Jeff Kaplan, Managing Director of THINKstrategies, and founder of the Managed Service Showplace® www.thinkmsp.com and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Showplace® www.thinksaas.com, joins me to discuss how communications is being added to Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings and in particular how Cisco may use SaaS as part of its unified communications strategy. Cisco offers unified communications, WebEx and arguably the best video conferencing systems on the market, that being its Telepresence system. Will Cisco integrate these services or let customers pick and choose which communication services they want? Jeff and I explore what impact SaaS may have on Cisco’s unified software strategy.

Zeus Kerravala, SVP, of The Yankee Group joins me to discuss important 2007 industry developments, what 2008 will bring and what the industry may look like 2012. Zeus and I compare notes and debate the future of our industry. It longer then our typical podcast, 27 minutes, so enjoy and relax while you listen to it in the car, on a bike, walking the dog or during a coffee break. It’s a great way to start off your year. Happy Holidays Everyone!!

The new trend in application delivery switches is an expansion beyond load balancing toward specific application support of firms like Oracle, BEA, SAP, Microsoft et al. With enterprise spending on application acceleration equipment expected to reach $3.7 billion by the end of 2008, we identify the five issues IT leaders need to consider before they procure and deploy these switches in their data centers and server farms. I discuss this with Gary Hemminger, Director of Product Marketing for Application Delivery Products at Foundry Networks. No matter where you are on the buying cycle, you need to listen to this podcast before you act.