Cisco doesn?t oppose Microsoft?s $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype, the world?s most popular Web-based telephony and video calling service. Nevertheless, it is threatening to sue to prevent the deal from closing if the European Union doesn?t impose requirements for open standards in future releases.
What Cisco is concerned about is Microsoft keeping Skype a walled garden of video conferencing and collaboration. What Cisco is advocating is the development of open standards that would enable users of different video-calling platforms to communicate with each other with ease.
Cisco is correct in its assertions: Video conferencing and telephony is getting more popular, and services like Skype, Webex and Citrix GoToMeeting are on the vanguard of this trend. Also part of this emerging class of video communications are systems provided by Cisco, Microsoft, LifeSize, Vu Telepresence, Polycom and Avaya.
And Cisco is equally correct when it says users are frustrated that they can?t make calls between these various platforms like they can with conventional phones and cellphones. Open standards, it argues, will ensure next-generation video communications technologies will be able to interoperate.
The development and acceptance of open standards for video communications will be a boon for the channel. Solution providers are only just beginning to sell and support video communications. Adding interoperability between vendors and systems will help accelerate adoption and bring more immediate value to the user community. After all, what good is a communications system if you can?t easily communicate with everyone?
The real issue is whether it takes a lawsuit to accomplish this open standards and interoperability goal. The European Union has a long history of scrutinizing big business mergers and imposing stringent requirements on companies. And, of course, Microsoft and the European Union have a long history of legal and regulatory squabbles over antitrust issues. Cisco will likely find a sympathetic regulatory ear in Brussels.
But it really is in Microsoft?s interest to open up, isn?t it? And, it?s in Cisco?s interest to do the same. Webex and Cisco Telepresence aren?t exactly open platforms today. Open standards are in video vendor?s interests, at least in the future. Today, with adoption still nascent and technology still relatively immature, it?s in vendors? immediate interests to keep the walls of their walled gardens high until they?ve established a critical mass of market share.
This Cisco lawsuit is more likely a stall tactic than a real call for interoperability. That?s too bad, as interoperability and open standards will better serve everyone?s future interests.
Source: http://channelnomics.com/2012/02/20/logic-backs-cisco%E2%80%99s-objection-skype-deal/
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