Network supplier Cisco Systems revealed one of its largest product and applications offerings in years alongside a rethink of networking architecture, with the launch of its Unified Communications system yesterday.
The overhaul is intended to allow customers to integrate their communications systems with their information technology infrastructure.
Along with mobile integration and new applications such as desktop tools and communications programs, the Unified Communications system will pull more intelligence into the network, letting the network do the job software systems often do.
Cisco said it would embrace SIP (session initiation protocol), an open industry standard for enabling devices and networks to talk to each other and exchange voice, video and data. The move, a major endorsement of the protocol, will enable many third-party devices to work on its networks and applications.
Among the new offerings is a personal communicator application that pulls multiple communications methods - voice, instant messaging, video-conferencing, and e-mail - together on the computer desktop, and a communications analyser program that can parse call centre conversations, including word patterns and silence gaps, for emotional content.
