The new Cisco Meeting Server delivers integration between the company’s on-premises video conferencing hardware and Skype for Business.
Cisco has introduced an integration server that lets Skype for Business users join a meeting held on an on-premises Cisco video conferencing system.
Cisco Meeting Server, available starting this week, manages the communication protocol differences between the Microsoft unified communications (UC) software and Cisco’s TelePresence systems. The new technology stems from Cisco’s $700 million acquisition of Acano last November.
In March, Rowan Trollope, head of Cisco’s collaboration technology group, told attendees at the Enterprise Connect conference in Orlando, Fla., the company was committed to interoperability between its video systems and those of rivals. This week, Trollope depicted Cisco as the interoperability problem solver, while Microsoft continued down a proprietary path
“Cisco Meeting Server fixes problems created by certain vendors — I mean you, Microsoft — whose technology hasn’t always played well with others,” Trollope wrote in a blog post.
Trollope’s criticism aside, Cisco has no choice but to ensure support between its on-premises systems and other vendors’ communication software. Without multivendor support, companies would have difficulty justifying the cost of expensive Cisco hardware, if it was limited to communicating with only other Cisco products. While Microsoft’s Skype for Business is one of the most widely used video conferencing systems, many companies also have desktop and mobile communication software from other businesses, such as Polycom and Avaya.
