Partnership with Canonical will challenge Microsoft unified communications with more powerful and cost-effective Linux alternative.
New York, NY – August 5, 2008 – Unison Technologies today announced a wide-ranging partnership to bring unified communications to Linux. Unison, the first fully-unified communications software, will run both on Ubuntu Server and - with a just-released beta version - on Ubuntu Desktop Edition. For the millions of Ubuntu users, this offers a lower-cost and more functional alternative to legacy solutions.
With Unison now available on Ubuntu, businesses at last have a class-leading solution for messaging and unified communications - removing another barrier to widespread adoption of Linux. Given costs just a fraction of a PC with Microsoft Windows, Office and Outlook, the combination of Ubuntu and Unison represents a serious alternative for business IT.
Rurik Bradbury, CMO of Unison Technologies, said, "We believe that Unison on Ubuntu is a 'killer app' for Linux and a great option for any small or medium business. It is more powerful and far more affordable than the Microsoft alternative. With the user-friendliness and wide distribution of Ubuntu, we expect this partnership to further accelerate the growth of both Linux in business IT as well as unified communications."
Said Malcolm Yates, Global ISV partner manager for Canonical, Inc., "Unison is a solution that makes unified communications simple and affordable on Linux. We are happy to partner with Unison Technologies and spread the word that Linux offers a superior platform for business IT - now including unified communications."
In the partnership between Canonical and Unison Technologies, Canonical will in future sell Unison software as part of its store, enabling instant downloads and purchases of Unison. The software retails for $50 per user per year, or $36,000 for a perpetual one-server license with unlimited users.
Unison integrates all major communications onto a single server - Unison Server - which powers e-mail, instant messaging, a PBX, contacts and calendaring. Users access the server via Unison Desktop, a native application for Ubuntu or Windows, which gives them all communication in one place. With Unison Desktop, business workers are more productive because they waste less time managing and searching for messages and instead focus on their work.
Running on a single Ubuntu server, Unison is more reliable and cost-effective, and because it includes an integrated PBX, e-mail and instant messaging system, companies do not need to purchase and maintain multiple expensive servers in order to communicate. The software is initially targeted at small and midsized businesses (SMBs) with 20 to 1000 staff.
"Unison is a new proposition for SMBs," added Bradbury. "They reduce their IT management and costs, at the same time as boosting productivity by as much as 15%. We expect to see a rapid adoption of Unison as companies realize the enormous benefits they can gain with relatively little cost."
The software is immediately available, either as a download from the Unison Web site at www.unison.com or via partners. In future, it will be available at the Canonical Store, located at http://shop.canonical.com.
Learn more about Unison at Booth 816 of this year's LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. LinuxWorld 2008 takes place August 4-7 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
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