Polycom and IBM partner on cloud video services

Polycom announced a new partnership with IBM Research to work on cloud-based video services.

While Polycom already has its own Polycom RealPresence platform, it said the partnership will work on deploying a video service via the cloud and offering it to companies as "Video-as-a-Service" via private, public and hybrid cloud models.

The company said it was working with IBM Research to ensure Polycom RealPresence performs optimally in "the most rigorous cloud environments to provide the highest levels of security, performance, and reliability, even when systems need to rapidly scale up and down."

The companies plan to further develop interoperability between standard and non-standard video environments, including social video applications, to serve organisations requiring face-to-face video meetings regardless of network, platforms, devices, or protocols. This initiative will put emphasis on video-enabled mobile social collaboration. The two companies have already worked on a number of initiatives to integrate video, mobile, and social platforms.

Sudhakar Ramakrishna, President of Products and Services at Polycom said that the collaboration with IBM was about laying the foundation for more RealPresence innovation in the cloud.

"Working with IBM, we’re taking a world-class solution and co-developing technologies to help customers – who are increasingly looking to the cloud for video collaboration applications – better communicate, collaborate, and be more productive,” he said.

Ken King, vice president of business development for IBM Research said that the partnership was ultimately about "helping Polycom develop new, innovative video products on a cloud computing platform that creates solutions across various industry verticals."

"By co-developing with Polycom, we can help customers collaborate and make decisions more quickly," he said.

The jointly developed products will be rolled-out in future Polycom RealPresence video collaboration services and products, including for enterprises interested in private or hybrid clouds or through service providers who will deliver VaaS offerings through public clouds to businesses of all sizes.