Burton was CTO of Unified Communications group
Polycom, Cisco’s rival in videoconferencing, has lured an executive from the company to be its chief strategy and technology officer. Joseph Burton, who had been CTO of Cisco’s Unified Communications group, has jumped ship as part of a major overhaul of Polycom’s executive ranks, according to this report from sister site CIO.
Polycom made Burton an offer he couldn’t refuse, CIO reporter Howard Solomon intimated in his piece. Burton says he wanted to go to a company that focused solely on unified communications. UC is key to Cisco, but so is routing; switching; security; data center; smart grid; consumer; wireless; IPTV; storage…
Burton says he and Polycom CEO Andy Miller are determined to make the company into a UC powerhouse. With Cisco acquiring Polycom rival Tandberg to gain leadership in videoconferencing, Polycom had to respond. Luring Cisco’s UC CTO looks like a response – maybe Burton can impart some trade secrets from his tenure at Polycom’s giant rival.
But regardless, new blood was needed, analysts in the Solomon piece contend. Polycom lacked vision and marketing savvy, according to Yankee Group; and partner Avaya was getting chummier with LifeSize for videoconferencing/telepresence components of UC, too.
So Burton has his work cut out for him. He has some weighty allies in IBM and Juniper. And what he knows about Cisco’s UC technology strategy will be a boon to Polycom as well – and maybe to IBM and Juniper.
It should be interesting to see what Polycom produces in the months ahead…
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