6/3/2008 -- Enterprise users are mad about mobility. Thanks to the prevalence of hot mobile accessories ( iPods, iPhones, BlackBerrys and garden-variety smartphones) the next generation of enterprise users is likely to be madder still.

That's why so many vendors, Cisco Systems Inc. among them, are jockeying for position in the still-coalescing mobile marketplace.

Last week, Cisco took what it considers a great leap forward on the mobility tip, introducing its 3300 Series Mobility Services Engine (MSE), a rack-mountable appliance that supports clients on wired and wireless networks alike.

More intriguing still, Cisco pitches its 3300 Series MSE as a kind of next-gen, post-wireless deliverable. What most folks mean by "wireless" is too limiting, Cisco argues; instead, officials talk up what they call "motion." This isn't just a buzzword, Cisco insists. Rather, motion describes the convergence of wireless, wired and cellular transports, among other technologies. It's a perfect storm that -- thanks to lagging support from technology vendors -- has, in some cases, blinded IT, according to Cisco.

"IT is really caught in this tension between enabling collaboration, enabling mobility and keeping the enterprise safe," said Cisco Senior Vice President Brett Galloway in a podcast interview. "What we're focused on doing through motion is to bring together all of these various network technologies. To allow people to continue to collaborate effectively in a way that is still managed for me...from a security perspective. And the enterprise interest in that is to make sure that...[IT] can get people to work at home."

Enter Cisco's 3300 Series MSE, one of the biggest benefits of which, according to Galloway and other principals, is a fixed mobile convergence (FMC) capability that can transparently hand-off VoIP sessions to cellular networks -- without interrupting a call. The upshot, Cisco argues, is a better overall user experience and the potential for significant cost savings.

There's a sense in which the MSE's FMC capabilities bring Cisco to parity with some of its competitors -- Motorola and other players already provide limited FMC features -- but industry watchers say that Cisco's FMC play, thanks to its ubiquitous enterprise presence and top-to-bottom networking stack, amounts to a clear competitive differentiator.

According to Cisco, the 3300 Series MSE abstracts applications and services from the underlying control network to optimize performance and reliability while reducing the operational complexities associated with business mobility. This architecture unifies application delivery across Wi-Fi, Ethernet, WiMAX and cellular networks while preserving security and manageability.

The new MSE's other features -- e.g., an open API that supports the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and XML (among other standards); a software suite that bundles context-aware, intelligent roaming; and adaptive intrusion prevention software -- also outstrip competitive offerings, Cisco officials claim. --Stephen Swoyer