The next-gen data center? Check: Cisco's Unified Computing System (UCS) looks like a winner. Multi-purpose switching? Cisco's Nexus series has that covered. What about unified communications and collaboration (UCC)?

Until recently, Cisco's UCC strategy has been long on communications and comparatively short on collaboration. That's about to change.

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Earlier this month, Cisco made its play for the enterprise collaboration space, announcing a new collaborative platform dubbed Cisco Quad.

Cisco positions Quad -- which won't be generally available until Q1 of next year -- as an "immersive" collaborative platform that supports voice, video and social networking. It touts Quad's out-of-the-box integration with popular content management systems (CMS), including SharePoint from Microsoft Corp. and Documentum from EMC Corp. In addition, Quad is designed to interoperate with Cisco's own UCC offerings, including Cisco Unified Communications, WebEx, Unified Presence and Show and Share. (Quad users will receive Show and Share licenses that support video authoring, publishing and editing, Cisco says.)

Cisco also plans to deliver Quad apps for Apple Inc.'s iPad and iPhone devices.

Cisco officials claim that Quad addresses the gamut of collaboration in the enterprise. "[W]e've identified...four different places where people ‘live' at work," said Murali Sitaram, vice president and general manager for Cisco's Enterprise Collaboration Platform business unit, in a Cisco-sponsored interview.

For example, Sitaram observed, "Some people live in documents or creating content, be it PowerPoint presentations, videos, IM or other multimedia. Some people live in just talking to others or hanging out in meetings, connecting with one or few or many." Other employees interact and collaborate in very different contexts, Sitaram continued. "There are other people who live in business transaction systems. It might be a worker [at] a package-shipping service who's taking an order or ensuring delivery of a box from a central facility to a customer," he suggested, adding that still other employees "live" in virtual space: "[T]here's a growing number of people who live more in social systems, creating through crowd sourcing, blogs, wikis and connecting with communities."

Quad, he claimed, will deliver a collaborative experience that's suitable for all employees -- from transaction-oriented delivery folk to content creators to compulsive meet-and-greeters like Sitaram himself.

"Cisco Quad is at the nexus of these four systems, integrating the creation of content, the communications platforms, the business transactional systems and the social capabilities," he concluded.
--By Stephen Swoyer