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Microsoft Serious About VoIP
VoIPluvr writes "Microsoft, is quietly turning into a voice-over-IP powerhouse. It all started with the launch of its Microsoft Live Communication Server. Bill Gates says, 'Communicating in a better way has a huge impact for business,' and he states that he wants Microsoft to marry the PC, the cell phone and the desk phone. Recently, Microsoft teamed up with VoIP companies like Sylantro to offer hosted IP-PBX services, and now is rumored to have bought Teleo, a small VoIP company based in San Francisco. Microsoft's dominance on the desktop is helping the company extend its reach into the fast growing VoIP business, thus putting it in direct competition with the likes of Cisco. Teleo, for instance could help the company compete more effectively with the likes of Yahoo and Skype."
Prepare for the blue screech of death when you pick up the phone!
Sorry...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
a true "core" product?
everyone else seems to be seeking out one specific segment of the market, is MS finally realizing specializing in everything means you specialize in nothing?
i think they are good and bad, but they seem to have lost the wind in their sails...
Microsoft makes a PDF-like format, Microsoft takes over municipal water works, Microsoft creates new ice-cream cone. My god, can't Microsoft leave anything alone? This is what is going to kill MS; they are doing too many things and fighting too many wars on too many fronts in an effort to maintain market dominance. You would think large companies would ditch MS wholesale simply because MS may one day use the revenue to compete with them.
-_-
I wonder how this is going to play with the Telco's. I worked a long time at one of the Telco's and we did much/most of our work on IBM mainframes and Unix servers. Then our high level management and Microsoft marketers got very cozy and all of a sudden many of our critical applications began shifting to the Windows 2000, SQLServer, IIS platform. This was all very much with heavy opposition from technical staff, but their input wasn't wanted. In the course of five to ten years I saw us (them?) become very heavily vested in Microsoft platforms (including the public facing web site (which was nothing but problematic rolling out on the MS platform)).
And now, Microsoft wants to enter the market of the telcos? I know everyone is jumping in on this, and I for one have little empathy/sympathy for the PHB's who've made their beds with Microsoft, but I wonder how much they like Microsoft now?
It seems to me like any new sector or industry comes along and people start making money microsoft goes AAHHH we don't control that! So they buy a bunch of companies and produce some buggy vaporware and spend a bunch of money. Is it possible for them to be happy with that they got or at least not branch out so much and focus on goods they can produce and produce them well.
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Go canucks, habs, and sens!
The submitter, VoIPluvr, must be using the Yale comma style and not the more popular Harvard style.
So letsee... in order to go from traditional PBX to VOIP you could either a) deploy a brand new separate IP network to directly replace your PBX or B) Upgrade your existing IP network including all of your ethernet switches so that they support PoE (Power over Ethernet).
You may need to implement QOS (you don't want some FTP transfer blocking time sensitive voice traffic.
You may need to redesign your core routers, backbone etc for this increase in traffic.
Also, if the CallManager (the computer that sets up the connection between the two telephones) goes down, you're not making phone calls. Do you really want to trust this to Windows? Yes, I realize that Cisco's CallManager runs on Windows, but rumor has it they are making a linux version.
So the question remains, with all the changes to your network that are required I doubt this will go far.. unless of course MSFT buys Juniper, Nortel...
Method for outputting a crashdump as a series of audio tones.
bill: hey steve, can you hear me now!!
steve bummer: what WHAT!!!
bill: GOOOOOOODDDD...
I will gladly loose all of life's battles.. in order to win the war..
I wonder when that little pop-up will start appearing on computer screens during incoming VoIP calls. I can think of a million ways MS could embrace-and-extend VoIP to add features that only work/ "work best" with MS software. Makers of VoIP add-ons will then test their widgets with MS only and not support "non-standard" operating systems.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
See also:
Hotmail
WebTV
X-Box
MSN
MSNBC
Etc.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
he states that he wants Microsoft to marry the PC, the cell phone and the desk phone, Why? Has anyone thought of that? Integration is nice but sometimes it's pointless and harmful. For example, my Motorola v600 is Java powered. That's great except sometimes I can punch things in faster than it can handle. The battery life is poor. My older StarTac was perfect for me. No java or camera but it go the job done right. I never had to reboot a cellphone until I got this new one. Oh, let's not forget how the battery life is kind of mediocre. Let me count the number of times I've taken advantage of the Java and camera features: 5. Those 5 times, I could have done without them anyways. MS needs to take a lesson fron Apple and even *nix. Do one thing and do it well. Then make all those things play together well. God I wish Apply made cellphones.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
Skype seems to be the only product making cross-platform solutions.
as for video -- it doesn't seem like ANYONE is looking for cross-platform compatibility. iChat doesn't work with netmeeting or gnomemeeting (and the tiny AIM video screen sucks). video4skype only works in windows (though it is great in windows.)
i use linux, but i have recently had to reinstall (dual-boot) windows so I can use AIM's video chat with my girlfriend (who uses iChat.) It's the only solution that easily works through odd connections (firewalls,etc.) And, unfortunately, xmeeting just doesn't work that easily for the non tech savvy (like her.)
why hasn't there been movement to make cross-platform video solutions?
What comes first, finding a teacher or becoming a student?
Where I work, we have a saying. "There are only two things that need to be up and running 24x7 without a hitch. Ever: phone and e-mail". Until Microsoft can provide an OS with this kind of reliability that doesn't cost the farm (like Windows Data Center on Unisys) they will not be chosen as a serious contender for carrier grade mail or phone. How many large ISPs out there use Exchange for mail? None. An for people like me... I want carrier grade quality in everything even for my own home use. That's why I use *nix for anything serious.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Microsoft have tied all their systems nicely together. I don't know much about Microsoft products but once or twice every year I see problems that brings down every Microsoft based problems.
Whenever we need different MS systems to talk to each other, they pretty much needs to be on the same network or at least have so many open network ports between them that firewalling them in different security zones becomes useless.
I'd prefer different systems with clearly defined boundries, communicating trough standard protocols instead. Moving everything to a big consolidated MS monster, might have helped bring down some of the expenses of having different systems. But I have yet to see it bring better stability.
I see some signs of people not any longer want everything to be tied in to a MS system after have had problems with one vendor to rule them all.
but sadly the management in a lot of places does not understand why they don't get the stability they had on the mainframe after moving it all to MS.