The Web Conferencing Blog

Three Biggest Misconceptions About Cisco/WebEx

The web conferencing industry has been around a long time, starting in the late 1990's with the likes of Starlight Networks, Groupware by Lotus Notes and Placeware which was later bought by Microsoft in 2003. Having been in the web conferencing industry since 2004, I've heard a ton of misconceptions about WebEx.

Here are the three most common misconceptions I have heard about WebEx over the past 10 years:

1. All web conferencing solutions are equal.

2. WebEx is the most expensive web conferencing solution.

3. WebEx is the global market leader because it was first to market.

Misconception #1: All Web Conferencing Solutions are Equal:

No other web conferencing solution comes close to Cisco/WebEx:    

• 50% global market share in web conferencing
• 95% of the Fortune 500 are using Cisco Collaboration
• 200,000 Cisco Collaboration customers worldwide
• Over 450,000 WebEx meetings per day across 231 different countries
• Over 2.6 billion meeting minutes per month which equates to almost 5,000 years worth of 24/7/365 meetings collapsed into one month
• 46 million WebEx attendees per month
• Over 5.5 million WebEx mobile app downloads
• World class security and over a $500M cloud infrastructure investment
• Safe Harbor Certification
• SSAE 16 Certification
• ISO 27001/2 Certification
• End-to-End (E2E) encryption with AES, 256-bit key
• 100% enterprise-ready collaboration platform
• Suite of enterprise collaboration solutions: Meeting Center, Training Center, Event Center, Support Center, Cisco Jabber, WebEx Cloud Connected Audio, Collaboration Meeting Rooms
• Integrates with Cisco UC infrastructure: voice, video, IM/presence
• Integrates with 3rd party standards-based video endpoints. Read more about Cisco/WebEx Collaboration Meeting Rooms

Misconception #2: WebEx is the Most Expensive Web Conferencing Solution:

WebEx Meeting Center:

• $24 per month or $19 per month on an annual plan (Supports 8 people per meeting)
• $49 per month or $39 per month on an annual plan (Supports 25 people per meeting)
• $89 per month or $69 per month on an annual plan (Supports 100 people per meeting)
• Meeting Center includes video conferencing, application sharing, VoIP, markup tools, whiteboard, record and playback, mobile meetings, Outlook integration, cross-platform support, world class Cisco security and reliability
• WEAKNESS: WebEx is part of a much larger company, Cisco, which means innovation, strategic vision and execution, and technology priorities could take a back seat to the core business. 

Citrix GoToMeeting:

• Pro: $49 per month or $39 per month on an annual plan (Supports up to 25 attendees)
• Pro Plus: $69 per month or $56 per month on an annual plan (Supports up to 100 attendees)
• GoToMeeting includes video conferencing, desktop and application sharing, integrated phone and VoIP, mobile apps
• WEAKNESS: Limited integration with Unified Communication clients like Microsoft Lync and IBM Sametime. Challenges in penetrating enterprise IT departments that have higher expectations and complex requirements. GoToMeeting is part of a much larger company, Citrix Systems, which means innovation, strategic vision and execution, and technology priorities could take a back seat to the core business. 

Adobe Connect Pro: 

• $45 per month or $35 per month on an annual plan (Supports 25 people per meeting)
• $55 per month, no commitment, cancel anytime
• Adobe Connect Pro includes video conferencing, application sharing, mobility, VoIP
• WEAKNESS: Adobe Connect Pro is part of a much larger company, Adobe, which means innovation, strategic vision and execution, and technology priorities could take a back seat to the core business. Customer support for Adobe Connect Pro is also below average with customer support reps asking "Can you tell me what the product serial number on your CD is?"

As mentioned earlier, WebEx has a full web conferencing solution called Enterprise Edition which includes Meeting Center, Training Center, Event Center and Support Center. WebEx Enterprise Edition is highly differentiated and the most popular WebEx solution deployed across a company at a enterprise-wide level.

Misconception #3: WebEx is the Global Market Leader because it was First to Market:

WebEx was NOT first to market in web conferencing.

In 1999, Placeware was the market leader with a 45% market share and approximately $4.2M in revenue. Evoke and WebEx were up and coming companies but were not considered market leaders. Within a year, WebEx surpassed Placeware and became the #1 web conferencing solution. In 2003, Microsoft acquired Placeware and then rebranded the product to Microsoft Live Meeting. Today, Microsoft has about a 10% market share in web conferencing.

1999, was a pivotal year for web conferencing as that's the year when many players entered the market:

ExpertCity entered the market in 1999 and was later acquired by Citrix Systems in Dec 2003. Products included GoToMyPC, GoToAssist and GoToMeeting. Today, Citrix GoToMeeting has about a 20% market share in web conferencing.

Adobe Connect, originally known as Presedia Breeze in 1999 was acquired by Macromedia in 2003. Macromedia Breeze remained in the market until it was acquired by Adobe in 2006. Presedia was founded in 1999 in Sunnyvale, CA. Today, Adobe Connect has about a 5% market share in web conferencing.

Intercall, which resells a variety of different web conferencing solutions, including WebEx, Adobe Connect, and Microsoft, also has about a 5% market share in web conferencing.

2014 Web Conferencing Market Share (Synergy Research):

• Cisco/WebEx: 50%
• Citrix GoToMeeting: 20%
• Microsoft: 10%
• Adobe Connect: 5%
• Intercall: 5%

 

Steve Jobs on Abobe Flash Technology

In the past few months, I have written a few blog entries about Adobe Flash security and performance concerns and the fact that Adobe products are now the #1 hacked products, overtaking Microsoft from the top spot. 

There has also been some debate as to why Apple will not support Flash on their iPhone and iPad products. Steve Jobs lists 6 major reasons why Apple will not support Flash, one of them being Adobe's lack of reliability, security, and performance. (Steve Job's original email is posted on the Apple website.)

*** For Adobe Connect users, it should be noted that Adobe Connect is 100% based on Flash Technology.

Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers – Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products – but beyond that there are few joint interests.

I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.

First, there’s “Open”.

Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.

Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.

Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android’s browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft’s uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers.

Second, there’s the “full web”.

Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.

Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.

Third, there’s reliability, security and performance.

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?

Fourth, there’s battery life.

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.

Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.

When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Fifth, there’s Touch.

Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?

Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices.

Sixth, the most important reason.

Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices.

We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.

Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.

Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins – we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.

Conclusions.

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

Steve Jobs
April, 2010

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash

 

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Adobe PDF Under Attack Again

In January, I wrote two blogs about Adobe security vulnerabilities.

Adobe Illustrator Vunerabilities
Adobe Addresses Security Vulnerabilities

In an article by Ryan Naraine (www.threatpost.com) posted on ZDnet.com, it looks like hackers are at in again with Adobe:

Malicious hackers have pounced on a newly patched Adobe PDF Reader vulnerability to plant Trojan downloaders on tardy WindPostsows users.

According to researchers in Microsoft’s malware protection center, the vulnerability (CVE-2010-0188) was patched less than a month ago, proving that malicious hackers are quick to find fresh targets for malware.

Microsoft’s Marian Radu explains:

While recently analyzing a malicious PDF file, I noticed a vulnerability exploited by the sample which I’ve never encountered before. After a bit of research I came to the conclusion that this specific sample exploited CVE-2010-0188.

This is a fresh vulnerability, information about which was just published this February. It is described as possibly leading to arbitrary code execution, which is exactly what’s happening.

Madu said the malicious PDF causes Adobe Reader to open and then close.  While this is happening, an executable file named a.exe is dropped directly onto the C:\ drive.

The dropped executable, which is actually embedded into the PDF file, tries to connect to a .biz registered domain to download other files. JavaScript is again used to successfully exploit this vulnerability, so disabling it for unknown documents might be a good idea.

Only Windows users who have not yet updated to the newest version of Adobe Reader are vulnerable to this threat.

Adobe has now replaced Microsoft as the most exploited app! It only took 3 months for Adobe to overtake Microsoft, based on predictions from McAfee earlier this year. Adobe Products: High Risk for Cyber Attacks.

Adobe Addresses Security Vulnerabilities

With all the recent publicity Adobe has received

Adobe has released a mega-update for its Reader and Acrobat software products to fix a total of eight documented security vulnerabilities.

Security Vulnerabilities patched in this recent update:

• This update resolves a use-after-free vulnerability in Multimedia.api that could lead to code execution (CVE-2009-4324). This issue is being actively exploited in the wild; the exploit targets Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.2 on Windows platforms.
• This update resolves an array boundary issue in U3D support that could lead to code execution (CVE-2009-3953).
• This update resolves a DLL-loading vulnerability in 3D that could allow arbitrary code execution (CVE-2009-3954).
• This update resolves a memory corruption vulnerability that could lead to code execution (CVE-2009-3955).
• This update mitigates a script injection vulnerability by changing the Enhanced Security default (CVE-2009-3956).
• This update resolves a null-pointer dereference vulnerability that could lead to denial of service (CVE-2009-3957).
• This update resolves a buffer overflow vulnerability in the Download Manager that could lead to code execution (CVE-2009-3958).
• This update resolves an integer overflow vulnerability in U3D support that could lead to code execution (CVE-2009-3959).

Adobe rates this a “critical” update on all platforms.  The flaws affect Adobe Reader 9.2 and Acrobat 9.2 for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX; and Adobe Reader 8.1.7 and Acrobat 8.1.7 for Windows and Macintosh.

These vulnerabilities could cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.

Source: Ryan Naraine, ZDNet

Adobe Illustrator Vulnerabilities

In my previous post, I mentioned that Adobe products would surpass Microsoft Office as the #1 application for cybercriminals to hack into. Security experts stated that applications like Adobe Acrobat Reader and Adobe Flash were most vulnerable.

On December 15th, Adobe acknowledged the security vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash. The company released a security update on Jan 2nd for multiple versions of Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat for Windows, Mac, and UNIX, in hopes to resolve the critical security vulnerability that is currently being exploited by cybercriminals.

This past Wednesday, Adobe released security updates for Adobe Illustrator CS4 (14.0.0) and Adobe Illustrator CS3 (13.0.3 and earlier versions) for Windows and Mac OS X.

Adobe warns that these vulnerabilities could be used to execute arbitrary code on affected computers or to cause a crash.

Most security experts claim that 2010 could be the breakout year for cybercriminals. Remember that over 60% of companies are hit by cybercrime. Is your company prepared? If your company uses Adobe products like Adobe Reader, Acrobat, Flash or Adobe Connect Pro take a look at the official Adobe Security Bulletin so you stay on top of their security updates!

http://www.adobe.com/support/security/

Security Updates for Adobe Connect Pro:

APSB08-04 Update available to address Adobe Connect Enterprise Server security issues

APSB08-02 Update available for Adobe Connect Enterprise Server cross-site scripting issue

APSB07-14 Patch available for Adobe Connect Enterprise Server information disclosure issue

 

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Adobe Products: High Risk for Cyber Attacks?

According to McAfee, Adobe Reader and Flash will surpass Microsoft Office as the top target for cybercriminals in 2010. Adobe products are very popular applications and because of this, the Adobe products have caught the attention of cybercriminals. (Adobe cites that Flash is "the world's most pervasive software platform, used by over 2 million professionals and reaching 99% of Internet-enabled desktops.")

Sounds like a huge potential for a lot of cybercrime!

The article also states that many security experts have warned of the potential security risk posed by Abode Flash. In November, Foreground Security identified a flaw in the way Web browsers handle Flash files that could be used to compromise Web sites that have users submit content.

"The short version of all this, of course, is that if I can convince a server to serve up a file on my behalf, I can use that file to attack the server," said Foreground Security researcher Mike Bailey.

Should the security concerns around Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash be of concern for Adobe Connect users? Considering Adobe Connect is 100% built on Flash, the answer would be YES.

The key takeway is to do your due diligence when it comes to researching web conferencing providers. Make sure they have independent 3rd party security certifications, such as SAS-70 certification, ISO attestations, or are in compliance with HIPAA. With advances in technology and cybercrime, SSL data encryption is not enough anymore. Security certifications are a must for every single company that is looking to protect its intellectual property and customer data.

Don't get caught ignoring the security concerns to save a few dollars. Your CIO is most worried about SECURITY in 2010, whether that be security concerns for smartphones, rogue antivirus, or cloud breaches. Risk your CIO's risk by looking for independent 3rd party security certifications when evaluating web conferencing providers.

Sources: Antone Gonsalves and Thomas Claburn from InformationWeek.

Adobe Cuts Almost 10% of Workforce

The maker of Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Acrobat, and Adobe Connect for web meetings cut 680 full-time jobs last week.

In addition to this recent job cut, Adobe also trimmed close to 10% of the Omniture staff when Adobe acquired the web analytics company this past October for $1.8B. (Approximate numbers were just over 100 employees that got cut.)

I'm not sure how this impacts the Adobe Connect team and will re-post with more details.

New Adobe Reader, Acrobat Vulnerability

Hackers are targeting a zero-day vulnerability affecting Adobe Reader and Acrobat with malicious PDF files. Adobe officials say a fix for the issue will be available for Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat in the coming weeks. (This vulnerability has raised some concern of starting Adobe Connect meetings directly from PDF files.)

Hackers have once again turned to PDF files to spread their wares, this time assaulting a zero-day flaw affecting Adobe Reader and Acrobat.

Fortunately, the unpatched bug is on the company’s radar, and fixes for Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 are slated to be available March 11. Updates for earlier versions will come later, company officials said in an advisory.

The bug is due to an error in the parsing of certain structures in PDF files. If exploited successfully, the bug could allow a hacker to take complete control of a vulnerable system.

“In parsing a specially-crafted embedded object, a bug in the reader allowed the attacker to overwrite memory at an arbitrary location,” blogged McAfee researcher Geok Meng Ong. “The attacks, found in the field, use the infamous heap spray method via JavaScript to achieve control of code execution.”

“While the distribution of this exploit thus far appears to be targeted, new variants are expected as more information is made public,” the researcher continued. “As with the Conficker experience, the lack of good patch management is a very worrying trend that deserves more attention from IT security practitioners. Adobe is expected to release a patch very soon.”

In the meantime, security researchers at the Shadowserver Foundation recommend users consider disabling JavaScript. Symantec also recommended Adobe users keep their antivirus up-to-date.

“While we continue to investigate this issue, customers are advised to follow best practices and only open email attachments from people they trust,” blogged Symantec researcher Patrick Fitzgerald. “Enabling DEP (Data Execution Prevention) for Adobe Reader will also help prevent this type of attack.”

Brian Prince: eWeek

Adobe Acrobat Version 9

Adobe Acrobat and its PDF documents have been around for a long time. It's a great product and comes in handy when you want to send documents that look clean and have read-only privileges. In their latest version, Acrobat 9, Adobe has built in technology so that one can embed Flash content into PDF documents, making the Flash content portable through a document rather than a large Flash file. Pretty interesting for marketers and those working in the creative design space.

Another interesting move is that Adobe is releasing a document management and document storage application similar to Google Docs, Microsoft Sharepoint, and WebEx Workspace. They include a mini suite of capabilities: Buzzword for word processing and text editing; Share for document sharing; My Files for document storage, Create PDF for document conversion, and ConnectNow for web conferencing. You can find beta versions of the document management solution at www.acrobat.com

The last move is that Adobe is offering a free web conferencing solutions for up to three people and an online document repository where users can convert up to five documents into PDF. I suppose if Adobe can't SELL their web conferencing solutions, they might as well give it away for free. Can't really blame them as most of their revenue comes from Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Acrobat anyway.

Adobe Version 9 is available in Standard ($299), Pro ($449) and Pro Extended ($699).

If you are interesting in reading more about Adobe's corporate vision and market analysis, click this link: Download adobe_may_2008.pdf

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Another Adobe Flaw!!!

Issues with Adobe applications are starting to become so common place it's scary. Again, why take on the much added risk with a solution that does not have any 3rd party security certifications? Though Adobe Connect and Adobe Acrobat are different solutions, the Connect solution is 100% dependent on Acrobat.

I previously mentioned that Adobe released a Security Bulletin in October of 2006 for Adobe Connect, which effected older versions of Breeze. Now problems have surfaced with newer versions of Adobe Acrobat. They released a patch for the recently discovered security flaw in their Acrobat software application to resolve the problems.

The company added that the flaw affected Acrobat Standard, Professional, and Elements in versions 7.08 and older. (Only a matter of time before these specific Acrobat issues manifest in Adobe Connect.)

Adobe further confirmed that the recently launched version 8.0 was not affected by this flaw and the users are not required to download any patch.

This flaw was related to a technique known as "cross-site scripting" which allowed hackers to mix malicious JavaScript with a link to a PDF file on a website. (Sounds like the same issues the older version on Connect had. Again, curious to see when the current version on Adobe Connect starts to see similar problems.)

Adobe Connect Security Problems
Adobe Connect History
Same Song and Dance 

Your Ad Here

Thanks,

David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

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