Polycom, Inc., one of the biggest companies offering unified communications (UC) solutions, just announced a package of two interoperable solutions to interact with HP and Microsoft's technology, creating a perfect combination between Polycom (News - Alert) RealPresence, HP Networking services and Microsoft's Lync UC solution.

As one unit, the solution will ease the process of delivery and management of the UC environments offered by Polycom that will help employees keep in contact through voice, video and several other communication methods from any point on the globe.

The solution, through its interoperability, will offer what's best about all three services into one high-tech networking platform with high-quality video that also helps businesses lower the costs of running the service. This will allow any end user to instantly initiate conferences in any setting.

"Together with HP and Microsoft (News - Alert), Polycom is delivering interoperable solutions that are greater than the sum of their parts,” said Sue Hayden, Polycom's EVP of Strategic Alliances. “They combine best-of-breed video collaboration capabilities and tested interoperability from three industry leaders to make it easier to deliver, scale and manage all the disparate applications and components of unified communications."

Polycom's solutions will make it possible for businesses to establish and keep a UC and video collaboration without fronting so much money. The combination will also simplify the ordering process, making it easy for a business to make a purchase without having to move between different providers. HP's FlexNetwork architecture will give the solution a high-performance network tailored to video communications with a special method that reduces bandwidth consumption by 50 percent.

"Video in multiple forms is driving network traffic growth as clients increasingly use video on laptops, smartphones and tablets in addition to room-based videoconferencing,” said Mike Banic (News - Alert), VP of Gloal Marketing at HP. “The joint Rich Media Communications solution from HP, Polycom and Microosft provide clients a scalable, open architecture for easy deployment and simplify management across the UC environment, lowering their total cost of ownership."

With this alliance, Polycom will likely have an upper hand in its UC and video conference offers. The future of UC is coming, and it takes collaboration to make it happen.