Unified Communications Startup Hops On Free Train

Unison's unified communications software, which includes a Linux server and Linux and Windows clients, wraps together a PBX system, e-mail server, instant messaging server, contacts and calendar functions.

Unified communications is steadily making inroads, but the significant cost involved with UC deployments has kept the technology out of the reach of smaller organizations. Unison claims that its free software can give SMBs the power of Microsoft Exchange and a Cisco PBX.

Unison's initial sponsors are Canonical, the commercial sponsor of the Ubuntu operating system, and Intermedia, a New York-based Microsoft hosted applications provider.

The sponsored version of Unison includes advertisements in the desktop client and control panel. Unison also offers an advertisement-free paid version of its software for $50 per user, per year, as well as a 'perpetual license' for $36,000 per server with no user limits.

In addition to offering its software for free, Unison is playing up the fact that unlike other SaaS offerings such as Google Apps, its software runs on-premise and on a Linux server behind the firewall, which means companies don't have to entrust their confidential data to third parties.

"This represents a new era for the software industry -- and a direct challenge to the traditional model of overpriced software," said Michael Choupak, CEO and creator of Unison, in a statement.