Microsoft’s Software as a Service (SaaS – no, it’s not a form of online flu) Unified Communications offering launched this month to relatively little fanfare, but the recession may speed its adoption by businesses.

Microsoft New Zealand National Technology Officer Roberts believes it’s still early days for the service, but argues the recession has accelerated the focus on it because of reliability and potential cost savings.

Networking giant Cisco is preparing to enter the server market, putting it on a collision course with traditional partners like Dell, HP and IBM.

Cisco will release a server with bundled virtualisation software within months, The New York Times reports today. Currently, Cisco’s core business revolves around its domination of the $US40 billion market in routers and switches, which control network pipes and are complementary to servers.

Two New Zealand-based telephony software makers have teamed to create a tool that lets organisations respond to high-volume queries sent by txt.

Zeacom and Datasquirt say their new product, which bolts SMS queuing on to unified communications software, will appeal to generation X and Y people who want to request a service from a council –say, to ask for some graffiti to be removed –but would prefer to txt a code rather than make a call.