Cisco vs. Microsoft ... vs. Google?Cisco vs. Microsoft ... vs. Google?

This could be the decade that Google and its Cloud/Web-centric vision makes its play as the enterprise communications platform.

For the past several years, there's been a lot of speculation about when and how Google may make its move in enterprise communications. Whenever you get outside of Google's core market in Web/search, it's difficult to predict just how the company will approach a given market--and I certainly don't have any inside knowledge about Google's plans in enterprise communications. But they do seem to have more to talk about this year, and a greater interest in talking about it. And they'll be sharing some of these ideas at Enterprise Connect Orlando in March.

For starters, we'll be hearing about Google's approach to the UC market. Adam Swidler of Google will (not surprisingly) be joining the session on Integrating UC with Google Apps. He'll also be bringing the Google perspective to our Monday strategic-level general session: UC Summit: Reality Check on Progress Toward UC. This is where we're hoping to hear a broader Google vision for its approach to the UC marketplace.

The path here seems logical: Google Apps, Gmail, and Hangouts are already positioned to mount a pure-play cloud-based challenge to Microsoft (Office, Exchange, and Skype respectively) in key areas. Now layer enterprise communications on top of these: Just as Microsoft saw an opportunity in integrating Lync communications with productivity apps, so Google has a chance to make a similar move -- although to date, the communications piece has come from third parties such as Esna and, most recently, Switch.co, rather than from a direct integration with a native Google communications platform.

In addition to the UC play, we've seen Google making moves on related markets. The company has released Chromebox for Meetings in an attempt to capture some of the business video market, and we'll have a Google speaker joining our panel, The Rise and Fall of Conference Room Video to discuss their perspective. In addition, Google late last year announced a partnership with Avaya to run Avaya's contact center software on Chromebooks. So Google appears to see a role for its devices within the enterprise in some specific niches.

One of the things we're learning as enterprise communications evolves past the PBX is that, for the foreseeable future at least, this is going to be a complex, multifaceted environment where voice, video, and data run across public and private networks, wireline and wireless. There are countless spots within those environments where innovative companies can carve out a value proposition for enterprises, and where enterprises may look to address specific business needs.

But there are also going to continue to be strategic vendors, horizontally focused companies that offer something like a broad platform that can serve multiple enterprise needs -- even if they never achieve true end-to-end status. This started with Cisco's expansion from the data network into voice in the 1990s, then Microsoft's move at the applications layer, from messaging and productivity into communications, in the 2000s. Will the 2010s be the decade of Google in enterprise communications? Well, the decade's almost half over, but there's still time for Google and its Cloud/Web-centric vision to make its play as the enterprise communications platform. I hope you can join us in Orlando to hear what Google's speakers have to say.

Join Eric at Enterprise Connect Orlando, March 16-19. Save $300 on conference passes when you register today with discount code: NJSPEAKER.

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