Cisco's free WebEx helps small businesses
A beta of Cisco WebEx Meet is a free service that works great for collaboration.
By Larry Chaffin on Mon, 07/12/10 - 12:26pm.Cisco has a free service, in beta, for small businesses called Cisco WebEx Meet. This is a toned down version of WebEx which include the following as shown in this screen shot from my own account.
I have been using this for about two months now with no problems. If you just need to do a presentation, view a customer desktop or record a meeting it works well. While this might not be the perfect service for everyone for every need (it has its limitations), let’s face it, it's free. In these times when small businesses are struggling this is a great service from Cisco. Plus it gives Cisco the opportunity to up sell users to the full version once they try the service.
Just a few things to remember when using the service: You only can add four other people to the session. You only have 5GB of storage if you record sessions, but it seems o be enough for small business owners from what I see now.
As of today the banner still says beta but I am hoping that Cisco takes that off and makes this service a full-time service for small business owners. Maybe they could also integrate customers IP phones with the system somehow or integrate it with Outlook.
You can view a Cisco Blog on WebEx Meet here.
- About Putting Realism Into Your Network
Larry Chaffin Ph.D is the Chief Executive Officer/Chairman and founder of Pluto Networks, a Consulting and VAR partner specializing in WAN acceleration, VoIP, WLAN, telepresence and security.
Pluto Networks is a Riverbed reseller. Pluto was previously a Cisco reseller but in June, 2010, ended its reseller relationship with the company and is no longer a Cisco channel partner.
Pluto Networks specializes in the needs of small, large and enterprise companies by always giving them a great ROI on the products they sell. Pluto Networks has a presence in 23 countries around the world enabling all of its consultants to be virtual. Larry was a Judge at Interop for the Best of Interop Awards for 2009.
Larry has also co-authored all of the books listed below:
Managing Cisco Secure Networks, Skype Me, Practical VOIP Security, Configuring Check Point NGX VPN-1/Firewall-1,Configuring Juniper Networks NetScreen & SSG Firewalls,Essential Computer Security: Everyone's Guide to Email, Internet, and Wireless Security, How to Cheat at Microsoft Vista Administration, Microsoft Vista for IT Security Professionals, Asterisk Hacking, 2008 VoIP and Video Conferencing, Infosecurity 2008 Threat Analysis and author of Building a VOIP Network with Nortel's MS5100, along with co-authoring/ghost writing eleven other technology books for VIOP, WLAN, security and optical technologies. Larry is currently working on a follow up to Building a VoIP network with Nortel's MCS 5100 Book as well as new books on Cisco Telepresence Networks, Practical VoIP case studies and WAN Acceleration with Riverbed.
Larry also has more than 29 vendor certifications and has been working on many others. Larry has been a principal architect around the world in 22 countries for many Fortune 100 companies designing VoIP, security, wireless and optical networks. He has expanded over time also to include application acceleration. Larry is working with worldwide company now out of Asia as a Special Assistant to the CEO and CIO as they go through organizational and network changes, helping them with strategic advice from his years of experience.
Pluto Networks is a channel partner of, LifeSize, Riverbed, Call Copy, Fastsoft and Symantec.
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