Unison has combined all communications (telephony, e-mail, instant messaging, calendars and contacts) into a single server architecture. In other words, a single product handles all of a company’s communication needs. The concept of a single server application eliminates most of the integration needed by other solutions, speeding deployment and simplifying maintenance. All pluses when it comes to quickly deploying unified communications.

Unison’s custom server application is designed to run under Linux (CentOS 5.1 and RHEL 5.1 are currently supported) on a server-class system. Although feature-rich, the server does not require large amounts of processing power, allowing old server hardware to be converted into a unified communications server or, better yet, allowing integrators to build a Linux appliance to deploy the Unison Server.

Unison Server is simple to set up and manage. The company provides all of the information needed to get up and running quickly, turning a deployment into something that takes a matter of hours as opposed to days for competing products. And the company offers excellent deployment tutorials and scenarios to further speed setup.

The Unison server includes an IP PBX, which eliminates the need for an additional piece of hardware and associated expenses. The nature of the integrated PBX also helps to make a desktop IP phone an integrated component of unified communications.