Unified Communications
Another area of diversification for Microsoft is in the area of telecommunications. We recently met with Microsoft's UK Unified Communications (UC) product manager, Mark Deakin, to find out why Microsoft even has dedicated UC people.
UC is one of those terms, like virtualisation or cloud computing, that you hear used quite a lot but which are seldom clearly defined. So we started by asking Deakin what UC really is. "It's about bringing together all the various ways we have of communicating," he said. "Ideally we would have a single identity for phone, email, voicemail, instant messaging, SMS, video conferencing, etc.
"This is primarily an enterprise initiative as many consumers are already unifying some of their communications through websites like Facebook. For businesses there are great efficiencies and cost savings to be achieved from making communication easier and from making all communication tools available to a lot more people."
Deakin's summary of what UC is all about from a Microsoft perspective is possibly the most revealing: "It's about merging the IT and the telco channels."
"It's about merging the IT and the telco channels"
There are many other companies trying to achieve this is one way or another, but probably the main competitor for Microsoft in the endeavour is Cisco, which is coming at the UC opportunity from the telco/networking side as opposed to the IT/software side.
Adding competitors
So just from the three areas of business Microsoft is adding to its traditional competitors by taking on the likes of Adobe and maybe even Canon in the digital imaging space, Google and other major online players and the likes of Cisco in the telco space.
Every new area Microsoft ventures into it encounters incumbents with greater experience and brand equity, but that doesn't seem to put it off. Just like many other tech giants these days, Microsoft seems to have concluded diversification is the way forward.
Let us know what you think; is it good for the technology industry to have giants like Microsoft intruding into ever more markets? Do you think Microsoft can bring something new to the table? Share your thoughts in the HEXUS.community.
