Cisco Takeaways - Five Business Opps for Carriers

I promise - this will be my last reference to Cisco's Collaboration Summit! Can't help it - there were a lot of good ideas there - not just about what Cisco is doing, but also the bigger picture as to where communications is going.

I've written about these things in various places recently, and I also see a specific angle that's relevant for carriers. That's the focus of my latest Service Provider Views column on TMCnet. I've identified five specific business opportunities for service providers based on what I saw at Cisco's event.

Some of this will not be news, but for me, what Cisco is doing in these areas really underscores the need for service providers to be more proactive - not just to leverage new technologies, but also to adapt to changing end user behaviors and expectations. These things go hand-in-hand, and addressing these opportunities is easier said than done.

Enough preamble - the article is posted now, and you can read it here.

Next Stop - ADTRAN

Heading into the final month of 2010, I have two short trips coming up - back to back. Tomorrow I'm going south, to Huntsville, Alabama. It's my second analyst event for ADTRAN, and I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Last year's event was quite impressive, and I had no idea how much of tech hub this town is - not to mention being the birthplace of the U.S. space program, and a not-too-far bus ride to the Jack Daniels distillery. :-)

Stay tuned for hightlights, and now that I'm on Twitter, I'll have even more timely updates.

Cisco Takeaways: Five Ways to Rethink Communications

I've been writing a fair bit about last week's Cisco Collaboration Summit, but that's because there's a lot to talk about. This time, I've channeled some new thoughts into my latest Focus Brief. The idea here is to summarize five themes that I believe business decision-makers need think more critically about, and for you to mull over during the Thanksgiving break.

Cisco is looking to play an even bigger role than most of you can imagine for our workplace needs, and if their plans come to fruition, these themes will become core drivers for communications planning at all levels. To follow my thinking, you can read my brief on Focus.com now, and then let me know if I'm on target or not.

UCStrategies Podcast - Cisco, Microsoft and HP

Last week sure was busy in the IP comms space, and while a few of us were busy at Cisco's Collaboration Summit, others were busy following news from Microsoft and HP. I've shared a few things about Cisco's event already, with one more coming today.

I can now add this podcast to the list of analysis and commentary. This was our weekly group call with UCStrategies analysts, and we reviewed our thoughts about the summit along with these other major news events. The podcast can be downloaded here, and there's a transcript if you'd rather just read along.

Cisco Collaboration Summit - Takeaways and Photos

I managed to post some photos and brief comments during Cisco's 2010 Collaboration Summit last week, and promised I'd share some thoughts. On the flight back, I wrote up my takeaways and bigger picture thoughts on where I see Cisco going. This was written specifically for the UCStrategies portal, and as such, most of my analysis focused on how Cisco's plans impact the Unified Communications space.

My article was submitted for posting on Friday morning, but it didn't end up getting published until last night. So, please keep in mind, this was written just hours after the event, with every intention of posting it fresh the next day. Anyhow, not much has really changed since Friday, but if you're still interested in Cisco's grand plans, I think you'll find this a good read. It's running now on the UCStrategies portal, and you can read it here, along with UCS colleague Blair Pleasant's take on the summit.

This is actually the first of two analyses about Cisco's summit. I'll have another one coming this week with a slightly different focus.

While I have you, I mentioned photos earlier, and just wanted to share a few shots from the final day of the summit...

Marthin De Beers - great wrapup presentation


Preview of umi, their home-based collaboration suite - very impressive

Podcast with Peter Radizeski on BroadSoft and Metaswitch

Peter and I often travel in the same circles, and he's well known in the channel space, especially for training and go to market strategies. We do podcasts from time to time, and last week we did one about our shared impressions of two recent telecom events. I attended the Metaswitch Forum and saw some of BroadSoft Connections via video, and Peter attended the latter.

These companies are increasingly coming up against each other, and I can tell you from first-hand experience that both are doing quite well. I go back a long way with both, and it's great to see how they've grown and evolved to become leaders for integrated communications platforms, especially for hosted services. I've been posting about both for some time on my blog, so feel free to review those for more.

Anyhow, if these companies are on your radar, you should enjoy our chat. You can download the podcast here, and if you'd like to follow up, just drop me a line.

Cisco Collaboration Summit - Day 2

Just have time to post some quick pix. Ironically, broadband access has been close to impossible, at least for me. You'd think at this event we'd have super service. Seems that some people are getting access and some are not - might depend on where we're sitting in the room. Anyhow, I'll tweet when time allows, and I'll have my overall thoughts in a day or so.

Day 2 was mostly roundtables with analysts and consultants, and these were under NDA - that's why you won't hear much about that. Aside from that, there were some good panels yesterday with customers, and for companies who buy into Cisco's collaboration vision, the results have been pretty good - it's really about transformative experiences rather than being more efficient with the status quo.

Phil Sherburne talking about VXI and desktop virtualization


Cisco Cius


I love this place - wouldn't you?