UC Federation sounds like a sporting event, but in reality, it’s the hub that allows you to have the same UC user experience as business associates in different companies. It’s about establishing interoperability and trust across two or more UC platforms. Different companies can work together as if they were served by the same UC platform, using shared presence information, instant messaging and other features such as multi-part chat and Web-based conferencing, to create a seamless enterprise communications experience.
The very essence of UC Federation is a great solution for enterprise communications. Common challenges the enterprise faces are boundaries, having access to communication across platforms and policy management.
It’s a classic hub and spoke model, which provides a connected space for enterprises and provides a seamless exchange of information. Where UC makes it easy to have the best in telecommunications, Federation allows you to connect with people outside your organization as easily as you can with people inside your organization.
One benefit of a Federation includes the ability to connect multivendor systems through simple scripts for SIP interoperability. With UC Federation, you can seamlessly connect multi-vendor PBX (News - Alert) systems and integrate PBX-based voice services into your messaging platforms and videoconferencing applications—all without upgrading or adding new features to your existing PBX systems.
As the enterprise demand for video-based communications rises, so does the complexity of delivering consistent video services to a wide variety of endpoints such as desktops, video phones, smartphones and tablets.
Some UC federation providers include NextPlane, Esna Technologies (News - Alert) Inc. and IntelePeer, and all offer services that remove the complexity associated with UC federation. NextPlane’s UC Exchange is called the first real-time collaborative business community for UC platforms with a searchable directory of federation-ready organizations. The cloud-based service enables companies with disparate unified communications systems to connect without additional hardware or software required.
UC is a big deal amongst businesses. An InformationWeek survey found that 68 percent of respondents say their companies have either deployed UC or plan to do so within 24 months. Real-time collaboration, and collaborative business communities that bring together employees, partners and customers is the big trend, and UC speaks to many of these. With Federation, the need of sharing presence across different domains is met.
It’s not quite the boom that UC is, but given its ability to work with external systems, cutting out latencies, and offering a viable way for people to work together, Federation is a sound choice for enterprise communications.
Edited by Alisen Downey