The Ubiquitous Network

u•biq•ui•tous, adjective: existing or being everywhere, especially at the same time; omnipresent. A blog to share thoughts and ideas about the evolution of the ubiquitous network. The topics covered in this blog range from device, network, data center, and enterprise software with a special interest in business models, partnerships, developer communities, and technology adoption. The opinions expressed in this blog are mine and not necessarily those of my past or present employers.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Cisco to Acquire WebEx

This is a very bold move from the networking giant. Cisco is not only dominating the network corner of the triangle, they are looking at owning the content side (or supply side). How serious are they? Well, $3 billion looks like serious to me. What better strategy to sell more of their routers and Unified Communications products than to provide applications that will create a demand for higher bandwidth (voice and video) and quality of service. Microsoft will have to respond and will probably lower their prices or bundle office and VoIP applications with their Live Meeting offer.

What is the play for the Service Providers? Will they just resell either webex or livemeeting? The center of gravity of the network triangle is clearly shifting on one side away from them.