Implementing Cisco's Web 2.0 Collaboration Technologies

Expert Reference Series of White Papers
Implementing Cisco's
Web 2.0 Collaboration
Technologies
1-800-COURSES www.globalknowledge.comImplementing Cisco's Web 2.0
Collaboration Technologies
Chris Olsen, CCSI, CCVP, CCNA, MCSE for Windows 2000
IntroductionAs technology evolves, there is always a never-ending question to designers and implementers: "What is coming next?" In the more than 143 years of telephony history, the last two decades have shown the most pronounced changes. The first major change was the transition to VoIP, and while only accepted by the early adopters in the early to mid-1990s, today VoIP is very well accepted in many large enterprises. Cost savings in the form of toll bypass and tail end hop off have reduced telephony operating costs for many large multi-national companies and governments significantly. The next major transition has been to Unified Communications (UC). Value-added telephony features such as presence, click to dial, visual voice mail, voice-enabled e-mail, and many other ben-efits have been enhancing productivity in many organizations by reducing time otherwise wasted.
But, the question remains: "What is coming next?" The answer is "Collaboration," not to be confused with the use of the word collaboration as in World War II, where collaboration had a negative connotation of working with the enemy. In today's context, telephony collaboration is enabling and expanding productivity of organi-zations by integrating existing productivity tools like contact centers, Web portals, CRM, and ERM with all the benefits of VoIP and Unified Communications.
Various organizations such as Datamonitor, Gartner, IDC, InStat, Synergy, and Wainhouse have estimated the industry sales forecasts of telephony at 12 billion US dollars, Unified Communications at 27 billion, with collabo-ration upward of 34 billion dollars total addressable market!
Collaboration TechnologiesThe underlying motivation behind collaboration is to bring more relevant information relating to production to those who need it, when it's needed. It is also there to enhance their communication as a remote group relating to that information with a seamless integration of Unified Communications.
In a challenged economy, new capital expenditures that can result in reduced operating costs with a quick return on investment will always weigh significantly higher than new expenditures that don't. That's one of the key driving forces behind collaboration.
The move to collaboration is strengthened by the actions of both Cisco and Microsoft, as they have each unveiled several collaborative technologies and the means to integrate them utilizing Web 2.0 programming. A major factor driving the implementation of collaboration based on Cisco's technologies is their extensive
Copyright ©2009 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved. 2growth and install base of UC. As of 2007, Cisco has shipped over 14 million IP phones, more than 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies are using Cisco UC solutions, and Cisco has over 26 percent market share in enterprise voice. Add to that the 27 UC companies Cisco has acquired since 1996, and you have an excellent foundation to implement collaboration.
SaaS Cloud ComputingThe first question regarding designing and implementing collaboration software and hardware is: "In the cloud or on-premise?" The answer can be either, or both. Cloud computing, often referred to as software as a service (SaaS), is a paid service where a provider such as Cisco or Microsoft provides the servers and software via an Internet connection. SaaS reduces effort in maintenance, software upgrades, and disaster recovery but, typi-cally, at the expense of security, as mission-critical data is maintained off-site. New interoperability technologies continue to be developed to integrate both SaaS and on-premise solutions.
Cisco's offerings in the cloud are Webex and Webex Connect, which were acquired a few years ago. Microsoft offers Live Meeting from their acquisition of Placeware a few years ago as well. Both are a SaaS solution. Webex Connect has integrated presence, instant messaging (IM), voice, video, and Web meetings, as well as a very customizable shared workspace. Webex provides an excellent foundation to integrate other technologies to collaborate. For example, Webex Connect can integrate IM and presence with AIM, connec... [download for more]