Cisco
and IBM pave way for customers to easily adopt voice and video IP
services
Posted: 27 May 2004
New products, technologies and services help organisations
improve productivity, reduce costs
ARMONK, N.Y. and SAN JOSE, Calif., May 17, 2004 -- IBM and Cisco
today unveiled a broad-based initiative that will help organisations
of all sizes integrate and implement converged voice, video and
data systems.
The new services will provide customers with a broader and more
integrated portfolio of Internet Protocol (IP) Communications solutions
from IBM and Cisco, yielding greater potential for cost savings
and employee productivity.
The blending of Cisco’s voice, video and rich-media conference
solutions with IBM’s expertise in global services can offer
customers a convenient and cost-effective way to reap the benefits
of IP Communications. The initiative extends the value of new and
existing IBM and Cisco offerings to independent software vendors
and service providers, who also partner with IBM and Cisco. This
will ultimately give organisations and their employees the ability
to access information any time, any where from any device.
Simon Furber, IT Manager at Brunel University said: "Converging
our telephony and data network has given Brunel University greater
billing control. Support costs have also been greatly reduced. The
new technology allows the university to manage lecturers’
extension numbers and eliminates the need for redundant extension
lines.
"The new communications solution, used by both academic and
student communities, has increased personal productivity through
remote and efficient access to the university’s services,"
Furber continued.
IBM and Cisco believe that the three core forces driving network
computing today are mobility, integration and security. The new
offerings contain elements of all three and tap the strengths of
both companies.
“With this announcement, Cisco and IBM are considerably increasing
their investments in product and technology integration as well
sales, consulting services and marketing,” said Doug Elix,
senior vice president and group executive, IBM Sales and Distribution.
“We intend to integrate Cisco’s IP Communications with
IBM's integrated industry solutions.
Converged communications running on intelligent networks is changing
the way business is conducted and we expect both companies to be
major players in that business transformation.”
Cisco’s broad IP Communications product portfolio includes:
Cisco CallManager call processing software, Cisco CallManager Express,
Cisco Unity, Cisco Unity Express, Cisco MeetingPlace, Cisco Personal
Assistant and Cisco IP Contact Center. These solutions tightly integrated
with IBM’s industry leading products and technologies will
pay dividends for customers worldwide.
The IBM and Cisco initiative will initially deliver the following
integrated solutions to customers:
- Cisco Unity integrated with Lotus Domino unified communication
- IBM Information Management database software in Cisco CallManager
- Tivoli systems management certification with Cisco CallManager
- Support for Cisco CallManager on IBM eServer xSeries x345,
x306 and x345 dual CPU server platforms
- Support for Cisco CallManager on two new Cisco Media Convergence
servers, the MCS 7815I and the MCS 7825I, based on IBM technology
- Industry-specific applications and services for the retail
and
financial services sectors
“There is a strong commitment in place by Cisco and IBM to
jointly develop an integrated product roadmap that encompasses IP
telephony, unified messaging, customer contact centres, rich media
communications and video conferencing,” said Charlie Giancarlo,
senior vice president, Cisco.
“These new, integrated solutions will be delivered through
IBM’s world-class services organization, just as IBM supports
Cisco’s global IP Communications deployment. This is truly
a great win for IP Communications customers worldwide.”
IBM Deploys Cisco IP Communications within its enterprise IBM is
leading the IP Communications transformation by example. IBM first
installed Cisco IP telephony at it's Toronto software laboratory
in 2001, and to date has implemented 20,000 Cisco IP telephones.
The deployments of IP Telephones have taken place in a multi-vendor
telephony environment, in different countries, served by a variety
of telecommunications carriers.
IBM will be centralizing its telephony infrastructure onto standard
IBM servers in its major IT data centres. "By moving telephony
into the data centre, IBM benefits not only from voice and data
network convergence, but also by converging installation, operations,
systems monitoring and life cycle management processes," said
Fred Spulecki, director, voice applications, IBM office of the CIO,
"Cisco IP Communications is a key element of IBM’s data
centre-based telephony infrastructure plans. As we do for our customers,
IBM is using its services and skills to manage systems design, operations,
monitoring, security and application integration of the IPC infrastructure."
About Cisco IP Communications
Cisco IP Communications is a comprehensive system of enterprise-class
solutions including IP telephony, unified communications, rich media
IP audio and videoconferencing, IP video broadcasting and customer
contact solutions that take advantage of customers’ existing
Cisco IP infrastructure to deliver new converged applications. More
information about Cisco IP Communications is available at: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/innovators/VoIP/index.html
About Cisco
Cisco Systems is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet.
Cisco news and information are available at http://www.cisco.com
About IBM Global Services
IBM Global Services is the world's largest information technology
services and consulting provider, generating record revenue and
signings in 2003 of $42.6 billion and $55.5 billion, respectively.
Some 180,000 professionals in more than 160 countries help clients
integrate information technology with business value -- from the
business transformation and industry expertise of IBM Business Consulting
Services to hosting, infrastructure, technology design and training
services.
For more information, visit www.ibm.com/services
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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