The Cloud Lords and Infrastructure Keepers: Who Really Owns Your Meetings?

The Cloud Lords: Platform Makers

In the modern video conferencing market, these companies don’t just provide meetings. They increasingly dominate productivity suites, AI integrations, and workflow orchestration. If corporate meetings are oxygen, these firms own the air filters—and they occasionally decide how much air you’re allowed.

Microsoft Teams

The corporate mandatory. Nobody actually loves Microsoft Teams, but everybody uses it—mainly because it’s bundled into Microsoft 365 like an offer you can’t refuse. It’s the Sopranos approach to SaaS: “Nice business you’ve got here. Shame if you had to buy Zoom separately.”

Teams is the spiritual heir to Skype for Business, which Microsoft acquired and eventually retired. The playbook is familiar: integrate the conferencing tool so deeply with Outlook, SharePoint, and OneDrive that companies can’t live without it.

Strengths:

  • Unparalleled integration with the Microsoft ecosystem.

  • Vast Teams Rooms ecosystem for conference hardware.

  • Enterprises love the “all-in-one” vendor approach.

Weaknesses:

  • The interface is clunky and overloaded.

  • Notifications are relentless.

  • “You’re muted” has become both a meme and a lifestyle.

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Zoom

If Teams is the arranged marriage, Zoom was the pandemic fling that turned into a real relationship. In early 2020, Zoom’s growth looked like a SpaceX launch—straight up and on fire. Suddenly, people said “Let’s Zoom” instead of “Let’s meet.”

Zoom succeeded by being what enterprise software rarely is: simple and reliable. Its UI was intuitive, its video quality consistent, and it worked even on your grandmother’s Wi-Fi.

Now the challenge? Proving it’s more than just “video calls with a better UI than Teams.” Zoom is expanding into Zoom Phone, Zoom Contact Center, and AI-powered meeting tools like automatic transcription and smart summaries. Investors, of course, keep asking if this is enough.

Strengths:

  • Beloved brand, synonymous with video calls.

  • Rock-solid performance and ease of use.

  • Expanding product set.

Weaknesses:

  • Competing with Microsoft’s bundling juggernaut.

  • Revenue overreliance on one product line.

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Google Meet

Meet is the IKEA Allen key of conferencing: indispensable, functional, but no one brags about owning it.

Born as Google Hangouts, rebranded as Hangouts Meet, and finally as Google Meet, this service has had more names than a rock star with tax problems. Yet it persists because it’s integrated into Google Workspace.

Strengths:

  • Deep integration with Gmail and Google Calendar.

  • Convenience for schools, startups, and SMEs.

  • Simplicity—click a link, you’re in.

Weaknesses:

  • Google’s habit of killing products (RIP Google Reader, Stadia).

  • Perceived lack of enterprise focus compared to Microsoft and Cisco.

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GoTo Meeting

GoTo Meeting was once the hot new thing in remote collaboration. In the early 2000s, it was right up there with Cisco Webex as the go-to tool for online meetings. Fast forward to today, and it feels more like a trusty sedan parked next to Zoom’s electric supercar.

Strengths:

  • Affordable for SMBs.

  • Stable, reliable platform.

  • Easy deployment without enterprise bloat.

Weaknesses:

  • Brand recognition has waned.

  • Innovation has slowed.

Still, GoTo remains solid for SMBs who want functionality without Microsoft licensing headaches.

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Cisco Webex

Webex is practically ancient by tech standards—founded in 1995 and acquired by Cisco in 2007. For years, it was the name in enterprise video conferencing. And while it sometimes feels like a museum piece, Cisco has poured billions into modernizing it.

Strengths:

  • Market-leading security certifications (including FedRAMP).

  • Huge feature set: transcription, AI noise cancellation, integrations galore.

  • Entrenched in large corporates and government.

Weaknesses:

  • Interface complexity.

  • Less “loved” by end users compared to Zoom.

Webex isn’t dead—it’s just wearing sensible shoes and still paying the mortgage.

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The Infrastructure Keepers: The Niche of On-Premises

Not everyone trusts the cloud. For some organizations—banks, defense contractors, and government agencies—keeping video infrastructure on-premises is not just paranoia, it’s policy.

Cisco

Beyond Webex, Cisco sells TelePresence infrastructure—massive servers, gateways, and endpoints designed for organizations that need classified collaboration to remain strictly internal.

Use cases: defense, financial services, and healthcare. If your meetings involve HIPAA compliance or NATO briefings, Cisco still has your back.

Pexip

Headquartered in Norway, Pexip has built its reputation on interoperability—bridging legacy SIP/H.323 systems with modern platforms like Teams and Zoom.

Its unique pitch? Absolute control. Clients can deploy self-hosted video conferencing in their own data centers or private clouds. Governments love it because not a single pixel leaves their controlled perimeter.

For everyone else? The cloud is cheaper, faster, and less hassle. But for compliance-driven sectors, Pexip is a lifeline.

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Conclusion: Cloud vs. Control

The video conferencing industry divides neatly:

  • The Cloud Lords—Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Cisco Webex, and GoTo Meeting—fight for ubiquity, integration, and AI-driven productivity.

  • The Infrastructure Keepers—Cisco TelePresence and Pexip—serve the paranoid and compliance-bound, offering sovereignty at a premium.

Choosing between them isn’t just about features; it’s about philosophy. Do you want the scale and convenience of cloud video conferencing? Or the control and security of on-premises video infrastructure?

Either way, you’ll still hear the immortal line: “Sorry, you’re on mute.”

Simon Dudley is a technology strategist, bestselling author, and former senior executive at Logitech, Poly, and Lifesize. He now runs Excession Events, helping companies out-think rather than out-price their competition.