Cisco Systems, a networking company, will add Microsoft''s Teams messaging app to its meeting devices on Wednesday, offering users with a different experience than the Webex videoconferencing app.
Cisco''s Jeetu Patel, head of Security & Collaboration, said the company intends to be the hardware platform for a broad spectrum of conference software solutions.
"The way this market is evolving is very similar to that of Netflix, Disney, HBO, and Hulu," Patel said, with consumers having multiple subscriptions to streaming services such as Netflix, Disney, HBO, and HBO.
"There will be times that people want to jump on a Microsoft Teams call, they want to jump on a Zoom call, and they want to jump on a Google call," says the author.
Patel said he believes the company will benefit if customers have a better time using multiple platforms.
In the midst of the coronavirus epidemic, Webex, once a widely used conferencing platform, has lost out to several newcomers, including Zoom Video Communications, which was founded by an early Webex engineer.
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Ilya Bukshteyn, vice president of Microsoft Teams Calling and Devices, said the Teams Room software already runs on several other hardware devices and will be available on Cisco devices from the first quarter of next year.
At its annual Ignite meeting, Microsoft made the announcement.
Patel admits that "many people have a misconception about Webex as their granddad''s software," but said in the last two years, Cisco has expanded through many new capabilities, including real-time translation and transcription of meetings, that would eventually lead to a multi-language conversation via Webex''s video platform.
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