IBM and Cisco Systems have joined forces to create a system for companies that want to capitalize on streaming video and other rich media in their corporate communications, E-learning, and collaboration efforts. The vendors are already developing customized rich media-delivery systems for their common customers.

The companies' joint Digital Media Delivery Solution, which combines IBM's content-management, video-streaming, and storage software with Cisco's advanced networking hardware, will be debut at next week's Supercomm 2003 show in Atlanta. Key components of the system include IBM's DB2 Content Manager, Tivoli Storage Manager, and Video Charger streaming server, as well as Cisco's content-distribution-management technology.

Based on ad hoc implementations the vendors have done for customers like Marist College, which is using the system to deliver rich-media educational materials to students in remote locations, the system is designed to leverage existing network bandwidth, making it possible to deliver video and other graphics-intensive content from ERP, CRM, content management, and corporate portal applications, even over dial-up connections.

Paul Rettig, director of digital media development for IBM, says the system can be sold to two vastly different types of customers--those that have a content-management system in place but who are trying to extend it to a rich-media distribution network, or those who may not yet have a content-management system but are interested in using rich media to support new collaboration, E-learning, and corporate communications initiatives. "We're looking at a customer who needs a content-management solution and a distribution network off of that solution," says Rettig.

The cost of the Digital Media Delivery Solution will vary greatly based on the size of the deployment and the components already installed by the customer. New customers needing all the components can expect to pay as little as $150,000 for light deployments of five offices and a few administrators, or upwards of $700,000 for large-scale deployments of 50 offices or more.