Cisco ramps up BYOD game with Jabber on virtual desktops

Cisco is extending support for its Jabber unified communications platform with the hopes of making it a more attractive options to enterprise IT departments.

The simple part of the announcement is that Jabber will now be supported on virtual desktop environments (besides just native desktops).

The networking giant boasted that this means Jabber (comprised of instant messaging as well as video and voice conferencing features) now supports collaboration on "any device."

This is being made possible by new Cisco software, dubbed the Virtualization Experience Media Engine (VXME), which is supposed to prioritize voice and video traffic across network-based quality of service technologies and integration with Cisco's Medianet architecture.

In turn, this is intended to better manage real-time HD video and audio traffic across the network while freeing up bandwidth -- thus speeding up and improving the overall user experience on virtual desktops.

The San Jose-based corporation has also enlisted Citrix and VMware as desktop virtualization support partners.

Cisco is aiming to achieve two important and related goals here: address the BYOD (bring your own device) issue while simplifying virtualization for IT departments.

Essentially, Cisco is framing that virtualized desktops would be easier to manage, promising that they'll be more cost-effective and secure.

Both of these aspects are real headaches for IT departments when it comes to handling personal devices in the workplace while trying to reorganize infrastructures to handle them. Thus, everyone in technology is trying to come out with a new solution to meet the BYOD issue this year.

However, the VXME software, which is slated to be available by the middle of this year, does have some endpoint hardware requirements.

For starters, it will only be supported by specific Dell Wyse thin clients initially, followed by Windows-based thin clients and PCs at a later date.

Cisco is also touting some new desktop accessories, such as keyboards and HD webcams, made by Logitech and Jabra specifically for Cisco Jabber running in either desktop or virtual environments.

Also slated to roll out during the first half of 2013, these devices are being targeted towards employees that work from home or outsourced contractors, who can either purchase and setup the environment themselves or the company can do so for them.