Cisco Untethers Its Integrated Services Routers

On March 27th Cisco introduced the 3G Wireless High-Speed WAN Interface Card (HWIC) for its Integrated Global Services Routers (ISRs). The HWIC offers integrated wireless data connectivity for branch offices deploying the ISR.

Recommended Competitive Responses

► All of Cisco’s competitors should call attention to the fact that the HWIC is Cisco’s own design, not simply a slot to hold a service provider’s standard interface card, and therefore subject to losing support from any given wireless service provider. Implementing and maintaining service on the HWIC, especially as wireless standards evolve, will require close cooperation between Cisco and service providers. Competitors can create concern about Cisco’s ability to sustain that cooperation.

► All of Cisco’s competitors in the enterprise access router market should point out that wireless service coverage areas will dictate where the Cisco HWIC solution will work.

► All Cisco’s competitors in the enterprise access router market must develop similar wireless solutions. For example, Samsung should consider drawing on its vast wireless infrastructure and wireless handset pedigree to develop a truly integrated wireless voice and data services solution for the enterprise.

Recommended End User/Customer Responses

► Existing Cisco ISR customers should contact Cisco to determine whether 3G wireless service coverage in their area will allow the HWIC to be an option for them.

► Potential customers should also ask Cisco how it plans to handle upgrades to the HWIC as wireless service standards evolve. They should question how equipment upgrade will be performed, how much they will cost, and how it will affect their wireless service and their contracts with their wireless service providers.

Q1 Labs Ties User Identity to Network Activity Data

On March 12th Q1 Labs unveiled QRadar 6.0, the company’s latest strategic product release that ties an extensive list of identity sources to network activity, security threats, and compliance violations. By offering historical records of user activity on corporate assets along with integration with network access control solutions, QRadar 6.0 delivers an industry-first, identity-driven end-to-end network security management solution..

Recommended Competitive Responses

► SIEM, NBAD, and vulnerability management vendors should all be moving to support IP-to-ID capabilities. Network administrators and security personnel increasingly need to tie a particular user to network activity. Or, more accurately, they are demanding this capability more forcefully.

► Several of Q1 Labs’ competitors already support IP-to-ID capabilities and they should therefore paint this as a “me too” type of announcement. The aspect of this that is more market-leading is Q1 Labs’ support for the TNC NAC protocols. Q1 Labs’ traditional SIEM and NBAD competitors should consider similar channels for developing partnerships with NAC vendors.

Recommended End User/Customer Responses

► Existing QRadar customers should be pleased with this release. Q1 Labs continues to show strong support for its flagship product and to evolve the solution beyond its traditional network behavioral anomaly detection roots.

► Prospects should continue to consider QRadar for its strong NBAD and SIEM capabilities. Q1 Labs’ support for the Trusted Computing Group TNC specifications also allows QRadar to be leveraged as a post-admission threat protection component in TNC-compliant NAC solutions.

Microsoft Increases Investment in Speech with the Acquisition of Tellme Networks

On March 14th Microsoft announced plans to acquire the privately-held Tellme Networks for an undisclosed amount. Microsoft announced broad, but not specific plans to utilize Tellme's speech technologies, expertise, and application development experience to "revolutionize the human-computer interface" as well as advance its efforts to create more natural interfaces for its applications, such as for unified communications, mobile search, and customer self-service.

Recommended Competitive Responses

► Microsoft's customer self-service platform competitors, including Genesys, Nortel, Intervoice, Avaya, and Cisco, should be wary of Microsoft’s efforts to recruit their ISV speech-enabled application developer partners.

► All speech-application platform vendors and speech application developers should monitor Microsoft's efforts to promote the SALT standard or to influence the direction of the evolving VXML standard for application development.

Recommended End User/Customer Responses

► Contact center customers with requirements for new speech-enabled self-service applications should monitor Microsoft and Tellme’s plans to more broadly target the enterprise self-service market with new solutions and services.

► Current Tellme customers need not do anything as a result of the Microsoft acquisition of Tellme, but should monitor Microsoft for more specifics about Tellme product roadmaps.

Cisco Clears Up Key TelePresence Weaknesses

On March 21st, at CeBIT 2007, Cisco announced that it had upgraded the software of its TelePresence meeting solution to enable virtual meetings in multiple locations, provide improved document sharing capabilities, support third-party video conferencing systems, extend TelePresence-based conferencing to contact centers, and to allow the organization of meetings with customers or partners outside the corporate firewall.

Competitive Positives

► Support for multiple locations will make Cisco TelePresence more appealing to businesses of this sort and at the same time help the solution be more competitive with high-definition telepresence solutions from HP and others that already support multisite connections.

► Allowing conferences to now be established with TelePresence rooms owned and operated by other companies, businesses deploying TelePresence can utilize the solution to communicate and collaborate with partners, customers, suppliers, and other trusted third parties.

► Support for third-party video conferencing products will help Cisco TelePresence better fit in with video conferencing systems and solutions already in place at large enterprises.

► A contact center option for the Cisco TelePresence solution will help give the platform greater relevance outside the corporate board room and similar white-collar conferencing environments.

Competitive Concerns

► Support for H.323 video conferencing solutions from third parties will facilitate support for a lot of legacy video conferencing equipment installed at enterprises today; however, Cisco will want to add support for third-party SIP-based video systems as well.

► Support for third-party video conferencing systems and multipoint sessions has the potential of detracting from the face-to-face feel of a TelePresence session.

► The costliness of Cisco TelePresence solutions could curtail its use in contact center environments. Situations in which high-definition face-to-face meetings will be necessary on the part of contact center agents will be rare compared with the general contact center environment in which telephone conversations will suffice.

► Cisco lacks a telepresence solution for businesses wanting a lower cost solution that does not provide high-definition video. This lack of flexibility will allow Cisco telepresence competitors like LifeSize and Telanetix to undersell Cisco with a more cost effective, though not as feature-rich a solution.