Forum will Enable Interoperability of Unified Communications Hardware and Software Through Inter-vendor Openness and Collaboration
SUNNYVALE, CA, May 19, 2010 — Juniper Networks® (NASDAQ:JNPR, news, filings) today announced its founding membership in the newly formed Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF), a non-profit alliance of worldwide technology leaders working together to fully realize the potential of unified communication (UC). The UCIF is dedicated to enabling standards-based, cross-vendor interoperability of UC hardware and software across enterprises, service providers and consumer clouds and is designed to enable global businesses to be more productive.
Juniper is joined by founding members HP, Logitech / LifeSize, Microsoft and Polycom as well as Acme Packet, Aspect, AudioCodes, Broadcom, BroadSoft, Brocade, ClearOne, Jabra, Plantronics, RADVISION, Siemens Enterprise Communications and Teliris. Recognizing that seamless interoperability based on open standards is one of the key requirements to drive UC further into today’s enterprises, UCIF members will collaborate to overcome existing interoperability barriers to widespread UC adoption and deliver a reliable and rich UC experience, with the goal of propelling worldwide enterprise UC adoption.
“UCIF’s charter to enable interoperability will pave the way to an optimized user experience and is well aligned with Juniper’s ‘new network’ mission,” said Mark Bauhaus, executive vice president and general manager for Juniper’s Service Layer Technology Business Group. “The ‘new network’ is about transforming economics and experience. Unified communications needs a scalable network architecture that removes unnecessary cost while ensuring the convergence of data, voice and video by simplifying network design, automating network orchestration and delivering open APIs upon which partners can develop.”
“Interoperability is not only critical to customer success for deploying unified communications but intrinsic to the delivery of legacy, current and next-generation UC tools, services and infrastructure from multiple vendors. Until now, efforts to achieve interoperability have appeared ad-hoc, which has given customers little assurance that their existing and planned investments are protected and will deliver the value promised,” said Jonathan Edwards, research analyst, Unified Communications, IDC. “I’m delighted to see Juniper take a leading role by joining the UCIF. Together, these companies will help drive industrywide adoption of open standards and develop programs that put accountability on the vendors and provide peace of mind and investment protection for end customers – something that will surely accelerate adoption of UC technologies.”
The UCIF will work with existing industry standards, identifying and filling the gaps between current protocols and interoperability issues that have stalled broad adoption and deployment of valuable communications methods. UCIF membership is open to hardware and software solution providers, service providers and network operators. For more information or to join the UCIF, visit www.ucif.org 
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About the UCI Forum
The Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF) is a non-profit open alliance of worldwide communications technology leaders working together to realize the potential of unified communications (UC) by increasing efficiency, decreasing implementation costs and improving the interoperability experience for UC customers. The UCIF’s vision is to enable interoperability of open, standards-based UC hardware and software across enterprises, service providers, and consumer clouds, as a means of generating incremental business opportunity for all stakeholders in the ecosystem and of increasing the business use of UC technologies and services. The UCIF creates and tests interoperability profiles, implementation guidelines and best practices for interoperability between UC products and existing communications and business applications. Visit www.ucif.org to learn more.
About Juniper Networks
From devices to data centers, from consumers to the cloud, Juniper Networks delivers innovative software, silicon and systems that transform the experience and economics of networking. The company serves more than 30,000 customers and partners worldwide, and generated more than $3 billion in revenue over the last year. Additional information can be found at www.juniper.net.
Juniper Networks and Junos are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. The Juniper Networks and Junos logos are trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners.
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