Last Wednesday, Adobe blinked in its long standing Flash face-off with Apple when it announced that it was ending Flash development on mobile platforms in favor of HTML5. In the subsequent hullabaloo raised by defiant Flash developers and exuberant Apple and HTML5, a Reuters article reported that Adobe “plans to scale back promotion of its LiveCycle business process management software and Connect web conferencing businesses,” also adding that while “It will stop marketing those products to most customers…it will continue to support them.”
Not to spread any unfounded rumors, the Adobe Connect DevLearn team insists that they are still innovating and improving their product and that they will continue to expand their “vertical markets.” Gillaume Privat, Director of Adobe also posted something to this effect on the Adobe blog. To confirm that Adobe really is in no way deserting the Connect product, Ken Molay of The Webinar Blog spoke directly with Privat. Molay believes Adobe Connect is merely dumping the brunt of its marketing and selling responsibilities to its resellers while Adobe concentrates on the big daddies (government or financial institution) as a cost-savings strategy.
Whichever the case, if this announcement makes you a little jittery about Adobe Connect, maybe it’s time to consider a Flash alternative. We think there are plenty of good reasons to use VSee versus Flash whether or not Connect is on its way out. 🙂
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Excellent post from The Webinar Blog on the death of Flash
Rest assured Adobe Connect which was just named by PC Magazine as the best Web Conference Solution for 2011 is not going away. Adobe is concentrating it’s sales and marketing efforts (sales force) on government and education markets. The U.S. Dept. of Defense just signed a 5 year $93M agreement to use and expand Adobe Connect. Adobe Connect is the DoD standard for eLearning and collaboration. See this: http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/201108/081511AdobeConnectDODContract.html
As the market moves from Flash to HTML5, Adobe Connect will lead in this space. Right now HTML5 does not contain a video or audio codec to allow multi-media streaming. Web Conferencing via HTML5 is not ready and HTML5 is not supported on many browsers yet.
As for security, Adobe Connect is considered one of the most secure web conference tools there is. It was the first one to pass extremely stringent Justice Department standards and can be secured with biometric based authentication. The military chose it because of security and network bandwidth efficiency. We also support SSL in any number of configurations. Many U.S. Government Intel agencies use Adobe Connect for highly secure projects.
As for scalability, Adobe Connect can scale very high to thousands of attendees in a single room. US Military uses it 24×7 365 days a year at the rate of 42 million minutes just last month.