Mere days after signing a vendor partnership agreement withSiemens Enterprise Comms, Polycom has ramped up the anti-Cisco rhetoric after allyingwith network infrastructure specialist Juniper Networks.
The deal provides for both parties to jointly sell anddevelop video-based services for their joint customer base. The alliance is setto bear fruit by the middle of the year.
The happy couple released preliminary details of a serviceprovider solution to enable managed video services over a converged network,which they claimed will allow the channel to drive costs out of videoconferencing services by maximising the existing capabilities of the customernetwork. It will be made available through Junos Space, Juniper's partnerecosystem programme.
Juniper executive vice president of strategic alliances,Gerri Elliott, said an "exploding interest" in video had created "an urgentneed for a more reliable and cost-effective model for delivering assuredquality video services."
Rival Cisco made its name supplying the nuts and boltsbehind the network but has expanded aggressively into new sectors in the past12 months, frequently putting it at loggerheads with its competitors and allies.
It notably upset Hewlett-Packard after announcing its UCSdatacentre proposition last spring, and CEO John Chambers has been an outspokenadvocate of Internet video, complementing its own enterprise telepresence suitewith buys into both consumer and midmarket video.
Polycom initially welcomed Cisco's acquisition of Tandberg,saying it proved that the video market had a strong future and validated itsown strategy.
However, it must now react to the perception that it needsto do more to compete with the combined forces of Cisco and Tandberg, and haspledged to cut further, similar deals.
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