Virtualization of Voice: Will OCS 14 Be a Game-changer?

Author: Subha Rama, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Communications and Mobility

Published: 12 Aug 2010

It is true that the cloud model is changing the way many business and communications applications are being delivered, managed, and accessed today. However, that’s not the story for real-time communications, such as voice and video. Though Unified Communications (UC) vendors have been focusing on integrating enterprise telephony systems with their premises-based UC platforms to ensure true multi-modal communications, the cloud scenario has been somewhat challenging. For instance, when Microsoft announced that it supported virtualization of several of the Office Communications Server (OCS) Release 2 components, including presence, IM and group chat, it remained remarkably quiet on the topic of virtualizing real-time voice except for a passing mention that this will not be in the release. Cisco too made a studied move in this direction last year, announcing that it will virtualize “certain aspects of voice.” So, just what is the voice challenge?

The full text of this Insight is available to subscribers of the Enterprise Communications Research Service and the Enterprise Communications Research Theme.

Contact a representative about service purchasing options.