cisco will launch a first salvo in the UC space with CUCM 8 and in Q4 will launch a second salvo with webex email/conferencing etc
    • Challenges
  • Rationalize their UC product set – Cisco currently have too many products and too many teams  don’t seem to communicate that managed to generate another 60 products in Q4 2009. Customers want to reduce complexity and wish to purchase a consolidated product set (Free advice to Cisco label all your voice/video capabilities including CIMA, CUMA, CUPS et al simply under CUCM)
  • Its not about phone numbers any more.  Simplicity of intra and inter company contact facilitated seamlessly by presence, instant messaging, voice and video.  When I email someone today I don’t need to know their IP address, it would be great if i didn’t have to remember a plus ten digit number
  • Understand when and where cloud based offers are relevant for their product set and again consolidate the offers
• IBM
  • IBM will continue to develop a strong set of software products and continue to win service and consulting based business
    • Challenges
  • Can they stop the shift away from Notes to Exchange
  • Can they win a major customer away from any of Microsoft’s UC product set
  • Does middleware really work in the UC world