Blue Jeans Network Offers Cloud-Hosted Videoconferencing
One sure sign of a successful technology is a crowded market. The videoconferencing space is a perfect example. And as with most other markets there are a few major players and a plethora of upstarts offering alternatives to the norm. Blue Jeans Network is just such an upstart, offering a technology that eliminates the need for multipoint control units (MCUs) by leveraging the cloud. Interested? Read on for the details.
Blue Jeans Network’s videoconferencing solution works through “virtual ports,” which essentially are available slots open and licensed to the end user. Its software is platform-agnostic and there are no hardware installation on site, data center tweaks, device configurations or MCUs. All the video bridging is done in the cloud, which is why Blue Jeans Network calls its solution an “MCU killer.”
So how do you leverage it? It’s a multipoint near-platform-agnostic solution that allows for connectivity with UC hardware providers, including video endpoint solutions from Cisco Systems, Polycom and LifeSize, plus software interoperability with Skype and Google. And like many solutions, audio-only mode is also supported for phone conferencing.
Krish Ramakrishnan, Blue Jeans Network CEO, sees this as an innovative new way to attack the videoconferencing market and its competition, since his company’s cloud-hosting method can be deployed easily and scaled globally, and cost nearly one-quarter less than traditional videoconferencing infrastructures, he said.
Ramakrishnan added he believes Blue Jeans Network will “… make videoconferencing a practical alternative for businesses of any size,” which is good news for the channel, especially as VARs and MSPs look to expand with offerings that are affordable and easy to deploy. If Blue Jeans Network seems like the right “fit” for your digital waistline, take a look at its partner program.
Worth noting: Blue Jeans Network isn’t the only cloud-based videoconferencing solution in town. Although Polycom may use MCUs, it has been heavily invested in making cloud-based videoconfernecing as easy to use as possible. In the meantime, Blue Jeans Network is a new name we’ll be keeping close tabs on.
VC in the cloud will be a great service. It lowers the cost of entry both, monetarily and technically, for many SMB organizations while extending existing VC infrastructure and making it an open platform (device/end-point agnostic) that can unleash the technology’s potential.
I stumbled across Blue Jeans Network a month or so ago and approached them about becoming a partner to augment our Google Apps business. While I love the technology and feel there is a great opportunity, the company’s slow response and eventual follow up was rather disappointing not to mention their partnership requirements being a bit more onerous than what I’ve seen with others. I was able to find another company that provides the same service and was much more open to partnership discussions.