IBM said it will incorporate Cisco's IP-based delivery and distribution system for digital media into its own suite of digital media storage and management tools. The N.Y.-based company has also joined forces with software maker Media Publisher to build a user interface for the streaming media package .

The new digital media solution will allow any organization, in any industry, to rapidly deliver rich media, including streaming video to geographically dispersed audiences and debuted at Supercomm 2003, Atlanta. The solution is called the Digital Media Delivery Solution. The underlying technology has applications for any organization looking to distribute rich media, and Telecommunications Service Providers can offer DMDS as a managed service to their corporate customers. New services that can be offered include corporate communications, corporate training and content selling.

Marist College is one of the first organizations to integrate capabilities from IBM and Cisco to deliver educational materials to students in remote locations. "The ability to access and interact with content is an essential component of the teaching and learning process. New technologies developed by IBM and Cisco are providing us with opportunities to enhance how professors teach and students learn. The rich media distribution network that we are using, as part of our new digital media infrastructure, is a distributed platform for creation, management, and distribution of digital media applications. The results of this collaboration will be useful not only to the higher education community, but will also enhance the way corporations and government train and educate their employees," said Marist College President Dennis Murray.

The DMDS architecture leverages existing networks, and bandwidth-intensive applications such as ERP, CRM, content management, enterprise portal and streaming media. DMDS also delivers the basic digital media functions of store, search, view, collaborate, purchase, download, delivery and the advanced capability of Video-on-Demand. Specific applications include corporate communications, e-learning, sales promotions and marketing, partner relations and product demos.

"DMDS extends the IBM and Cisco System Strategic Alliance into the growth area of digital media via digital media distribution. The convergence of video, voice, audio and data IP networks is a very real and exciting trend," said George Kurian, vice president and general manager of the Cisco Video Networking Business Unit.

"IBM and Cisco have come together to deliver a comprehensive solution for customers to increase operating efficiencies and improve the quality of education and communication with the power of video." "We are proud to be a component of the Digital Media Delivery Solution," said Rod Bacon, chief executive officer of Media Publisher, Inc. "Our vision in developing Media Publisher was that rich media should be easy to both implement and use across an entire enterprise for daily business initiatives. We designed Media Publisher to integrate with technology from leading digital media partners to simplify and improve the front and back-end user experience. Our close working relationships with both IBM and Cisco are already producing significant benefits for our customers."

"Broadening our partnership with Cisco Systems into the area of digital media allows us to create integrated digital media solutions that deliver multimedia on-demand applications," said Michael Maas, vice president of marketing, IBM Communications Sector.