Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • Networking

    Cisco and Webex: It Takes Two to Tango with Microsoft

    By
    Paula Musich
    -
    March 15, 2007
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Cisco Systems planned $2.9 billion acquisition of leading Web conferencing provider Webex sets up a complex and interesting dance between itself and Microsoft as both vendors work through the need to both cooperate and compete in the same customer accounts.

      Cisco will compete directly with Microsoft in the Web conferencing and shared applications market, where it is likely to gain the upper hand thanks to Webexs dominance with its subscription-based collaboration offerings.

      Webex in the collaboration services market has “over 65 percent market share over the number two Microsoft and Citrix in third place,” said Webex Chairman Subrah Iyar in a conference call on March 15.

      The Webex online conferencing and application sharing technologies bring strong synergies to Ciscos Unified Communications initiative, where both Cisco and Microsoft are escalating their competition.

      “Unified Communications is the only area in which were competing,” acknowledged Charlie Giancarlo, Ciscos chief development officer. “But at the same time weve heard loud and clear from customers that we need to interoperate. In 10 percent of the cases well still be interoperating where were also competing.”

      Cisco in fact earlier this month announced it will expand Microsoft interoperability to allow its Unified Communications products to work with Microsoft Exchange 2007, Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005 and Microsoft Office Communicator.

      Read more

      here

      about Ciscos planned Webex acquisition.

      But industry analyst Jan Dawson, at IT consulting and market research firm Ovum, does not view it that benignly.

      Dawson, vice president of the London companys U.S. Enterprise Practice views the acquisition as the latest “front in the war between Cisco and Microsoft over Unified Communications. This allows Cisco to leapfrog into first place in the Web conferencing space, ahead of Microsoft in the second spot,” said Dawson.

      While both vendors vie for dominance in the nascent market for unified communications, the real top dog to unseat may not be either of them, believes Frank Dzubeck, president of Communication Network Architects in Washington, D.C.

      “Its a misnomer that Cisco is competing directly with Microsoft. From a strategic point of view Webex is a collaborative application that is a network, Web-based product. Microsoft is a desktop company getting into mobile – they are not a Web applications company. The guy you have to look at for competing in the future is Google. They are in the business of Web-based applications,” he said.

      For Cisco, achieving the synergies it hopes for with the Webex acquisition, expected to close between May and July, could be trickier than past acquisitions. Thats because the Webex subscription, SAAS (software as a service) business model is distinctly different than Ciscos product sales.

      “Cisco discounts the cost of their telephony equipment because they know the margins on their switches and routers [will make up for it],” noted Nora Freedman, industry analyst with IDC in Framingham, Mass. “For every dollar spent on telephony, three to five dollars are spent on the network. In a Web-based model that doesnt translate over. So that doesnt seem to mesh with a Web-based client.”

      Ciscos Giancarlo acknowledged the differences in business models, but he believes Cisco can learn from Webexs approach.

      “We want to take a studied approach to integration. The synergies in the first year will be around sales and distribution. Theyre primarily North American focused. Were highly global. Theyre primarily [targeting] small and medium businesses, but we can help them with the departmental enterprise,” he said.

      Cisco, which will allow Webex to operate with some autonomy, will take longer to integrate Webex and its own Unified Communications technologies. “In the product area we will take two to three years to integrate,” Giancarlo said.

      Webexs Iyar will report to Giancarlo, who is also president of Ciscos Linksys business unit. Giancarlo expects synergies with that unit as well.

      “Linksys 1 is a hosted solution that has a great offering in voice and video communications. Webex has great application sharing and online collaboration. They do have voice and video, but its probably not the strongest part. Details need to be worked out, but this is an obvious area of focus,” he said.

      As those details are ironed out, it will be imperative for Cisco to continue to keep customers needs in the forefront—especially as Cisco works to position the network as a platform for collaborative applications.

      “Cisco still owns the network; Microsoft is pervasive on the desktop,” said Freedman. “If youre Merrill Lynch, you wont throw out legacy infrastructure from both these vendors. Theyre both attacking Unified Communications from a greenfield perspective, but there are still a bunch of existing customers who will demand they work together.”

      Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, views and analysis on servers, switches and networking protocols for the enterprise and small businesses.

      Avatar
      Paula Musich

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×