Cisco Announces SaaS Platform on WebEx for Improved Online Collaboration

Today Cisco is announcing a range of improvements to its online collaboration solutions that are now jointly named “Collaboration Portfolio”. The portfolio includes SaaS platform WebEx Connect, Unified Communications and TelePresence.

I believe that the most interesting part of this portfolio is the web 2.0 application platform WebEx Connect that will host both Cisco’s and third-parties’ applications and will integrate with existing IT infrastructures of business customers using the new platform. This puts Cisco in competition not only with Microsoft in collaboration solutions but with Google for collaboration in the cloud as well.

The new software as a service (SaaS) platform by Cisco serves as a basis that companies can use to run various web-based applications and even develop their own custom applications (for example, for customer relationship management or enterprise resource planning) within the development environment available for the platform.

The development environment was opened to select third-party developers some time before today’s announcement so the customers should see a range of already available applications and widgets on the new platform right when they start using it.

Initially access to the platform is only possible via a desktop application all the employees of a company will need to install to participate in the web collaboration process while in the early 2009 Cisco promises to add mobile and web-based access as well. At that Cisco promises that the platform will meet the highest reliability and security standards which is no doubt extremely important for enterprise customers.

Cisco also launches a new version of its Unified Communications solution (7.0) where existing customers will see enhanced interoperability with desktop applications by Microsoft and IBM, ease of use, and improvements to the cost of ownership.

The main idea is that collaboration portfolio by Cisco uses the network architecture to provide one-point instant access to all the collaboration tools a team may need for work, including text messages and voice or video-based communications as well.

Today’s announcement definitely offers significant improvements to how existing Cisco customers use online collaboration solutions while the approach of providing a SaaS platform will likely attract multiple enterprise applications developers and new customers willing to try the advantages offered by collaboration in the cloud to their multi-national teams.

Everyone willing to learn more about Cisco collaboration solutions is invited to join a webinar today at 8 a.m. Pacific or 11 a.m. Eastern where Cisco will further clarify the ideas.