Microsoft places VoIP bet

Microsoft this week delivered a slew of new software products delivering unified communications capabilities to enterprise users via IP-based networks.

The lynchpin of the launch is Microsoft's Office Communications Server 2007, server-based software for delivering voice-over-IP, video, instant messaging, conferencing and presence services and applications for business users.

Additional launches included Office Communicator 2007, client software for desktop communications; Office Live Meeting, a new version of its conferencing system; Roundtable, a conferencing phone with a 360-degree camera for capturing panoramic views; and updates to Exchange Server 2007, for tying email and calendaring into this new voice-driven world.

Microsoft is primarily competing with other enterprise IP voice companies, most notably Cisco but also Nortel, Avaya and others. It is also cooperating with them in areas as well, crafting a much-touted interop agreement with Cisco earlier this year and licensing key technology for its VoIP offering from Nortel.

On the service provider side, co-opetition is also the theme. There will be opportunities for telcos to deliver hosted version of Microsoft voice applications, much as they do with hosted Exchange services, for instance. And the move of office PBXs from TDM to IP meshes with the similar evolution of service provider networks.

But by aiming to move voice applications and call management out of the network and onto the enterprise server and desktop, Microsoft is also competing with carriers who want to deliver sophisticated managed IP voice services to enterprises as well.

Indeed, Microsoft's tagline for its new offerings is making telephony more "software-driven," -- an odd phrase given the amount of software intelligence in telecom service provider networks. But for Microsoft, software means software at the edges -- especially on the desktop.

"Once you get software in the mix," said Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in his keynote announcing the new products, "the capabilities go way beyond what anybody thinks of today when we think of phone calls."

With an announcement this big, it wasn't surprising to see Microsoft trot out partners across the stage as well. Most notable: Nortel, Ericsson and Mitel from the voice telephony market, as well as more than fifteen phone and device manufacturers building IP-based phones that work with Microsoft servers and applications.