Overview

Collaboration and Cisco

Global value chains, information overload, more mobile workforces, and the growing consumer use of IT are the new norm - and they require new collaboration capabilities.

Web 2.0 tools are changing the way in which information is created, published, managed, and consumed. These changes help organizations to work more closely internally, and with their customers, suppliers, partners and contractors.

Technology advances are supporting an increasingly mobile and distributed workforce with consumer-based tools that need to operate with standardized communications.

The Cisco vision for collaboration focuses on facilitating new and better collaboration experiences that translate to tangible and differentiated business value.

Cisco Collaboration Architecture

Cisco Collaboration Architecture is founded on the principles of interoperability and openness.  Any device or application can use core collaboration services that are facilitated through a set of flexible deployment models, including

• On premises
• Software as a service (SaaS)
• Hybrid of both

Cisco Collaboration Architecture helps developers create enterprise applications that improve business productivity and efficiency, anywhere, anytime and on any device. This architecture is backed by the market-leading Cisco network infrastructure.  It is an ideal platform for both synchronous (same time, any place) and asynchronous (any time, any place) collaboration.

This collaboration architecture is designed to help you embed collaboration and unified communications capabilities in your applications quickly, easily and more securely.  You can deliver high-quality and highly secure experiences, including instant messaging, voice, video, and conferencing.

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Build Mobile, Social, Visual and Virtual Applications

In the post-PC era, collaboration in the workspace will embody four characteristics:-

• Mobile
• Social
• Visual
• Virtual

Cisco collaboration technologies are built based on these emerging technology trends.

"Mobile"

The expanding mobile workforce needs innovative mobile collaborative and unified communication applications to promote productivity.

Cisco Collaboration Architecture software development kits (SDKs) and APIs help application developers incorporate Cisco Collaboration and  Cisco Unified Communications capabilities into web applications.  These web applications can be delivered to any device, helping users be as productive from their mobile devices as they are from a traditional desk environment.

"Social"

As more consumers use their own IT device choices at work, the next phase of enterprise collaboration will be increasingly social. Your enterprise must be able to help employees, customers and partners easily find, share and collaborate around information.  Cisco offers an enterprise collaboration platform called Cisco WebEx Social (formerly Cisco Quad).  This platform combines the power of social networking, content creation, and real-time communications.  The Cisco WebEx Social API will help you embed many social features in your enterprise applications, including:-

• Feeds
• Status updates

"Visual"

Cisco strongly believes that "video is the new voice" and that video will become the default communications medium. Therefore, video is an integral part of all Cisco collaboration SDKs and APIs, helping you video-enable your applications quickly and more securely.

"Virtual"

Many IT departments have implemented desktop virtualization to reduce the total cost of asset ownership and improve data security.

PCs provide data access to corporate applications while users are in the office, but users cannot access interactive video and voice applications from a mobile environment. Cisco Collaboration Architecture helps IT integrate unified communications over a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) link with optional mobility.

Products, SDKs, APIs and technical resources

Cisco Collaboration Architecture comprises products and infrastructure that use applications, SDKs, and APIs to integrate collaboration and unified communications capabilities into third-party applications and devices.  

The Cisco interoperability goal is for any device or application to draw from the same core of collaborative services when working with Cisco Collaboration Architecture products, SDKs and APIs.

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In addition to SDKs and APIs, Cisco offers technical resources such as whitepapers, technical notes, blogs, RSS feeds, and forums.  These resources help you integrate collaboration and unified communications capabilities including voice, high-quality video, instant messaging, presence, voice messaging, desktop sharing, and conferencing.  You will find these on the relevant collaboration developer sites.  Choose where you want to go from the dropdown menu at the top of the page.