Polycom Announces Industry First: Extension to Polycom RealPresence Platform, New RealPresence CloudAXIS Suite Lets Customers Extend Enterprise-Grade Video Collaboration to Users of Skype, Facebook and Google Talk
New Zealand – October 10, 2012 – In a move that will provide universal access to enterprise-grade video collaboration to hundreds of millions of people, Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in open standards-based unified communications (UC), today unveiled Polycom® RealPresence™ CloudAXIS™ Suite, which lets Polycom customers easily add anyone on Skype®, Facebook®, Google Talk™ and other business video applications to their video conferences from a browser. RealPresence CloudAXIS is a suite of software that runs on the Polycom® RealPresence™ Platform in private enterprise clouds or public clouds, and securely extends enterprise-grade video and content collaboration outside the firewall to other businesses (B2B) and consumers (B2C) via a browser to enable truly ubiquitous video collaboration at the highest quality, reliability, and security.
The RealPresence CloudAXIS Suite is ideal for Polycom partners and service providers to expand from offering Video-as-a-Service (VaaS) to Video Collaboration-as-a-Service (VCaaS) – adding applications such as recording and streaming, web conferencing, and collaboration tools (e.g., digital whiteboards) – thus creating greater customer value and new revenue streams. RealPresence CloudAXIS also offers additional value for large enterprises with the RealPresence Platform, enabling customers to create private enterprise clouds to extend video collaboration to other businesses and consumers for B2B and B2C connectivity.
“Today Polycom is transforming the industry with a solution that equips our customers to extend enterprise-grade video collaboration to everyone. We’re removing the impediments that have hampered video collaboration from becoming ubiquitous by allowing our customers to easily add anyone with a browser to their video and content collaboration sessions with the highest quality, reliability and security,” said Andy Miller, CEO, Polycom. “Polycom RealPresence CloudAXIS solutions and our rich suite of open APIs give businesses and service providers the extended interoperability on which to build scalable cloud-based video collaboration services that we believe will deliver new value to customers and create significant new growth opportunities.”
A Simple and Safe Transformative Experience
RealPresence CloudAXIS Suite delivers an instantly intuitive web interface that will make it easier than ever for customers to safely and securely connect with partners, suppliers, job candidates, patients, students – anyone outside their organisation/firewall – with one click. Upon launching, the RealPresence CloudAXIS client collects presence information from all participants who are online from the host’s social and video apps such as Skype, Facebook, or Google Talk and then imports those contacts into the CloudAXIS global directory. The host can then drag and drop the names of participants they want to invite to the video conference. Once the host starts the call, the invited participants receive a hyperlink in the chat window of their social or video app and, in one click, are immediately placed into the host’s enterprise-grade, CloudAXIS video collaboration session via their browser.
RealPresence CloudAXIS Suite eliminates the security risks and administrative headaches posed by rogue video solutions and unsupported third-party video clients introduced onto corporate networks by employees who communicate over unsecure connections. RealPresence CloudAXIS also enables enterprises to leverage their investment in existing standards-based Polycom video collaboration systems– including room/group, desktop or mobile video solutions – and the RealPresence Platform.
“What has held back pervasive video conferencing in enterprises is the lack of an easy-to-use and easy-to-access solution that also delivers the security, reliability, interoperability and affordability organisations and service providers need to deliver video to the masses,” said Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal analyst of ZK Research. “Polycom is delivering a groundbreaking solution addressing these critical factors, which we believe will eliminate barriers for adoption and significantly accelerate the use of video collaboration across any size enterprise or any industry.”
New Market and Growth Opportunities for Service Providers
RealPresence CloudAXIS Suite fast-tracks partners and service providers that want to get to market quickly with new subscription-based revenue streams via both B2C and B2B VCaaS offerings. VCaaS enables service providers to offer value-added applications on top of cloud-delivered video conferencing, including recording and streaming, web conferencing, collaboration tools such as digital whiteboards, and collaboration apps for vertical markets such as healthcare and education. Service providers are in a unique position to capture the VCaaS market opportunity as they have loyal customer bases, success in delivering a portfolio of B2B and B2C services, and the infrastructure and experience in driving monthly subscription models.
Service providers can co-brand the experience, including the user interface, and by leveraging Polycom’s recently announced suite of open APIs for the RealPresence Platform, they can integrate the RealPresence CloudAXIS suite with operations and billing support systems (OSS/BSS), as well as create unique value-added enterprise or consumer applications.
Many leading service providers, including Airtel, BT, China Unicom, TIM Intelig, 8x8, Telstra and Vietnam Post and Telecommunications, are already using Polycom video collaboration solutions to power their cloud-delivered video offerings.
“Gen-i, Telecom New Zealand’s ICT services division, is seeing significant interest from customers who want an easy to use video conferencing solution so that they can deliver video collaboration across their organisation, without IT, performance or security headaches,” said Jo Allison, Acting CEO, Gen-i Australasia. “Polycom RealPresence CloudAXIS is very compelling, as it provides a browser-based solution that is powerful and simple for the user, but has the backbone and infrastructure to ensure it meets the stringent security and quality requirements of the enterprise and the scalability and resilience of a service provider.”
RealPresence CloudAXIS Suite Delivers Robust Software that Powers Solution
The RealPresence CloudAXIS Suite consists of a global directory presence engine, web client (supports HTML5-compatible browsers), and flexible resource broker that dynamically allocates and brokers crucial variables such as bandwidth, databases, sessions, and media to ensure an optimal user experience. An extension to the RealPresence Platform, RealPresence CloudAXIS Suite delivers carrier-grade scale, security, and reliability.
Availability
Polycom plans to make available the Polycom® RealPresence™ CloudAXIS™ Suite to enterprises in Q1 2013, and also plans to make available trials for service providers in Q1 2013. For more information, visit http://www.polycom.asia or call 1-800-POLYCOM.
Note to editors: multimedia is available in the press kit.
About Polycom
Polycom is the global leader in open standards-based unified communications (UC) solutions for voice and video collaboration, trusted by more than 415,000 customers around the world. Polycom solutions are powered by the Polycom® RealPresence™ Platform, comprehensive software infrastructure and rich APIs that interoperate with the broadest set of communication, business, mobile and cloud applications and devices to deliver secure face-to-face video collaboration in any environment. Polycom and its ecosystem of over 7,000 partners provide truly unified communications solutions that deliver the best user experience, highest multi-vendor interoperability, and lowest TCO. Visit www.polycom.asia or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to learn how we’re pushing the greatness of human collaboration forward.