Downturn? What downturn? There's no downturn of any kind in the content security gateway segment, which surged by nearly 10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, hitting $1.6 billion.

According to market watcher Infonetics Research, both Cisco Systems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are tops, overall, in the UC space. In fact, buyers say that Cisco and Microsoft are their preferred Unified Messaging and Communicator suppliers.