Cisco WAS a cable company. Microsoft WAS the MS Office and Windows maker. These two companies are now into so many new business areas and they now find each other competing in the VoIP space.

When two biggies find themselves stepping on each other’s toes, they either agree on walking separate paths or on walking the same path in parallel. I thought the parallel walk was struck on when Steve Ballmer (CEO – Microsoft) and John Chambers ( CEO – Cisco) announced that they would work together on having their VoIP offerings interoperable.

““They’re saying, ‘Give me the choice. Don’t give me the all-or-nothing choice,’” Ballmer said of the customers, adding that he was seeking “respectful competition” with Cisco. (Reuters)

But what do we have in the news the next day? Ballmer announces that his Office Communications Server 2007(OCS – the IM, voice and video + software applications integrated product) will have added voice and video quality monitoring abilities – something that the Unified Communications system of Cisco addresses.

We should have known when Steve said “I have great respect for John and Cisco as a company, but anything they do and we do, I have more respect for us.”

I loved the way Networksasia wrote on this:

One day after its collaborative lovefest with Cisco, Microsoft Tuesday wiped off the lipstick and came out swinging as it introduced a new server designed to let its users troubleshoot voice and video problems by monitoring network performance in real time.