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Not all video-conferencing roads lead to Zoom

Webex vs Zoom

Webex vs. Zoom: Not all video-conferencing roads lead to Zoom

The COVID-19 shelter in place edict has sent businesses reeling. The need to connect in this new, socially-distant world has given video-conferencing companies a guarded optimism that their solutions will, at least partially, fill in the gap left by the emptying of boardrooms, classrooms, meeting facilities, office cubicles, and around water coolers.

This means that suddenly everyone has heard of Zoom. The company, founded in 2012 and a public company as of April 2019, has seen a leap in users who are accessing the app on their phones, tablets, and laptops for virtual school and social gatherings in response to the pandemic.

As with many internet startups, Zoom entered the game at a time when the first wave of technology companies had tested connectivity, user interfaces, internet tools, and technology. One of Zoom’s founders had been head of one of Webex’s engineering teams, which allowed Zoom to jump-start innovation and place itself squarely within the competition. But Zoom’s crazy-fast popularity, has not come without some glitches. Recently, Zoom has been victim to hacking of some of its security features, which has allowed thousands of meeting videos to be published on YouTube. The potential security vulnerabilities have led companies like Google to ban their employees from using Zoom.

As many people point out to me, Webex has been “around forever. Yes, it was founded in 1996 when video-conferencing was making its debut, with the backdrop of clunky website design and a blossoming internet.  When Webex was acquired by Cisco in 2007, it meant that Webex’s offerings could dovetail with Cisco’s global presence, huge innovation portfolio, and vast ongoing research.

We admit, at Quaversal, we are Webex fans: We appreciate Webex’s lineage and its ability to continually innovate.

Moreso, we support how Webex is designed for businesses and organizations. Today, Cisco Webex has the most robust security with end-to-end encryption, and a range of new features around AI and machine learning. Everything the platform offers is about how to improve team secure working, collaboration, and productivity. The features are inspiring: AI assistants, HD-recording in the cloud, live streaming, closed captioning, and real-time transcription. It’s also easy-to-use – once it’s set up, it’s a ‘push of a button’ solution.

But a key differentiator is Webex’s security. This is vital as businesses and organizations help remote teams, customers, and business partners to share, handle, and talk about company data, customer files, and proprietary knowledge.

As a Cisco Select Partner, we appreciate Webex’s constant commitment to cost-effective collaboration that is innovative and built on a foundation of secure technologies.

So, even though Zoom has been getting a good chunk of attention lately, if you’re looking for a way to help your remote team, it’s worth remembering the magic phrase: “End-to-end encryption.”

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