By samdizzy

Yorktel, which offers cloud-based managed video services, has integrated its platform with Microsoft Lync and Office 365. That could be good news for enterprises and federal government customers — many of which leverage the respective Yorktel and Microsoft services.

Lync, a unified communications platform, ranks among Microsoft's fastest-growing business applications. It's avaiblable on-premises or via Microsoft's Office 365 cloud.

In many cases, Talkin' Cloud believes video conferencing technology has become commoditized — especially as Skype and other free video services proliferate. But Yorktel apparently has pushed far beyond the commodity game. 

Yorktel says its VideoCloud platform is carrier- and device-agnostic. Users on any Microsoft Lync clients (from on-premise Lync server to Microsoft Office 365) can use VideoCloud to connect to video conferencing systems from Cisco, Polycom, Avaya (Radvision), Lifesize, and other vendors, Yorktel claims.

The solution has three approaches:

Frankly, I believe most enterprises and midsize customers want out of the video management business. Instead of building and managing their own video networks — a complex, extensive undertaking — customers are surely turning to cloud-based video from qualified service providers.

Still, few MSPs have the funding and expertise required to build out a full-blown, cloud-based video conferencing service. Yorktel, led by CEO Ron Gaboury, apparently is an exception to that rule.