Cisco Jabber to Help Users Collaborate Directly from Smartphones, Tablets, PCs, Virtual Desktops, Laptops and Web Applications; Next Generation Cisco WebEx to Change the Way People Meet with New Cloud Services

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, 19th March 2012 - During its UAE Expo, Cisco today unveiled the next phase of its Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI), an IT system that was designed to simplify desktop virtualization and bring voice and video to the virtual workspace. Cisco VXI helps enterprises to take advantage of the financial, data security and workforce flexibility benefits offered by desktop virtualization, with the ability to integrate rich media and video collaboration capabilities to create next generation workspaces.

With today's announcement, Cisco is also unveiling the next generation of Cisco WebEx. From HD video advancements and enhanced mobile capabilities that enable all new ways to engage prior, during and after a meeting, Cisco WebEx is helping to change the meeting experience. Additionally, Cisco is extending cloud conferencing to more people with a new free basic edition of WebEx® designed for three people or less.

The advancements Cisco is introducing today --from Cisco WebEx Connect® to Cisco Jabber™ -- can change how people meet utilizing expanded on-premise and cloud-based services, and can give workers an easy way to collaborate directly from any device, driving new levels of business productivity and competitiveness.

Cisco is also transforming the workspace by dramatically changing how people collaborate from Web applications they use every day, like SAP Streamwork, Cisco Quad™ or Google Apps. Today, whether mobile or at their desks, people find themselves having to open and utilize a variety of collaboration applications just to communicate on their own terms- whether that's via instant message (IM), voice, or video. Cisco is making collaboration much easier by advancing Cisco Jabber with a freely downloadable Web browser plug-in that will help extend collaboration to tens of millions of people that use web browsers on Windows- or Mac-based OS devices.

With these innovations and recent announcements around virtualization and unified communications, Cisco is continuing to transform the workspace. Additionally, with WebEx and the recently announced Cisco TelePresence® solutions for small and medium sized businesses, Cisco is advancing its cloud-based offerings through the Cisco Collaboration cloud.

Utilizing its expertise in Unified Communications, Cisco announced endpoints that enable high-quality voice and video in virtual desktop environments - a development that could help redefine collaboration in the virtual workspace.  Additionally, Cisco announced other significant advancements including a broad strategic alliance agreement with Citrix and VMware. Combining Cisco leadership in networking, datacenter, endpoint devices and collaboration, with Citrix and VMware leadership in virtualization and the delivery of desktops, applications and data, this alliance is aimed at delivering solutions that help enterprises easily and cost effectively deploy virtual desktops to millions of PCs, Macs, tablets, smartphones and thin clients. This alliance will also deliver data center solutions that make it easier for organizations to deploy the infrastructure required to deliver IT as a service across multiple networks and geographies.

According to analyst estimates[1], desktop virtualization can reduce per-user PC support costs by 51 percent, an item that accounts for 67 percent of PC-related IT expenses. Virtual desktops also help protect the security of corporate intellectual property by keeping information in a data center rather than on physical devices. End users also benefit by being able to choose their own devices through which to access their virtual desktop.  Combining these benefits with the productivity and business agility delivered through rich media and video applications further enhance the value to the end user and the business.

Executive Quotes:

Wael Abdulal, Collaboration Manager for UAE, "We've listened to our customers and significantly advanced Jabber and WebEx to enable seamless experiences on a range of devices and platforms, whether on premises or in the cloud. This approach further accelerates our strategic goal of enabling "any-to-any" collaboration while also making it easier than ever to collaborate with people inside or outside of an organization. In a post-PC era, businesses need ways to extend mobile, social, video and virtual collaboration on any mobile phone, Virtual Desktop, tablet or Internet-connected device. We are bringing that to life today. "

-Ends-

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

  • For more information about Cisco VXI, visit www.cisco.com/go/vxi

  • For Cisco collaboration news, visit the Collaboration Blog

  • For more information on Wyse support for Cisco VXI, visit the Wyse Blog

RSS Feed for Cisco: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/rss.html

Cisco Jabber

Cisco Jabber is a new unified communications application for PC, Mac, Tablet and Smartphone.

  • Use contextual communications to get answers and make decisions faster - Cisco Jabber provides a single interface across presence, instant messaging (IM), voice, HD video, voice messaging, desktop sharing and conferencing. Find the right person or persons, see if and how they are available, and collaborate using your preferred method.

  • Access a rich collaboration experience from anywhere - You get a consistent, compelling experience across PCs, Macs, tablets, and smartphones. Choose when, where, how, and on what device to communicate.

  • Flexible deployment options - Cisco Jabber can be used with either on-premises or cloud-based unified communications services.

  • Integrated with Microsoft Office - View user status information and click to communicate directly from Microsoft applications.

  • Making collaboration easier: The new Jabber® Web plug-in will enable companies and developers to take Web browsers on Internet-connected devices, and embed Cisco UC capabilities. As a result, users in a public cloud-based application or a line of business-based application can easily find a co-worker using presence, communicate using IM and then click-to-call or click-to-video to enable a rich, real-time collaboration experience.

  • Enabling developers to "collaboration enable" Web applications: This new software developer kit (SDK) for Cisco Jabber allows developers to collaboration-enable Web applications. Application developers will be supported by the Jabber Developer Program. Within the Cisco Developer Network (CDN), this new portal and program provides developers with sample codes, instructional videos and an online community for asking technical questions and sharing best practices. To get started with the Jabber SDK, users can register here on the CDN.

Cisco WebEx

  • Enabling greater cross company collaboration: Cisco's advanced WebEx Meetings spaces help users manage the complete meeting lifecycle. Individuals can:

    • easily access and collaborate on files and presentations in the cloud from their PC, Tablet or mobile device in real time at any time.

    • see whether their colleagues are available through presence and initiate synchronous conversations via IM to prepare, collaborate and follow up.

    • schedule meetings and share agendas, notes, action items, recordings and any other relevant documents at anytime.

In addition, IT Administrators can set policy controls providing users with a single identity across all Cisco WebEx SaaS offerings to meet corporate security guidelines.

  • Enhancing the mobile meeting experience: WebEx enables users to engage in two-way high-quality video meetings on mobile devices with new support for the Cisco Cius™ tablet and Apple iPhone on top of the currently supported Apple iPad. Voice over IP is now also available on the iPhone and iPad.

  • Integrating offerings to propel collaboration: With Cisco's "one-button-to-push" technology, WebEx users can now easily connect into Cisco TelePresence meetings from the Cisco Cius and Apple mobile devices. Integrated experiences will also be provided with Cisco Jabber, Cisco Quad and technology for optimizing medianets. The solution supports a set of common application programming interfaces (APIs) that can easily integrate third party applications such as CRM offerings.

  • Extending collaboration to more users via the Cisco Collaboration Cloud: With Cisco WebEx Basic Edition, Cisco will offer a free version of WebEx that supports up to three meeting participants and provides users with VoIP audio, standard video, IM, presence, desktop sharing and a 250 MB of storage. The Basic Edition is targeted for availability in the first quarter of 2012.

About Cisco Collaboration
From award-winning IP communications to mobility, customer care, Web conferencing, messaging, enterprise social software, and interoperable telepresence experiences, Cisco brings together network-based, integrated collaboration solutions based on open standards. These solutions, as well as services from Cisco and our partners, are designed to help promote business growth, innovation and productivity. They are also designed to help accelerate team performance, protect investments, and simplify the process of finding the right people and information.

About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.

Availability Disclaimer: Many of the products and features described herein remain in varying stages of development and will be offered on a when-and-if-available basis. This roadmap is subject to change at the sole discretion of Cisco, and Cisco will have no liability for delay in the delivery or failure to deliver any of the products or features set forth in this document.

Contact Information:
Press Contact
Jumana Akkawi
Cisco
+971 4 3907983
jakkawi@cisco.com

© Press Release 2012