Today's employees have a variety of methods for interacting with coworkers, business partners and customers, including voice, IM, e-mail and video. They can also use a variety of devices, including VoIP phones, laptops with Webcams, and smartphones and tablets. Unified communications aims to integrate all these tools into a comprehensive platform for seamless interactivity. Unified communications are also becoming tied in to collaboration and enterprise social networking systems. Our Unified Communications Tech Center delivers best practices, examines new products, and shares strategies to help you make the most of UC.
News and Analysis
Ospcode's Private Chef Gets Cooking with Facebook
News roundup: Opscode updates Private Chef automation software; AirWatch and ForeScout team up for mobile security; WatchGuard unveils seven XTM appliances; HP gets agile.
Best of Interop 2013 Nominations Open
Nominations are now open for the Best of Interop awards in Las Vegas. The awards recognize innovative hardware and software that advance business technology. Award categories include cloud and virtualization, networking, mobility, security and storage.
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Blogs
RCS, WebRTC Will Unlock Mobile UC Potential
February 11, 2013 03:44 PM
Posted by Michael Finneran
New standards such as RCS and WebRTC aim to bring unified communications (UC) capabilities to browsers and mobile devices, which may open a new competitive front for enterprise UC providers.
See all blogs by Michael Finneran
Open Spectrum Does Not Mean Free Internet
February 06, 2013 10:50 AM
Posted by Larry Seltzer
There's a common misconception that a plan to open up more unlicensed, unmanaged spectrum will mean free Wi-Fi for all. Expect a lot of wonderful things, including competition for cellular carriers, but not for free.
See all blogs by Larry Seltzer
Open Compute's Trickle-Down Tech
February 06, 2013 09:14 AM
Posted by Howard Marks
Open Compute's goal of open source hardware sounds democratic, but the initiative targets big-budget service providers and Web brands whose needs are different from everyday enterprises. The greatest impact of Open Compute will be felt by the leading server manufacturers--and it won't be good.
See all blogs by Howard Marks
Facebook, Google Encroach On Enterprise UC
January 24, 2013 03:28 PM
Posted by Michael Finneran
Facebook and Google are rolling out services that rival enterprise unified communications platforms. Vendors should beware.
See all blogs by Michael Finneran
Are Big UC Vendors Missing SMB Opportunities?
January 11, 2013 04:58 PM
Posted by Michael Finneran
Unified communications vendors typically target enterprise customers, but more than half of private-sector jobs are in small and midsize businesses. Are UC vendors ignoring a potential customer pool?
See all blogs by Michael Finneran
Unified Communications in 2013
December 28, 2012 10:51 PM
Posted by Michael Finneran
Where will UC take us in 2013? Here are insights from several analysts who forecast deeper integration of UC and applications, the end of voice as a separate market, and more.
See all blogs by Michael Finneran
Best of the Web
VXLAN termination on physical devices
VXLAN is an Experimental IETF draft of protocols to enable the creation of a large overlay, multi-tenant network.
ONF Deadly Serious About OpenFlow-Based SDNs
: OpenFlow is poised to reach over-hyped status, yet there are practical, useful reasons for keeping an eye on Openflow. The biggest cloud players are involved and driving the feature creation.
Practical Introduction to Applied OpenFlow
Get a primer on the Openflow protocol and what it can do for networking.
On Resilience of Spit-Architecture Networks
This research papers investigates the practical issues in split-architecture networks and the placement of the controllers, such as Openflow controllers, in the network.
