Mitel and VMware unveiled plans at last week’s VMworld 2011 held in Las Vegas to integrate Mitel’s virtualized Unified Communicator (UC) Advanced client software with VMware View 5 — delivering soft phone and mobile device integration within a virtual desktop environment. The collaborative effort is designed to extend the power of desktop virtualization by bringing together a user’s voice solution and UC applications as a way to reduce costs whenever a user has an Internet connection.
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Jason Saidoo, senior director of information technology for the Chicago Bears (and an existing Mitel customer), commented in a statement: “The idea of virtualizing both the desktop and the desktop phone, thus unifying their functionality, is very attractive to an organization like the Chicago Bears, since we require mobility and secure desktop access from the road. As a result of this announcement, we have advanced our own timeline to convert our IT infrastructure to a completely virtualized environment.”
With the additional features stemming from the collaborative effort, VMware View client users will be able to access their desktop with VMware View supporting collaboration tools, including voice, video, presence, secure instant messaging, audio and Web conferencing, document sharing, voice messaging and email. Desktop applications and communications apps are equally available from the desktop computer or from a communications device including a mobile, soft phone or desk phone.
Stephen Beamish, Mitel’s vice president for marketing and business development also commented in a statement, “Mitel’s Freedom architecture, which already delivers an open, single software solution on a virtual machine, has now been augmented to support streaming on the VMware View desktop client software.” He continued by saying, “With UC as another virtualized application available on any device, [users] will have greater control and flexibility than ever while still reducing capital costs.”
