Polycom, the global leader in open standards-based unified communications (UC), today announced an initiative with IBM Research to co-develop next-generation innovations that are designed to further accelerate cloud-delivered video collaboration applications to support key vertical and social uses. Under the initiative, Polycom will work with IBM Research to explore and develop technologies that leverage the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform and real-time video capabilities in the cloud, as businesses are increasingly evaluating Video-as-a-Service (VaaS) offerings through private, public and hybrid cloud models.
Polycom and IBM Research are working to ensure Polycom RealPresence video solutions perform optimally in the most rigorous cloud environments to provide the highest levels of security, performance, and reliability, even when systems need to rapidly scale up and down. The companies plan to further develop interoperability between standard and non-standard video environments, including social video applications, to serve organizations requiring face-to-face video meetings regardless of network, platforms, devices, or protocols. This initiative will put special emphasis toward video-enabled mobile social collaboration. The two companies have already worked on a number of initiatives to integrate video, mobile, and social platforms.
Leveraging their development efforts, Polycom and IBM Research plan to create industry solutions that focus on cloud-delivered Communications Enabling Business Processes (CEBP – business activities achieved more effectively through certain communications applications). The combination of leveraging rich presence as well as advanced routing and interoperability creates new possibilities in various industry segments such as insurance, call centers, surveillance, and more. This initiative is designed to broaden the use of RealPresence video solutions and is an important testimony to Polycom’s focus on driving video ubiquity.
“At its heart, this collaboration with IBM is about laying the foundation for more RealPresence innovation in the cloud. Working with IBM, we’re taking a world-class solution and co-developing technologies to help customers – who are increasingly looking to the cloud for video collaboration applications – better communicate, collaborate, and be more productive,” said Sudhakar Ramakrishna, President of Products and Services, Polycom. “Customers who choose Polycom will always be at the forefront of the industry because we’re pushing the boundaries of collaboration forward to ensure our customers have the best solutions, both today and in the future. Our work with IBM is yet another step forward in achieving Polycom’s goal of connecting anyone across any environment on any device.”
“Together with Polycom, we can help customers prepare for the future of this industry, whether they choose premises-based video solutions or private, public, or hybrid cloud delivery models,” said Ken King, vice president of business development for IBM Research. “Ultimately, it’s about helping Polycom develop new, innovative video products on a cloud computing platform that creates solutions across various industry verticals. By co-developing with Polycom, we can help customers collaborate and make decisions more quickly.”
The co-developed solutions will be rolled-out in future Polycom RealPresence video collaboration solutions, including for enterprises interested in private or hybrid clouds or through service providers who will deliver VaaS offerings through public clouds to businesses of all sizes.
Today’s announcement builds on the existing Polycom and IBM global partnership which includes product integrations as well as offerings that help customers to deliver, install, integrate, and maintain standards-based Polycom video solutions into unified communications environments. For more information about the Polycom and IBM partnership and integrated products, visit: www.polycom.com/ibm.
Polycom RealPresence Video Solutions and VaaS
Polycom RealPresence video solutions, which range from software for mobile devices and laptops to room-based systems and immersive theaters, are powered by the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform – the most comprehensive and interoperable UC software infrastructure for universal video collaboration. The RealPresence Platform provides the carrier-grade video infrastructure required for both on-premises, private cloud, and public cloud-delivered services that can scale to tens of thousands of businesses with the necessary security, reliability, and manageability. The RealPresence Platform transforms islands of fragmented communications systems into a seamless culture of collaboration, with enterprise-grade video easily and securely accessible to all authorized personnel whether they’re mobile, remote, or on-site.
Forrester Research Inc., an independent research firm, recently named Polycom a leader in video conferencing, and a top-ranked company in both “current offerings” and “strategy” in its August 2012 report, “The Forrester Wave™: Room-Based Videoconferencing, Q3 2012.” In the report, Polycom received perfect scores in the categories of quality of experience, interoperability, product roadmap, partners, and security and compliance.
Separately, according to recent reports from a number of industry analyst firms, Polycom also continues to take market share in the video collaboration market, gaining nearly 8 percentage points of share in 1H 2012.