Sneaky Cisco plots to take over Microsoft’s world
Who is Microsoft’s biggest competitor? Some say “itself,” and with good reason, as Computerworld points out. Microsoft’s biggest Windows competitor is pirated Windows.
But there’s another company that is increasingly setting its sights on Microsoft, and it’s doing so largely unnoticed. The company is networking giant Cisco, which through a mix of open-source software and collaboration technology is launching a credible campaign to deep-six Microsoft’s desktop dominance.
In the past year Cisco has acquired PostPath, which enables it to move Exchange users to its Linux-based, drop-in Exchange clone (PDF), and Jabber, which adds presence and instant messaging. It already had WebEx and more, giving Cisco a well-rounded collaboration story that mimics Microsoft in key places, like Exchange/e-mail, but surpasses it in others.