Microsoft and Cisco Fight For UC Dominance

When unified communications was still but a gleam in the eye of its creators, Microsoft and Cisco became mortal enemies jockeying for supremacy. At one point, they shook hands and promised to play nice, but now that seems more like some sort of calculated attempt at gaining inside knowledge on each other, or lulling the opponent into lowering its defenses. As soon as Microsoft had their UCC (Unified Communications and Collaboration) launch, Cisco dropped the gloves and slammed Microsoft’s approach. Since then, the two have gone back to calling a spade a spade and just doing battle openly rather than pretending to be friends. This article, The Cisco-Microsoft battle for unified communications, on ComputerWorld looks at the rivalry, and what’s at stake for the winner, in depth.