Cisco (CSCO) and Microsoft (MSFT) both want to dominate the unified communications market, where next-generation applications ride across IP networks.
To win the unified communication wars, Cisco will need an army of independent software vendors (ISVs) -- much in the way that Microsoft recruited thousands of developers to support Windows in the 1990s.
During the major Cisco Partner Summit in Hawaii this week, I predicted that Cisco would address software partners in a big way. I wasn't exactly right.
Instead, Cisco made a more measured announcement, known as the Cisco Application eXtension Platform [AXP]. Based on Linux -- the one piece of kryptonite that slows Microsoft -- AXP should let software partners more easily write applications for Cisco's platforms.
Cisco’s early AXP application partners include Avocent (branch IT infrastructure management), InterComponentWare (healthcare solution provider), NICE (branch VoIP recording), OSISoft (utilities infrastructure monitoring), Precidia Technologies (IP payment processing), ProSyst (management), Sagem-Interstar (IP fax), Verint (branch VoIP recording), and Workbrain (workforce management), according to the Cisco release.
None of those software companies are powerhouse names. But on the other hand, they are the early movers in the unified communications market.
And that may wind up counting for quite a lot as Cisco continues to march forward with unified communications.
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