Microsoft, Cisco Team Up

location based services
portable navigation devices



y Ivy LessnerTheStreet.com Staff Reporter8/20/2007 3:05 PM EDTClick here for more stories by Ivy Lessner

SAN FRANCISCO -- Microsoft (MSFT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and Cisco Systems (CSCO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) are determined not to be left behind on the tech junk heap with yesteryear's Betamaxes and Wang word processors.

Global ForexThe two competitors announced their collaboration, which has been under way for nearly three years, at a New York hotel Monday. During their partnership, they've designed some product integrations and made some enterprise communications systems work together.
The question of Microsoft's position in the tech landscape is being watched closely, as its dominance as the software provider is seen beginning to ebb. To maintain growth, the company has been throwing its cash into research and development across a range of technologies, and forging interoperability and patent-share ties along the way. Last year, Microsoft signed a contract to make its Windows environment play well with Novell's (NOVL - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) SUSE Linux operating system.
This deal could remove obstacles from sales of next-generation systems and products due to customers sitting on the sidelines waiting for architecture issues between Microsoft's software and Cisco's hardware and software to be worked out.
Engineering leaders from each company demonstrated a "mash-up" in which Microsoft's Exchange, Active Directory and Virtual Earth identified and located specific employees of a fictional company over Cisco's equipment and then displayed their physical locations (derived from GPS-enabled devices) on a map. In another demo, Microsoft's Office Communicator dialed an employee's cell phone over a Cisco environment using Cisco's communications manager. These demos focused on areas where the two companies compete head to head: unified communications.