The first month of 2020 is finally almost over, and we’re all raring to see what the rest of 2020 has to deliver.
Despite some serious unrest throughout the rest of the world in the form of political uncertainty, natural disasters, and disease epidemics, the news in the UC sector has remained largely positive.
Just as we predicted at the end of 2019, the start of the new decade has been packed full of innovation, consolidation, and collaboration. This last week has been no exception, particularly now that the UC Summit is open and available to access.
If you’ve struggled to keep on top of the news over the last 7 days, here are some of the stories you don’t want to miss out on.
Comcast Buys Blueface
Consolidation has been a common trend in the UC and collaboration space recently, as businesses of all sizes look for new ways to optimise and grow for a new generation of customers. Recently, on the 27th of January, the American Telecoms conglomerate, Comcast, announced that it has completed its acquisition of Blueface, the Ireland-based provider of UCaaS tech.
The Comcast portfolio of business-grade communication solutions will now include the proprietary and fully-customisable UC platform from Blueface as part of its offer, further helping organisations to find the UC&C services best suited to their needs. You can learn more about the acquisition in our full news report.
Avaya Appoints New Managing Director for UK
Avaya is another business that’s been seeing a lot of strategic growth in recent months. In 2019, Avaya announced its new partnership with RingCentral, designed to take the company further into the age of cloud. Now, the brand is introducing Steve Joyner to the C-Suite as the new Managing Director for the UK and Ireland.
Joyner will be reporting to the VP of Europe, Ronald Rubens, and he’ll be working on championing and enhancing the customer-first culture of the Avaya brand. Rubens will also be working hard to take Avaya’s cloud strategy to the next level as the company continues to embark on a massive-scale digital transformation.
Cisco Patches IOS Software Risks
Cisco, one of the leaders in the communication and collaboration landscape, recently announced that it has successfully patched up some high-risk security flaws that recently appeared in its portfolio. The flaws were evident on the Cisco IOS and Cisco IOS XE releases that emerged prior to 2019.09.19.1956m.
According to Cisco, the company found a vulnerability within the web-based interface of the Video Mesh for Cisco Webex. This vulnerability allowed remote intruders to perform certain commands within an affected system. The flaw was instantly deemed a high-priority case by Cisco, and the team worked to repair the bug as quickly as possible.
Microsoft Teams Releases its January Update
Microsoft Teams might be the most popular and fastest-growing collaboration tool for enterprises today, but it’s not going to just sit back on its laurels now that it’s achieved the top spot. Microsoft is still working on making Microsoft Teams the best collaborative solution for all businesses, which means constantly rolling out a stream of new technology updates.
UC Today’s Rob Scott spoke to Microsoft MVP and Expert Guest Tom Arbuthnot, about all of the latest updates to the Microsoft portfolio, including the arrival of the new Lenovo ThinkSmart video endpoint, and the introduction of new features for Teams focused on firstline workers.
Top Tips for CPaaS in 2020
Communications Platforms as a Service might not be a new concept for 2020, but it’s certainly something that many people are beginning to pay more attention to. As businesses search for more flexibility from their communication and collaboration network, CPaaS allows them to escape the one-size-fits-all environment once and for all.
The question is, how do you get started with CPaaS if you’re new to the marketplace? This week, we covered some of our top tips for CPaaS, and you can make the most of this flexible new approach to communication. From learning about APIs to understanding your market leaders, read our latest guide for some much-needed insights.
What are your favourite stories from the last week? Let us know in the comments or come and join the conversation with us on social media. Don’t forget to check out the UC Summit if you haven’t already, too. The summit is open and ready to access now!
