MS ramps up unified communications

Microsoft is pushing into unified communications with the introduction of two additions to Office Communications Server (OCS), states Computing.co.uk.

The OCS 2007 XMPP Gateway will allow users to add basic presence sharing, and support for the Cisco Jabber and Google Talk instant messaging platforms.

A change to the public instant messaging connectivity licence requirements for OCS to Windows Live and AOL instant messenger networks, meanwhile, will allow users with OCS 2007 R2 Standard CAL tap into the platforms without the need for additional licences.

Data-storage and networking company Brocade Communications Systems has quietly put itself up for sale, say sources familiar with the matter, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Hewlett-Packard is among those kicking the tires, say sources. Other companies including Oracle may also be examining a purchase, says one of the sources familiar with the matter. Brocade has a market capitalisation of about $3.2 billion, and last year posted net income of $167 million on revenue of nearly $1.5 billion.

No deal is imminent, say sources, and Brocade could eventually decide not to complete a sale. A Brocade spokesman says the company doesn't comment on rumours and speculation.

Hewlett-Packard is expanding the offerings in its Unified Cluster Portfolio by adding Voltaire's Unified Fabric Manager product to the line-up, states eWeek.

When used in conjunction with Voltaire's 20Gbps or 40Gbps InfiniBand switches, the UFM software can give IT administrators greater visibility into their scale-out data centres and improve manageability.

The software gives users a logical view of their high-performance infrastructure, including servers, applications and networking fabric.