Cisco unveils new ways to collaborate in the post-PC era for customers in the Middle East

During its UAE Expo, Cisco unveiled the next phase of its Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI), an IT system that was designed to simplify desktop virtualization and bring voice and video to the virtual workspace. Cisco VXI helps enterprises to take advantage of the financial, data security and workforce flexibility benefits offered by desktop virtualization, with the ability to integrate rich media and video collaboration capabilities to create next generation workspaces. 

With today’s announcement, Cisco is also unveiling the next generation of Cisco WebEx. From HD video advancements and enhanced mobile capabilities that enable all new ways to engage prior, during and after a meeting, Cisco WebEx is helping to change the meeting experience. Additionally, Cisco is extending cloud conferencing to more people with a new free basic edition of WebEx® designed for three people or less. 

The advancements Cisco is introducing today --from Cisco WebEx Connect to Cisco Jabber -- can change how people meet utilizing expanded on-premise and cloud-based services, and can give workers an easy way to collaborate directly from any device, driving new levels of business productivity and competitiveness. 

Cisco is also transforming the workspace by dramatically changing how people collaborate from Web applications they use every day, like SAP Streamwork, Cisco Quad or Google Apps. Today, whether mobile or at their desks, people find themselves having to open and utilize a variety of collaboration applications just to communicate on their own terms– whether that’s via instant message (IM), voice, or video. Cisco is making collaboration much easier by advancing Cisco Jabber with a freely downloadable Web browser plug-in that will help extend collaboration to tens of millions of people that use web browsers on Windows- or Mac-based OS devices. 

With these innovations and recent announcements around virtualization and unified communications, Cisco is continuing to transform the workspace. Additionally, with WebEx and the recently announced Cisco TelePresence solutions for small and medium sized businesses, Cisco is advancing its cloud-based offerings through the Cisco Collaboration cloud. 

Utilizing its expertise in Unified Communications, Cisco announced endpoints that enable high-quality voice and video in virtual desktop environments – a development that could help redefine collaboration in the virtual workspace. Additionally, Cisco announced other significant advancements including a broad strategic alliance agreement with Citrix and VMware. Combining Cisco leadership in networking, datacenter, endpoint devices and collaboration, with Citrix and VMware leadership in virtualization and the delivery of desktops, applications and data, this alliance is aimed at delivering solutions that help enterprises easily and cost effectively deploy virtual desktops to millions of PCs, Macs, tablets, smartphones and thin clients. This alliance will also deliver data center solutions that make it easier for organizations to deploy the infrastructure required to deliver IT as a service across multiple networks and geographies.

According to analyst estimates, desktop virtualization can reduce per-user PC support costs by 51 percent, an item that accounts for 67 percent of PC-related IT expenses. Virtual desktops also help protect the security of corporate intellectual property by keeping information in a data center rather than on physical devices. End users also benefit by being able to choose their own devices through which to access their virtual desktop. Combining these benefits with the productivity and business agility delivered through rich media and video applications further enhance the value to the end user and the business. 

Wael Abdulal, Collaboration Manager for UAE: “We’ve listened to our customers and significantly advanced Jabber and WebEx to enable seamless experiences on a range of devices and platforms, whether on premises or in the cloud. This approach further accelerates our strategic goal of enabling “any-to-any” collaboration while also making it easier than ever to collaborate with people inside or outside of an organization. In a post-PC era, businesses need ways to extend mobile, social, video and virtual collaboration on any mobile phone, Virtual Desktop, tablet or Internet-connected device. We are bringing that to life today. ”