Microsoft's Big News - Maybe Not So Big

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Today, Microsoft had their well-publicized Unified Communications Group Strategy Day. The Big Idea is that MS is adding voice to Exchange, and will be re-branded as Communications Server. It's a big step for sure, although voice has already been integrated into so many other platforms industry-wide, it's hard to tell just how much impact this will really have. Just as MS is investing heavily in IPTV, they want to be sure they have a big stake in voice, if for nothing else, to be a key player in each leg of the Triple Play. Integrating them all is another story, and I'm sure they're hard at work there too.

I was not on the call, but Iotum's Alec Saunders was. His posting today tells the story pretty darned well, and it's a great assessment about what's good about the news, and why it's not a game changer, at least right now. Alec is in as good a position as anyone I know to make that call - he was with MS for many years, and is now CEO of Iotum, who you all know by now. The relevance of Iotum to this story (no pun intended!) is that much of what Microsoft is talking about delivering - next year - Iotum is offering today. For reference, I also had a post to this effect on Friday, and today's news validates what we were expecting.



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