VoIP Evolution

Polycom's ViVu Acquisition Boosts Availability, Flexibility of Video Conferencing

Polycom's acquisition of ViVu, Inc. adds an important tool to the video conferencing vendor's arsenal, by letting it extend video collaboration capabilities to everyone with a PC. Video conferencing has traditionally operated through dedicated endpoints, including hardware such as room system or desktop video phones and client software. ViVu makes software that makes it possible to embed video communication capabilities in Web applications. The move is particularly important because Polycom technology serves as the foundation for a number of prominent commercial video conferencing services. These include 8x8's Virtual Room, BroadSoft's BroadCloud hosted cloud video conferencing platform and Telesphere's VideoConnect, which runs on BroadCloud.

VoIP Evolution Report Dispels SMB Video Conferencing Hype

Serious excitement surrounds the SMB (small to medium-size business) video conferencing space these days. In June and July alone, no fewer than eight companies – 8x8, Blue Jeans Network, BroadSoft, InFocus, LifeSize, Polycom, Telesphere and Vidtel – announced new hardware, services, tie-ups or some combination thereof. All of the announcements represented significant investments of time, effort and resources. And together, they indicated a widespread optimism that the market is about to take off.

Even in pre-takeoff mode, though, the market has already spawned a hefty body of conventional wisdom. Most of it takes the form of ardent convictions surrounding clouds and interoperability. One of these is the belief that cloud solutions are the ideal way to meet almost every SMB video conferencing need. A related one is faith that providing interoperability is the surest route to success for cloud providers. A new VoIP Evolution report, SMB Video Conferencing: Getting Beyond Clouds & Interoperability, both explains why it's necessary to get beyond such conventional wisdom, and provides a method for doing so.