Competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Google has appeared in the unified communications market.

In July 1, in recent years, unified communication has become a technical specialty of Network enterprises. However, Google's recent sudden move into the field of voice communication and collaboration, it is very likely that the competition in the Unified Communication Market will be dramatically disrupted.

This does not mean that Google Voice and Google Wave, which will be released in the second half of this year, will destroy products related to Cisco, Microsoft and other Unified Communication vendors, however, Google's participation may disrupt the already chaotic competition.

The evidence is commented by Doug Dennerline, senior vice president of Cisco Collaboration software: "the appearance of Google Wave proves that what we have done in the past two years is correct, "Dennerline said this at a web meeting with reporters and analysts today. "We are constantly innovating and then innovating. Soon you will see the cool products we have developed ."

People who have been tracking the computer industry for a long time know that when one vendor says that another provider has provided a "proof" for them, the true meaning is: "They have already broken into our living room, but we must make them unable to move." Dennerline cautiously implies that Cisco is able to deal with Google's challenges. "Innovation, reinnovation" is of course to maintain a competitive advantage.

Although Google's Voice and Wave seem to be more oriented to consumers, such as the instant messaging, e-mail, and social network tools they provide, Dennerline immediately said, "social networks are also very important to enterprises."

Yankee Group analyst Zeus Kerravala said at today's web conference that Google Voice and Wave are not currently threatening Cisco, Microsoft, and Voice switch vendors like Avaya or Siemens. But he also added, "in the long term, Google will become an important role in the voice and unified communications market ."

The main reason is the size of Google. "Google has a very high consumer psychological share and a huge capital, and as long as he is willing, it can pose a huge threat to anyone," Kerravala said.

Google seems to be more threatening to Cisco than to other vendors, because Cisco wants to retain its traditional enterprise IT customers and serve consumers, especially in video technology.

In March this year, Cisco acquired Pure Digital technology to acquire Flip handheld photography technology. Cisco also plans to develop the consumer version of its telepresence system.

"We believe that video technology will become a critical means to promote the development of collaboration. These methods include Internet videos, desktop videos, and consumer telepresence, "said Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior at today's web conference.

Since Cisco has clearly seen that its users come from enterprises and consumers, the more likely question is whether Google will also take its Voice and Wave products out of the consumer market and enter the enterprise market.

However, the answer to this question is not important in a sense. The reason is that Google has clearly seen that in multiple markets, consumers are also enterprise employees, and they are inseparable. We can consider this as follows: If Google's Voice service (this service can include all your phone numbers to a single number, in addition, there are some additional functions such as converting a voice mail to a text mail, which can be provided free of charge to thousands of consumers. Will these people not use it at work?

Large enterprises may not allow their employees to use Google Voice or Google Wave at work, but who can stop them and what method can they use to stop them? Two years ago, when the first generation of the iPhone was available, large enterprises had similar concerns. Some people used the iPhone at work despite the security warnings issued by the enterprise IT department.

Cisco's Warrior said Cisco will provide the virtual speech service. This can be interpreted as the most direct response to Google Voice, even if Cisco officials did not directly acknowledge this.

Kerravala also believes that Cisco's virtual Voice service is undoubtedly targeted at Google Voice. In addition, Google Voice's free policy poses a threat to many Voice and data operators.

Cisco's customers include many voice and data operators. Although the market war in the Unified Communication Field between Google and Cisco and operators has not yet been sniffed, this war will evolve into a fierce war in the future.

1. "Special" Contribution of Unified Communication to green IT
2. Cisco points to Google