Today was the first day of the analyst portion of Cisco's collaboration summit and I am getting the sense that this is a whole new Cisco. Coincidentally, it was also the day Microsoft announced the general availability of Lync (formerly called Wave 14). There’s no other tie-in here other than it’s interesting!
Debra Chrapaty kicked off today with Cisco and her keynote highlighted the four pillars of the company's collaboration strategy moving forward--Interoperable and open, secure and intercompany, pervasive video and new business models. I think Debra’s keynote was effective but I don’t think it really emphasized how different the collaboration strategy is at Cisco today compared to just a few years ago.
Cisco has always claimed to be open and interoperable, but anyone that’s followed Cisco knows that was more lip service than reality. Cisco used to point to its integration with Microsoft, CUCIMOC, as proof that it was indeed open and interoperable. In my mind, CUCIMOC isn’t a proof point of interoperable or open. It's a proof point of joint integration but that's really about it. So in years past Cisco used to talk the talk but it ended with talk. Today Cisco has made a commitment to being open and interoperable and does have some proof points to back it up.
Think back a few years ago: How many non-Cisco end points could connect to Call Manager? The answer was none or at least not without a significant amount of work to have it connect. Today I think there are more non Cisco end points that can connect to UC Manager than Cisco end points. Tablets, video endpoints, mobile phones, etc. can all connect to Cisco relatively easily.
Additionally I think the shift to Android could potentially be huge for Cisco. One of the reasons that Cisco Developer Network (CDN) has floundered as much as it has is because it's really hard to build a developer community from the ground floor up. You can do it--Avaya is starting to see some benefits from the efforts it's put into DevConnect--but it has taken them years to get to where they are now. The shift to Android provides Cisco access to the rapidly growing Android developers. As the world continues to move more mobile, Android will become more and more valuable. Considering how weak Microsoft is with mobile, we could see a shift away from the lock Microsoft has on the desktop. Add to this the move to VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) and we may see a world where Mac and Android rapidly move the user OS away from Windows. Avaya's made this bet with Flare as well and there’s some merit to it. Microsoft has been great at marketing to the IT pro, but users are now making the decisions regarding the clients, and users want Macs and Android, not Windows.
Intercompany is the other short term key initiative for Cisco to drive the other two pillars (video and business models). The current intercompany capabilities of ALL of the corporate UC solutions are terrible. That's why users run corporate UC as well as consumer grade ones. If you've seen my signature line:
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You can see I rely heavily on the consumer tools to communicate with an external audience. Until recently, Yankee Group used Lotus Notes and Sametime, and Sametime really only let me talk to co-workers, so it had very limited value to me.
For organizations to truly embrace pervasive UC, particularly video, intercompany has to happen, so I understand why intercompany is such a big focus for Cisco. A challenge for Cisco is to get the network operators on board with this initiative. Cisco's trying to get intercompany working, but telco buy-in is critical to the success of this pillar.
Since I just wrote a blog on Cisco's play in video, I won't bother reiterating what I put in that blog, other than video success will help Cisco drive home the importance of an architectural strategy to collaboration.
The new business model pillar is the one that I think is the most challenging. Reseller feedback on hosted UC has been lukewarm, mostly because they see it as a threat to their current business. Businesses want to consume services differently today. Some want to buy the infrastructure outright, some want a managed services model, some want to pay buy the glass, etc., so multiple business models is the right way to go, but there is some education needed on reseller side.
While I think Cisco's strategy is solid and the company mindset has changed (much of which is due to new blood like Debra, and also Tom Puorro), there are some challenges to overcome. The biggest challenge I see is proving the value of the end to end architecture. Looking at what Cisco just announced with its VDI terminals, it’s possible to have Cisco from the desktop to the data center. That's a big bet for anyone to make on any single vendor. However, if it indeed does provide a superior experience at a lower TCO, then Cisco can make the case. Cisco stole much of the telephony share by making customers believe that the network and voice systems should be integrated together with its AVVID architecture, so it has some history on its side; the reward here is much bigger if it can pull it off.
A few years ago I don't think the mindset at Cisco would have allowed it to do something like embrace Android--but clearly, they have now.
