Five of the leading global technology companies, HP, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, Polycom and LifeSize/Logitech International, have come together to establish the Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF), a non-profit alliance aimed at erasing barriers to unified communications.

The founders say, collectively and individually, that the organization is intent upon addressing issues that hinder connecting systems from UC vendors worldwide. Its goal is to provide customers with multi-vendor, open interoperability standards to allow organizations to seamlessly communicate and collaborate.

Officials also said that the UCIF will work together to expand UC adoption and to deliver a rich UC experience irrespective of platform, including mobile, desktop and telepresence. Accordingly, the group said it will develop verifiable interoperability testing and certification of UC scenarios, and provide best practices.

Forrester, in an independent research report, outlined some practical imperatives for Unified Communications solutions: “Don’t assume firms will invest in interesting or unique technology unless it specifically helps them improve business processes and results. Build the foundation for value statements and capabilities firmly in today’s workplace and processes – with a vision of the future and a migration path forward for capabilities like interoperability or video.” (Seven Myths About Unified Communications and Collaboration, Forrester Research, Inc., March 23, 2010)

Jonathan Edwards, research analyst, Unified Communications comments, ”It is important for all businesses to prepare and architect their communications environments in a more unified and services-oriented manner. And one of the most significant factors impeding UC adoption today is the lack of interoperability assurance for customers between their existing and pending communications and networking investments and purchases.”

BBC Business Editor Tim Weber has revealed his opinion that cloud computing “is going mainstream” and is now being used by companies of all sizes.

In addition, research company TechMarketView is forecasting that the UK will spend over £1 billion on cloud computing by 2012, taking full advantage of its capabilities which allows firms to become truly global, working and communicating as a team regardless of location.

But what is cloud computing and why is its popularity among businesses of all sizes growing so rapidly?  Well, currently, your organisation no doubt runs several networked PCs, hooked up to several servers, all of which capture the data and information processed on a daily basis.  This of course works fine, right up to the point where you run out of space and need to invest in further hardware, or when you need to start including geographically remote members of staff or indeed remote working in your daily practice.

Organisations are becoming global, teams are becoming virtual.  The need to be able to communicate and share information rapidly, cheaply and effectively with people on the other side of the world at any given time has moved from being an unusual occurrence to a regular one.

The “cloud” in question gives you a more flexible infrastructure,  removing the reliance on the capabilities of your existing servers and running applications independent of any of your hardware, allowing you to simply “tap into it” whenever you require.  There is a reduced need for you to have individual pieces of software running on a PC or your network as they can instead be hosted from the cloud.

It doesn’t take a genius to realise that this could, in effect, significantly reduce your IT hardware and maintenance costs.

However, the implications are in fact much further reaching.  Only recently, Rob Lovell, chief executive of ThinkGrid, highlighted how cloud computing means companies are more easily able to maintain productivity throughout disasters or unpredictable events, such as that caused by the continuing volcanic eruption in Iceland.

Somewhat less dramatic but nevertheless debilitating was the flood at a BT exchange in Paddington last month, which saw thousands of businesses instantly becoming incommunicado.  Our client Canburg was one of those affected , but due to its communications infrastructure, with a hosted telephony service and MPLS connection, we managed to keep it high and dry – something which we couldn’t have done, had it simply relied upon a traditional IT infrastructure and network.

It is inevitable surely, that all businesses with a current network will find a need to move to this new flexible hosting in the not too distant future.  After all, the advantages are there for all to see.