Is Cisco on a collision path with Citrix?

I was visiting my home loan agent. She always makes people wait, so I sat there looking at her desk while she was talking on the phone. And something interesting hit me. She had one of these slim desktops where the computer was almost in the monitor itself and the other thing she had on her desk was a phone. So what is interesting there: Should those two devices be on a consolidation path? Its not a new thought … but the absence of anything else on her desk hit me.

Another interesting aspect about the phone in the enterprise is that most phones work off of an enterprise switch which gives voicemail, conferencing capabilities etc. With VOIP phones the architecture again involves a couple of central servers in addition to the centralized switch.

The architecture looks very similar to one where there is a thin client and which works of a citrix server in the backend or newer architectures using VDI and vmware.

There are three possibilities here:

- phone will become the thin client

- the thin client will become the phone

- the desktop will become the phone

The second option thin client with soft phone capability has been around. For example, this NEC client offers softphone capability with their backend.

Microsoft unified communications is making the desktop the phone by integrating exchange, instant messaging and a soft phone all working of the enterprise active directory.

The first option of a phone becoming the thin client is quite viable and interesting, especially with the VOIP phones as they are connected to the intranet anyway, have speakers, it should be easy to add a DVD drive and usb. Also VOIP phones at $100-$200 per node are in the same price range as the thin client ~ $100-$200.

Which direction the consolidation happens might be influenced by the refresh cycle. Is there a refresh for VOIP phones or a refresh for the desktops or a thin client initiative.

Rosen