In preparation of what many are predicting will be an expansive proliferation of video on the web, distributor Comstor announced today that it will be expanding its offerings to include Cisco’s (News
- Alert) full portfolio of TelePresence solutions. A division of Westcon group, Comstor specializes in the distribution of Cisco products and with this announcement, will be added to a select group of global distributors to deliver Cisco’s range of videoconferencing solutions, including those recently acquired from Tandberg (News - Alert).
Cisco’s TelePresence solutions allow meetings between geographically diverse locations, enabling companies with multiple offices to converse, collaborate and contribute face-to-face, and in real-time. Meeting participants can share content, create high-quality video recordings of events, consult with experts, and deliver powerful personalized services – all using the network for an immersive in-person experience. The solution also decreases waste by reducing the need for team members to travel.
“What Cisco has done here in acquiring the video technology from Tandberg is they’re opening up adjacencies into markets that they already have some share of the market it in, to now have a commanding market share,” says Bill Corbin, executive vice president of Global Vendor Relationships with Westcon. “This opens up the availability to the traditional Cisco partners to now explore new paths to revenue and new paths to customers through video.”
According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index Forecast, Internet video jumped from 12 percent of the global consumer Internet traffic in 2006 to 22 percent in 2007. Video on demand, IPTV (News
- Alert), peer-to-peer video, and Internet video are forecast to account for nearly 90 percent of all consumer IP traffic in 2012. It’s not surprising then that Cisco has made an effort to move into the adjacent occupancies that its acquisition of Tandberg has left, nor that Comstor (News - Alert) has sought to expand its offering to help Cisco’s penetration.
“We are very tightly coupled with Cisco, as far as strategic planning is concerned and we try to remain two steps ahead of our competitors to make sure that our business plan aligns very tightly with the one Cisco is using. So where Cisco goes next, you know you’ll see Comstor not far behind,” Corbin said.
Chris DiMarco is a Web Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.