The acquisition of TANDBERG by Cisco will represent a paradigm shift in the whole industry of Video Conferencing, Telepresence and Unified Communication.
When a giant like Cisco commits to the industry with a 3 billion dollar acquisition this is a proof of the maturity and the great potential of our industry.
Many have uttered skepticisms in regard to the impact this will have on the competition in VC industry and the industry’s efforts to apply open standards.
This is understandable, and we will all be watching closely.
It’s likely however that Cisco and TANDBERG will speed up the integration of open standards and efficient interoperability. In order to reach set revenue targets and their common goal of mass deployment of Video Conferencing and Telepresence, market share is not enough, they will want to make the market bigger.
Ciscos global presence and marketing power alone will increase the awareness around VC immensely. This will not only benefit TANDBERG and Cisco, but the whole industry will prosper under this increased attention.
- VC will get more top level management attention
- VC will become part of most companies strategy
- VC will not only replace internal meetings but most external meetings as well
- VC will come out of the boardroom and on to each employees desktop
- VC will become as easy as picking up the phone
Read more on how the means of communication will change: Video Conferencing as easy as picking up the phone.
Tags: cisco, tandberg, video conferencing
I have to believe that open standards will be embraced by Cisco, and I hope they make that clear in the near future. I just saw the CEO’s response from Polycom, and there selling point going forward seems to be focused on telling customers that Tandberg/Cisco will not be open standards, so why purchase a system that will not be able to connect to some other users.
I agree with you that I think this speeds interoperability up. Hope they clear that up soon.