While the market is flooded with vendors offering Unified Communications (UC) products, IT heavyweights Cisco and Microsoft have clearly emerged as the leaders of the UC charge, albeit with considerably different architectures. Considering the widespread enterprise IT penetration each company has achieved, the directions that these particular vendors are taking will have significant implications for long term enterprise UC strategy. This research note provides an overview of:

• The core components of UC solutions.
• The UC architectures, alliances, and product portfolios of Cisco and Microsoft.
• Guidance on proceeding with UC planning.

IT leaders in the early stages of UC discovery need to have an understanding of how Cisco and Microsoft are approaching UC, including their product lineups and developing partnerships.