Polycom Introduces RealPresence Platform for Universal Video Teamwork

This software infrastructure will enable teamwork using universal video by offering security, reliability, management, and mass scalability so that video can be a cloud-based service for large corporations, small and medium-sized businesses, and consumers.

Polycom On Wednesday, the company presented the RealPresence platform, a software infrastructure for teamwork through universal video. The Polycom RealPresence platform (formerly known as Polycom UC Intelligent Core) aims to streamline HD telepresence solutions.

The platform's open standards approach ensures integration with hundreds of unified communications and social networking applications, including Microsoft Lync 2010, IBM Sametime, and Jive's social enterprise platform. In addition, the RealPresence platform integrates with the network and security infrastructure essential to deliver secure teamwork with any number of people in heterogeneous networks with bandwidth consumption up to 50% lower than other solutions.

The Polycom RealPresence platform also offers security, reliability, management, and mass scalability so that video can be a cloud-based service for large corporations, small and medium-sized businesses, and consumers.

Andy Miller, President and CEO of Polycom, said, "With our open standards-based platform, innovative devices, broad service offerings, and native application interoperability, Polycom is playing an essential role in what promises to be the network effect of video teamwork for hundreds of millions of people around the world."

"While many know Polycom for its popular peripherals, Polycom's software is gaining recognition among customers who need to 'unify' all of their UC tools, especially as video collaboration moves beyond firewalls," said Richard Costello, senior analyst at IDC.

Today's RealPresence platform announcement is a key component of Polycom's software strategy to incorporate the adjective "unified" into unified communications that require open standards-based software interfaces and integration so that applications, systems, networks, and video-enabled devices from different vendors can interoperate seamlessly. The ease of use enabled by interoperability drives adoption, as users expect to work face-to-face as a team in every conversation, training session, interview, product review, employee onboarding, sales and partner engagement, company meeting, event, etc. In addition, the increased mobility of workers is also adding to the growing demand for more scalable video solutions.

The Polycom RealPresence platform offers enterprise-grade ease of use and carrier-grade reliability and scalability, supporting up to 25,000 concurrent sessions and 75,000 device records, five times the size of Polycom's nearest competitor.

The functional modules of the RealPresence platform are:

• Universal Video Collaboration: Teamwork software using video, voice, and multipoint content that connects multiple protocols, allowing people and content to connect at the highest quality at minimum cost.
• Video Resource Management: Software to centrally manage, monitor, and deliver video teamwork in an organization.
• Virtualization: software to manage and distribute calls in teamwork networks with scalability, redundancy, and reliability (up to 25,000 concurrent sessions and 75,000
device registrations on up to 64 video servers) needed by large global corporations and cloud deployments.
• Universal Access and Security: Software that easily and securely connects video participants inside and outside the organization while optimizing to deliver the best teamwork experience, whether it's within the large corporation, between businesses, or between businesses and consumers.
• Video Content Management: Software for secure video capture (recording and playback), as well as management, administration, and delivery of video content.

Broad partner ecosystem

An essential element of the Polycom RealPresence platform is integration with partner solutions in the areas of instant messaging/presence, telephony, web conferencing, video teamwork, mobile, social media, networking, and security. This gives customers the freedom to choose the best products with the assurance that they will interact. The platform acts as the central core in a UC environment and works with communications and business applications from hundreds of vendors, including instant messaging/presence and video teamwork (Microsoft Lync and IBM).

Sametime is natively integrated into the RealPresence platform, so users can initiate video teamwork simply and intuitively from these familiar tools. These solutions enable customers to consolidate video, voice, instant messaging/presence, and other teamwork applications on a large corporate communications platform such as Lync or Sametime.

Users can easily and comprehensively access all their teamwork tools through desktop and mobile devices. In addition, with Polycom's powerful call processing software, users can call a common extension regardless of the PBX system or device they are calling from. Connectivity is automatically enabled regardless of protocol standard, device, network, or location, providing IT with an innovative tool that meets user needs.

For call control, it allows you to integrate solutions from Avaya, BroadSoft, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft Corp., and Siemens, as well as many other call control platforms and Polycom's HD voice solutions. Adobe, AT&T, Cisco WebEx, Citrix, IBM, Intercall, and Microsoft provide web conferencing, while Apple, Motorola, Samsung, HP, and others provide mobile and tablet solutions.

In addition, Polycom announced that its HD video solutions will be integrated into Jive's social enterprise platform, enabling face-to-face video teamwork from anywhere (see today's related announcement). This joint solution will allow Jive customers to have video chats, group video calls, as well as record video meetings or messages for archiving, training and collaboration.

Polycom has also partnered with telecom providers to offer video as a service from the cloud. In June 2011, Polycom and 14 global telecom operators, including Airtel, AT&T, BCS Global, BT, Cable and Wireless Worldwide, Global Crossing, Glowpoint, iFormata Communications, Orange Business Services, PCCW Global, Telefonica, Telstra and Verizon, announced the Open Visual Cloud Consortium (OVCC).

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