IBM® Solution Provider Datatrend Technologies Announces Unified Communications and Collaboration Appliance at Lotusphere 2012

MINNETONKA, Minn. and MURRAY HILL, N.J., Jan. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Datatrend Technologies, an IT solutions provider, today announced a Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) appliance integrated with the Virtual Video Room from Glowpoint (NYSE Amex: GLOW), a leading provider of cloud managed video services. The new solution provides a true enterprise grade HD desktop videoconferencing experience, integrated with the comprehensive collaboration capabilities of the IBM Sametime platform delivering what organizations need to improve their operational efficiency and reduce costs.

The solution enables organizations to get more out of their UCC and video environments by cost effectively expanding HD video to employee desktops, and allows employees to collaborate with users of telepresence and HD videoconferencing systems inside their own company or with customers, partners, suppliers, and remote/mobile colleagues. The solution reduces travel and operating expenses through increased use of telepresence and videoconferencing systems without the large, upfront investment required by other solutions.

The UCC appliance delivers the UCC and video capabilities in a simple, integrated IT solution, complete with workload optimized IBM server hardware to run efficiently and cost-effectively. The integrated collaboration is enabled by IBM Sametime with Sametime Unified Telephony (SUT) Lite® installed on an IBM BladeCenter® or IBM System x® server precisely configured for the video and IBM Sametime interfaces. Unlike other solutions that provide a consumer grade video experience and require significant upfront capital expenditure, this turn-key solution provides a professional grade yet personal telepresence experience with low or even no upfront costs and is offered at a predictable, low monthly fee.

"Organizations are increasingly requiring ad hoc video conferencing capabilities similar to reservation-less audio conferencing to improve collaboration and reduce travel expense. And they want this capability combined with other collaboration technologies such as instant messaging, online meetings, integrated presence, etc.," remarks Charlie Cox, President of Technology Infrastructure Solutions for Datatrend. "The UCC Appliance is quick to deploy and enables social business and unified communications in a simple, affordable manner that reduces TCO and delivers a real return on investment (ROI)."

"Glowpoint is excited at the opportunity to partner with IBM and Datatrend to deliver a complete unified communications solution for business customers including on-demand high definition videoconferencing," stated Joe Laezza, President and CEO of Glowpoint. "Our Virtual Video Room offering delivered from our OpenVideo™ cloud will provide IBM Sametime customers with a consistent, high quality video experience wherever they are. More and more business customers are turning to cloud based videoconferencing offerings to be able to quickly adopt new solutions without investing in on premise infrastructure and support."

The UCC Appliance with HD Video Conferencing is secure, simple to use, lowers costs, improves operational efficiency, and gives workforces more capabilities to leverage their skills with others. The net result is that organizations have a way to finally realize the full value of their UCC and telepresence investments.

Datatrend is demonstrating the solution at Lotusphere in booth # 711.

About Datatrend

Founded in 1987, Datatrend Technologies is a national IT solutions provider dedicated to helping companies optimize their IT environments and enhance their business. Datatrend specializes in best-in-class data center consulting; server and storage solutions; and network infrastructure services. By providing exceptional thought leadership and a customer-intimate approach, Datatrend has earned the respect of customers everywhere as a trusted advisor on business and technology issues.

Visit Datatrend online at:
Company Website: www.datatrend.com 
Company Blog: www.datatrend.com/optimize-it/

About Glowpoint

Glowpoint, Inc. provides cloud managed video services that make the delivery of consistently high-quality video conferencing and telepresence service as simple as using the internet, between any technology, network and business. Using their OpenVideo cloud architecture, Glowpoint enables organizations of all sizes to adopt business-class video easily, scale instantly and collaborate openly, yet securely across technology boundaries – to realize the full value of visual communications.

Visit Glowpoint online at:
Company Website: www.glowpoint.com

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111222/LA26621LOGO)

SOURCE Glowpoint, Inc.