Report: Microsoft Ready to Take on VoIP

A report by IDC suggests that Microsoft is now stepping up its VoIP efforts and is poised for major initiatives in both the enterprise and carrier space.

According to new research from IDC, the centerpiece of this increased activity is SIP-based collaborative applications being developed for the Microsoft Office Live Communications Server (LCS) 2005product.

In the past, Microsoft has kept a low profile around its development and marketing strategy for VoIP. But all of that is about to change. The company has developed partnerships with major IP-PBX vendors, such as Siemens and Alcatel, to help jump-start the move into enterprise IP telephony. These partnerships represent an important step toward strengthening Microsoft’s position in the VOIP space. On the flipside, however, many vendors in the IP PBX market worry about Microsoft as a competitor, especially in the area of the high-end collaborative applications. Real-time collaborative applications such as instant messaging and Web conferencing increasingly have VoIP features and this association will dramatically enhance VoIP’s stature.

“VoIP has become a lightning rod for a new competitive dynamic between IT and telecom vendors,” notes Tom Valovic IDC’s program director for VoIP Infrastructure. “A battle for the enterprise desktop is looming between major IT and telecom vendors, and at the center of it are innovative types of user-defined communications and the marriage of telecom-based convergence and IT-based desktop collaboration.”