Polycom frees users from Vendor Lock-In with Support for TIP

Polycom, the global leader in standards-based unified communications (UC), announced a new software update to the Polycom RealPresence Platform that allows customers using Polycom and other standards-based video collaboration solutions to join calls with non-standard Cisco TelePresence Systems, and vice-versa. The latest RealPresence Platform software update, released today, also further extends interoperability across Microsoft and IBM UC environments.

The Polycom RealPresence Platform is the most comprehensive software infrastructure for universal video collaboration, and this software update builds on Polycom’s strategy to enable universal video collaboration across the widest range of business, video, mobile, and social networking applications, and delivers on the promise Polycom made earlier this year to liberate users who for years have been locked into proprietary telepresence solutions. The interoperability with Cisco TelePresence Systems is made possible by Polycom’s support for the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP), which is a communications protocol developed by Cisco and only implemented on Cisco TelePresence System suites.

“This is a great win for anyone using video collaboration. Our support for TIP is freeing users of non-standard Cisco telepresence by allowing them to connect to millions of other standards-based video systems that are deployed worldwide,” said Sudhakar Ramakrishna, executive vice president and general manager of UC solutions and chief development officer, Polycom. “This solution further establishes Polycom as the leader of open standards and interoperability, and provides investment protection for our customers.”  

A Simpler Enterprise UC Environment

“Enterprises need to ensure they use open and interoperable protocols between network building blocks to ensure that they can achieve a high degree of functionality while preserving or migrating their existing investments,” said Mark Fabbi, vice president, distinguished analyst, Gartner. “By leveraging multi-vendor networks rather than a single-vendor approach, enterprises can improve network capabilities while significantly reducing costs and simplifying network complexity.”

TIP integration was initially enabled on Polycom desktop, room-based and immersive-telepresence endpoints for point-to-point calls. The latest Polycom software releases include full native TIP support for video calls, and extended support for H.323 and SIP networks, which allows organisations to access shared UC environments such as IBM^® Sametime^® and Microsoft Lync, even if participants are using legacy systems. Benefits of the software update include:

Affordable interoperability. The Polycom software helps reduce costs and complexity by eliminating the need for gateways and licenses.

Ease of use. By deploying the Polycom RMX universal collaboration server within the platform, organisations can connect non-standard TIP systems to multi-party calls–simply by dialing into a video conference virtual meeting room.

Reliable, enterprise-quality multi-party collaboration. Polycom’s virtualisation management capabilities (Polycom DMA 7000) efficiently distribute calls across massively scaled networks, while auto failover protections ensure that services remain available even if servers go down.

Investment Protection. Organisations can add standards-based Polycom video solutions that work seamlessly with existing equipment.