It’s time for another great roundup of news from the Unified Communication space.
We’re now in mid-March, and many companies, and customers alike are looking back on the events of last year when many countries first went into lockdown. The world has come a long way since then, particularly in the communication space.
Over the last week, we’ve reported on some exciting stories, offered insights into some of the latest features of your favourite UC&C tools, and we even provided a full rundown of Microsoft Ignite 2021. If you didn’t have a chance to check out all of the reports from the last week, don’t worry. We’ve put together our top list of must-see stories here.
Zoom Launches Lawsuit Against RingCentral
A clash of the titans is on the cards in the UC and collaboration space. Zoom is suing RingCentral over something it refers to as a “classic bait and switch” for customers. The lawsuit revolves around the long-standing connection between RingCentral and Zoom, which has allowed the former to use Zoom video conferencing technology in its offering. RingCentral has launched its own video solution recently and claims to be moving customers away from the Zoom-powered product.
However, Zoom says that RingCentral is still selling its product, despite Zoom trying to terminate the collaboration in July 2020. Although the details on the lawsuit are a little blurry, it’s clear that Zoom wants to put an end to RingCentral selling its technology.
RingCentral has since been awarded a temporary restraining order against Zoom, allowing it to continue selling the Meetings product.
Verizon Introduces New Microsoft Teams Solution
Leading collaboration and communication solution, BlueJeans by Verizon, announced an update to its Gateway for Teams offering recently. The BlueJeans gateway provides companies with an opportunity to expand their collaboration efforts to employees wherever they might be. Microsoft also announced Verizon is one of the first partners of the Microsoft Operator Connect Platform.
The Microsoft Teams Operator Connect System and BlueJeans gateway are two significant steps forward in Verizon’s strategy to drive better collaboration and communication experiences for the future workplace. The President of Global Enterprise for Verizon commented on the release, noting that modern companies are more in need of the right collaborative environments today than ever.
Teams Recovers from Major Outage
On 15 March 2021, everyone’s favourite collaboration software, Microsoft Teams, hit a massive snag. The Teams environment was hit with an outage that affected multiple Microsoft 365 and Azure services across the ecosystem. Microsoft released a statement about the issue, and responded to customers on Twitter, noting that the worldwide problem was caused by a change to the solution’s authentication system.
Services like Microsoft Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, and Forms were all impacted, although not all users experienced issues. Microsoft kept users updated through Twitter as it rolled back the authentication update, which took a little longer than expected. By 16 March, services were back up and running.
Microsoft Combines Teams and Azure Communication Services
Microsoft is once again delivering new solutions for its growing audience of users. During the Microsoft Ignite Conference of October 2020, the tech giant announced the introduction of Azure Communication Services, a solution intended to help Microsoft become a true UCaaS innovator. The Azure Communication Services help companies to reach their customers through access to voice, video, chat, SMS, and other services.
Now, Microsoft has announced that businesses can use the Azure function to connect to users in a range of mediums, through the Microsoft Teams environment. This means that employees can maintain an environment they feel comfortable with when collaborating with their colleagues and connecting to external parties and customers.
Microsoft Ignite News Roundup 2021
Microsoft Ignite is a massive event for the digital landscape, with countless companies and customers looking forward to the announcements each year. This year’s Ignite Conference from March 2021 was brimming with fantastic updates and insights into everything from Microsoft Teams to the Viva update, and the potential arrival of mixed reality meetings thanks to Microsoft Mesh and HoloLens.
Our Publisher, Rob Scott, and expert guest Tom Arbuthnot came together for a video discussion over some of the exciting new announcements coming from Microsoft during Ignite. The pair address things like the arrival of Microsoft Operator Connect, Teams Webinars, and Teams Connect for shared channels. Other topics include increased integration for Dynamics and Teams, Microsoft ACS, and more.
What were your favourite stories from the last week? You can join the conversation with us on social media to discuss the latest announcements!
