A powerful combination of the leading operating system and networking system companies yielded an agreement to develop real-time communication services for the enterprise.
The two companies disclosed at Orlando’s VoiceCon 2006 they would integrate Microsoft’s Office Communicator 2005 and the open SIP-based Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 with the new SIP-based Cisco Unified Communications system.
Microsoft detailed more of the capabilities of the combined solution in a statement. Users will be able to click to call and transfer calls from within Office Communicator. Calls launched from Office Communicator can then be conducted from the PC or from another phone.
Also, users can switch from instant messaging to voice calling transparently between sessions. And Office Communicator users will be able to see the status of a Cisco Unified IP Phone presence, or availability, and determine if that user is present to take a call.
At the core of the agreement, Microsoft will work with Cisco to deliver a solution that is standards-based and interoperable. That’s a big change in the way Microsoft has previously treated some standards-based technology.
Microsoft famously angered MIT and numerous users with its implementation of Kerberos in Windows 2000 Server. A Network World report from 2000 noted how companies that wanted to access print and file services on a 2000 Server from Windows 2000 desktops had to buy a Kerberos Server license to do so, even if another Kerberos server on the network could authenticate those connections.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
