Mar 21st, 2008 |
Eric Krapf breaks the news that IBM and Microsoft have agreed to conduct interoperability testing of Sametime and OCS and report their results at VoiceCon fall in November.
It’s obvious that the technical challenges in interfacing IM and presence capabilities between the two systems can be overcome, but the ability to interoperate is hindered by business considerations. I’ve never understood why I can connect any VOIP system to any other VOIP system using SIP, H.323 or even QSIG, but I still can’t federate presence and IM among many systems. Hopefully we’re seeing a breakdown in the walls preventing full interoperability.
There are system that can do this today (covergence.com), and I believe IBM even has it’s Sametime gateway able to speak to OCS in the labs, the issue has been licensing I believe.
It would be a great boon for customers if they got this working and available.
However it might do something that IBM or Microsoft doesn’t want, and that’s the ability to develop a coexistence roadmap for customers to a full transition to the other vendor…