Unified Communications Resources

September 9, 2008

The seventh Resource Guide from The IT-Finance Connection focuses on unified communications. UC is a bit of a judgment call: Where does VoIP, IM and other platforms end and UC begin? Different vendors and analysts have slightly different definitions for UC. The common theme is that UC provides the ability to perform a variety of different messaging tasks with one other person or a group no matter what device or network is being used. That’s a fancy way of saying that UC is comprehensive and takes other types of communications, such as VoIP, a step farther.

The other guides–on and The IT-Finance Connection podcasts, can be linked from this page.

Photo courtesy of Mark Pellegrini and used under the GNU Free Documentation License

A Guide to Unified Communications Data on the Web

Resource	Type of Data	Description
Realtime Community	Blog	Lots of good analysis
Unified Communications	Wikipedia	Good links, as usual
No Jitter	Article	Follow the vendors because approaches differ
Unified Communications	Vendor site	Cisco uses a network-based approach
UC Site Map	Vendor site	Microsoft focuses on the end points
Unified Communications Strategies	Blog	Good information, analysis
Nemertes Research	Analyst firm	Good insights into a complex topic
Wainhouse Research	Analysts’ site	Wainhouse is an important voice in this sector
BroadDev	Blog	No shortage of informative blogs in this sector
Unified Communications: Helping to Integrate	Article	Hands on and helpful
Unified Communications + Collaboration = IBM's UC² Strategy	Vendor site	Of course, Big Blue is a major player here
Unified Communications	Vendor site	Key enterprise player and important in UC
Unfied Communications: Keeping Lines Secured	Article	UC and security, a vital topic
Unified Communications Security for Mid-Size Companies	Article	More on security
Is UC Tactical or Strategic?	Article	"Is UC Tactical or Strategic?"--A good question, we think