Telstra to deliver unified comms from the cloud

Telstra is delivering integrated voice, video, presence and mobility applications as a cloud service, following a new agreement with networking equipment vendor Cisco.

The service – dubbed Cloud Collaboration – will be delivered from Telstra’s Australian data centres and delivered to customers over the telco’s Next G and Next IP networks.

Customers will be charged on a monthly “per worker” basis, Staff are categorised as “essential”, “office”, “information” or “mobile” workers.

Paul Geason, group managing director, Telstra Enterprise and Government, said offering unified communications services in the cloud removes the “burden of capital expenditure and complicated deployments from customers.”

“The cloud model takes organisations to an operating expenditure model, allowing simpler budgeting and greater flexibility in their IT services.”

Telstra is the first Australian service provider to offer Cisco unified communications services from the cloud. These services include the Cisco Telepresence high-definition video conferencing service and Cisco Jabber Plus, a tool that enables users to combine access of voice, email and instant messaging using a single log-on.

The service will be available in the coming months. Demonstrations are being setup at the Cisco Innovation Suite at the Telstra Experience Centre in Melbourne.