WebEx

Microsoft vs. Cisco over PostPath acquisition

Microsoft Subnet — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:48:33 -0400

We warned you that PostPath was a company to watch for its Linux-based attack on Exchange. Earlier this month we profiled PostPath customer Globe Manufacturing. With Cisco's announced acquisition of PostPath it has become obvious that Cisco intends to attack the UC market with a play straight from a Redmond playbook. First you launch a product that competes with your rival's bread-and-butter and then you compete on price. PostPath bills itself as a drop-in alternative to Exchange. It allows users to continue using the Outlook client, but the back office server runs PostPath software on CentOS Linux.

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Cisco still foggy about cloud services

Mitchell Ashley — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:56:46 -0400

NWW Cisco Subnet has a post about bloggers writing prolifically about Cisco and cloud services. Setting the Cisco WebEx acquisition aside for the moment, Cisco could and probably will offer some type of software-as-a-service or cloud software service themselves. I would expect the best SaaS opportunities to come in the VoIP market before it shows up anywhere else for Cisco. That said . . .

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Cisco warns of WebEx ActiveX security hole

Cisco Subnet — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:11:30 -0400

Cisco is warning of a buffer overflow flaw in an ActiveX control used by the WebEx Meeting Manager. If exploited, hackers could execute arbitrary code on the user client machine. The WebEx Meeting Manager is a client-side program that is provided by the Cisco WebEx meeting service, which automatically downloads, installs, and configures Meeting Manager the first time a user begins or joins a meeting.

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Cisco readies new products

Cisco Subnet — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:53:49 -0400

Cisco has a couple of new products in the pipeline for the next year. The company plans to unveil a version of its Telepresence virtual conferencing capability for the home. This will emerge over the next 12 months, CEO John Chambers said during his keynote address at the Cisco Live! customer conference in Orlando this morning.

Telepresence begand as a virtual conference room costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Cisco has since scaled the product up and down, with versions designed to handle larger conferences and others for individual offices.

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Collaborate or leave, says Cisco to its leadership

Cisco Subnet — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:32:52 -0400

Many people have wondered what the heck Cisco is doing owning WebEx. The fit between the two companies is less than obvious. John Chambers shed some light on that and the bigger picture of Cisco's interest in collaboration during a keynote address at Forrester Research's IT Forum in Las Vegas. He said Cisco's entire future hangs on its success with collaboration, which is why the company is focused on TelePresence and why it grabbed WebEx.

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Cisco offers relief from carbon footprint guilt

Cisco Subnet — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:06:07 -0400

So you spend your nights laying in bed worrying about the carbon footprint of your network but can't bring yourself to start rolling out so-called "green" technologies. Well, never-you-fear, Cisco has a plan. Neutralize your carbon footprint guilt by planting trees! Or better still, let Cisco plant them for you in exchange for trying out WebEx. The company announced that from April 21 through May 31, Cisco would plant 100 trees for each 100 free WebEx trials that businesses complete. This is in addition to the free tree that WebEx will plant as part of its two-year-old tree-planting program.

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RE: WebEx branches into systems mgmt.

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:03:11 -0500

The service is horrible, and the costs are ridiculous. Definitely not SMB friendly as the article mentions, avoid at all costs.

Top 6 Cisco acquisitions of 2007; what it should buy in 2008

Cisco Subnet — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:05:58 -0500

Cisco made 11 acquisitions this year culminating in 126 purchases since Cisco's birth. It made three more acquisitions than it did last year, when it spent a measly $256 million buying ho-hum technologies. This year was different, not only in the sheer dollar size of some acquisitions, but also because of the breadth of technologies it acquired.

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Cisco, Oracle: Get Ready for an Encore

Joe Panettieri — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:09:23 -0500

Cisco and Oracle. The two companies grew up in different markets. But they've got far more in common than you think. As Cisco pushes forward with its Web 2.0 and Unified Communications initiatives, John Chambers will need Larry Ellison in his corner. Sure, some work between Cisco and Oracle is under way. Cisco is helping Oracle to accelerate Oracle application performance. And Cisco's WebEx team is working closely with Oracle's Siebel CRM team. Nice start. But if you think the mutual business interests between Cisco and Oracle end there, you're missing the bigger picture.

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Cisco's Profits: Five Trends Worth Watching

Joe Panettieri — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:53:57 -0400

Wall Street has high hopes for Cisco Systems' latest quarterly results, which are slated to be announced November 7. But even if you aren't a shareholder, there are five key pieces of information that Cisco customers and partners should listen for during the earnings call. Here's the rundown.

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DimDim CEO: "WebEx is history"

Keith Shaw — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:49:30 -0400

Best opening line of a DEMOfall07 demonstration so far: "WebEx is history." Given by DimDim CEO DD Ganguly. Usually statements like that are audience-grabbing bravado, but after watching the DimDim presentation, the statement might have some grains of truth behind it. DimDim announced its free and open source Web meeting service. It has no software to download for attendees, and includes 2-way audio and video features for holding collaborative meetings. Even if the people at WebEx aren't shaking in their boots at this statement, the possibility of free Web meetings for consumers and other small business owners will definitely be appealing. Worth a look if you've been concerned about the costs of Web meetings.

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Start-up challenges Cisco WebEx

Cisco Subnet — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:09:07 -0400

The blogosphere is abuzz with Dimdim, a Burlington, Mass., start-up that the bloggerati is saying will be a challenger to Cisco's WebEx and Microsoft Placeware. The start-up is being launched at DEMOfall07, happening this week in sunny San Diego.

Dimdim is already swimming in a $2.5 million injection from Draper Richards, Index Ventures and Nexus Capital India.

Vccircle.com writes:

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Cisco to enable partners to sell WebEx services

Cisco Subnet — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:31:29 -0400

Cisco is plans to enable its channel partners to sell WebEx conferencing services through an agent program, reports CMP Channel. Up until now, WebEx has been sold by a direct salesforce.

Partners would be compensated for selling Web conferencing, audio conferencing and video conferencing services that could be sold in one-year or multi-year increments, according to the story.

CMP Channel quotes Keith Goodwin, Cisco senior vice president of worldwide channels as saying:

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Cisco travels deeper into the virtual world

Cisco Subnet — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:38:33 -0400

Just as Cisco launches its Virtual World Blog comes added speculation that it is preparing to acquire some companies to boost its virtual efforts. The ReBang blog has been speculating since Cisco pocketed WebEx that the network giant would acquire Qwaq, provider of "virtual spaces for real work". Imagine virtual workspaces married with WebEx's on-demand collaboration services.

ReBang writes:

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Cisco WebEx marketing is over the top

Cisco Subnet — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:28:17 -0400

Kris Tuttle, founder of software research firm Research 2.0, is fed up with Cisco's unrelenting marketing of WebEx. In the Research 2.0 blog, Kris writes:

Cisco/WebEx is sending out emails and calling with the hyperactive fever of an online mortgage company. The pitch got to a point where we actually told Cisco we probably wouldn’t pursue our trial because their sales and marketing efforts were disrupting our business.
Amazingly after that we continued to get besieged and today received another flashing, spinning, promotional email offering us double storage and deferred invoicing if we convert by June 15th. (!!!!!!!!!!!!)

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Acquisition complete; assimilation starts

Cisco Subnet — Wed, 30 May 2007 11:10:56 -0400

Cisco this week completed its acquisition of WebEx. It was rather a big deal when it was announced in March, as it was an awful lot of money and put Cisco into a business that would compete directly with Microsoft. So, what happens now? Cisco's pretty good at assimilating its acquisitions, but WebEx is a mighty large project, even for Cisco.

How Cisco saves costly legal fees

Cisco Subnet — Thu, 03 May 2007 19:08:43 -0400

The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog has an interest snippet about Cisco being the leader in "so-called alternative billing" whereby law firms work on a fixed fee, instead of billing companies by the hour.

Judging by the long hours that Cisco's lawyers Fenwick & West spent drawing up the paperwork for Cisco's $3.2 billion takeover of WebEx, F&W could've made a nice packet if it was billing by the hour - but it wasn't.

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