HP Reduces Unified Communications Complexity

Unified Communications (News - Alert) technology is great for communicating with colleagues and contacts across the world; there’s no doubt about that. Still, there is always room for improvement. According to HP, what UC needs now is less complexity, and to that end, the company has introduced new offerings designed to address this matter.

HP has introduced a complete MSR Survivable Branch Communications Module, as well as a MSR Open Architecture Platform with VMware vSphere Series. These are included with its new open standards-based multiservice router solutions, and include tighter integration with Microsoft (News - Alert) Lync as well as UC as a Service.

With these new offerings, HP aims to address the many challenges that enterprises face when adopting new communication tools. This includes not only the complexity, but inconsistent tools, lack of controls, network interdependency, and many more issues. These new solutions can streamline and simplify communications, thanks to its interoperability with Microsoft and cloud-based platforms.

“Our value proposition is actually quite unique in the industry, but it’s very, very compelling to CIOs, and that is really around simplification of their network,” explains Bethany Mayer, Senior VP and General Manager of Hewlett-Packard (News - Alert) Networking Group. “The network has been for many, many years, a very complex infrastructure, very fragile, very difficult to manage and change, and as a result, many CIOs have really struggled with making changes to respond to their business using the network. And so our focus within HP Networking and everything we do is focused around simplification of that networking, architecture, the infrastructure, and the operating activities that go on with that network.”

With the MSR SBM, users get a single, modular system that can provide real-time communication even when a wide area or corporate network is not available. It’s also in the process of qualifying for the Microsoft Lync Unified Communications Open Interoperability Program. Meanwhile, the MSR OAP with VMware vSphere Series takes third-party applications on MSR30 and MSR50 Series routers, integrating them to let virtualized services be delivered on a single platform.

Is Unified Communications technology still too complex? There are certainly a lot of issues one must consider when purchasing and setting up their UC systems, so in spite of attempts to make it easier, it still has a ways to go. Even the user-friendliest of designs still encounter these basic issues with interoperability, networks, and so on. HP is helping make it easier for people and businesses to communicate, eliminating as much complexity as it can.