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Microsoft’s Office Communications Server 2007 RTMed in July, but today was the gala launch event in San Francisco complete with an appearance by Bill Gates who also unburdened himself of an executive email to underscore the importance of the unified communications business to Microsoft. Here’s the full product menu from the press release:
Microsoft yesterday announced a press event on October 16 featuring Bill Gates and Jeff Raikes to launch the next generation of unified communications software or more precisely, “to highlight the general availability of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and Microsoft Office Live Meeting.”
This week Microsoft is holding its TechEd 2007 conference and there’s a variety of news:
Bob Muglia, SVP of Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business kicked off TechED 2007 by detailing the company’s strategy for Dynamic IT for the People-Ready Business (Dynamic IT). Apparently it was as bad as it sounds although there were some redeeming features.
More substantially, Muglia also announced assorted product news including the official names for Katmai and Orcas as well as revealing two acquisitions:
The crew in Mountain View apparently has time (and certainly money) to spare as evidenced by yesterday’s quiet announcement that Google had acquired Marratech, a Swedish video conferencing provider. They now join Cisco, who just acquired WebEx, and Microsoft, who has Office Live Meeting acquired with PlaceWare, in the scramble for the “unified communications” dollars.
Cisco seemingly reverted to its dotcom boom ways of expansion through acquisition today when it plunked down $3.2B for WebEx, the leader in Web conferencing. Scott Fulton at BetaNews reviews the state of play:
Throughout its history, Cisco has built its vast portfolio talents through mergers and acquisitions. Indeed, startups in the networking field intentionally developed business plans and product portfolios designed to attract a Cisco buyout. But with two new Cisco buyouts this week — storage appliance producer NeoPath Networks on Tuesday, and collaboration software developer WebEx this morning — Cisco appears not just to be building up but building out. And today, analysts believe Microsoft may be on notice.
It’s all part of Cisco’s Unified Communications push which has gotten a lot of notice lately and not coincidentally Unified Communications is the name of the Microsoft Business Division group charged with cornering the business communications market and whose Office Live Meeting Product (created from the 2003 acquisition of PlaceWare) is reported to be number 2 in the Web conferencing market and looks to be clearly in the path of the steamroller
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