Operaciones Integradas Blog

Deal confirmed, RADVISION to be bought by Avaya.

2012-03-15T17:25:00.000-07:00

Bringing to end end many months of speculation, both verbal and financial, Avaya Inc. today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire RADVISION Ltd.

Upon closing, RADVISION's enterprise video infrastructure and high value endpoints will be integrated with Avaya's Aura(R) Unified Communications (UC) platform to create a compelling and differentiated solution designed to accelerate the adoption of video collaboration.

The RADVISION portfolio includes a full range of videoconferencing products, technologies and expertise serving enterprises, small business, and service providers. It includes standards-based applications, open infrastructure and endpoints for ad-hoc and scheduled videoconferencing with room-based systems, desktop, and mobile consumer devices. The integrated Avaya and RADVISION portfolios will extend intra-company business to business (b2b) and business to customer (b2c) video communications, and also supports internal "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD) initiatives.

RADVISION's SCOPIA Video product line and expertise integrated with the open architecture of Avaya Aura(R) will bridge existing H.323 communications networks and SIP-based environments, delivering scalability and a user experience designed to be intuitive and easy to operate. At the close of the transaction, RADVISION and Avaya channel partners will be positioned to deliver complete UC Video integration, operational support, and professional services.

In the transaction, which has been approved by each company's Board of Directors, RADVISION shareholders will receive US$11.85 per share, valuing the transaction at approximately $230 million. The acquisition is expected to close within approximately 90 days assuming the satisfaction of agreed-upon closing conditions.

Entering into this agreement highlights Avaya's commitment to bring The Power of We(TM) to every Avaya customer, helping businesses to drive faster collaboration, smarter decisions and better business results.

Kevin Kennedy, president and CEO, Avaya said "The opportunity for personal workspace is now. Customers demand a rich, collaborative user experience that is interoperable and easy to use. In addition, we believe this transaction will leverage a highly-skilled, incredibly talented and experienced workforce ready to deliver video to enterprise customers. With this acquisition we will seek to extend videoconferencing to any device, anytime, anywhere, making it as easy as a phone call, seizing the opportunity to deliver a fully-integrated solution and architecture that we believe sets us apart from the competition."

Boaz Raviv, CEO, RADVISION said "RADVISION has a strong heritage of developing and delivering innovative videoconferencing products and technologies deployed by Fortune 500(R) companies and global service providers. As companies and their customers seek to deploy a wide range of video capabilities as part of their daily collaboration, the combination of Avaya and RADVISION's portfolio will provide flexible and easy to use solutions. Avaya's commitment to quality, innovation, open architectures and industry standards is an ideal fit to advance RADVISION's vision for making video part of everyday life."

Commenting on the deal Ira M. Weinstein, of Wainhouse Research said, "The addition of the RADVISION video portfolio to Avaya's business collaboration solutions is a powerful combination. RADVISION's video management capabilities, video bridging solutions, and video endpoint portfolio complement the Avaya Aura(R) unified communications platform. This is a win for both of these companies, their channel partners, and their end-user customers."

"Avaya's pending acquisition of RADVISION is welcome news. It will bring Avaya an end-to-end video solution including a mature and reliable suite of infrastructure components, and provide RADVISION access to a global distribution channel and brand association with Avaya. Customers are demanding more powerful collaboration tools, with integrated video and voice solutions that leverage existing video investments, and enable them to benefit from new state-of-the-art technology. Integrating these complementary technologies will help minimize interoperability concerns and provide Avaya customers with a flexible collaboration solution." said Michael Brandofino, EVP, Video and Unified Communications, AVI-SPL.

Avaya comprará al proveedor de videoconferencias Radvision

2012-01-03T10:32:00.000-08:00

El proveedor de comunicaciones unificadas está en negociaciones para comprar Radvision, que hace soluciones de videoconferencia para redes 3G e IP por unos 200 millones de dólares

Avaya está estudiando la compra de Radvision por 200 millones de dólares, lo que le ayudaría a competir mejor con Cisco y Polycom, e incluso como el negocio LifeSize Communications de Logitech, anunció Globes, una publicación de Israel.

Al mismo tiempo parece que hay otros interesados en Radvision, muy afectado por la compra de Tandberg por parte de Cisco en 2009 –aunque cerrado el año pasado, por 3,300 millones de dólares. Este acuerdo ofreció a Cisco una amplia variedad de productos para el mercado de gama medio, un área en la que la compañía no tenía presencia.

Tanto la videoconferencia como la colaboración es un mercado que está creciendo rápidamente y que tiene un brillante futuro porque es la opción en que la mayoría de las empresas buscan la manera de reducir costes, particularmente los de viajes, además de aumentar la productividad de sus empleados. Por otra parte, es un tendencia cada vez mayor utilizar estas tecnologías no sólo para reuniones, sino para comunicarse con los trabajadores, partners y clientes.

A principios de esta semana, la empresa de investigación de mercado IDC dijo que el mercado de videoconferencia y telepresencia creció un 24.3% en el tercer trimestre respecto al mismo periodo del año anterior, con ingresos de 680.4 millones de dólares.

Cisco es el líder del mercado con una cuota del 51.6%, algo más del 48.4% que tenía en el tercer trimestre de 2011. En cuanto a Polycom, sus ingresos crecieron un 19.4% en el trimestre. Radvision, por el contrario, perdió 7.4 millones de dólares en el tercer trimestre, con ingresos cayendo hasta los 17.3 millones de dólares frente a los 24.5 millones del mismo periodo del año anterior.

No parece que la decisión de Radvision de comprar los activos de videoconferencia de Aethra por diez millones de dólares haya dado resultados.

Globes asegura que el año pasado HP mantuvo negociaciones con Radvision, pero que el precio de compra acabó con ellas. Finalmente HP vendió su negocio de telepresencia y videoconferencia a Polycom. Como parte del acuerdo, Polycom es ahora el partner exclusivo de HP para los productos de videoconferencia y telepresencia.

Riverbed Proves Again Why It’s the Market and Technology Leader in WAN Optimization

2011-12-07T09:25:00.000-08:00

Event Summary

In its Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS) 7.0 software, Riverbed broadened the appeal of its WAN performance booster with acceleration for HTTP-based video, UDP applications, VDI, and integrated network performance monitoring and IPv6. The integration of its Cascade Shark packet capture and analysis allows enterprises to troubleshoot branch office networking problems remotely, without the need to install separate hardware probes.

Analytical SummaryPerspective

Positive on the release of Riverbed’s RiOS 7.0 software update, because it greatly broadens the appeal of Riverbed’s WAN optimization solutions, which already offered great feature-richness. The mixed bag of enhancements demonstrates Riverbed’s intent to focus on meeting customer requirements and reinforce its technology as well as market leadership.

Vendor Importance

Moderate to Riverbed, because the long list of new (and in some cases market-leading) enhancements essentially polish the crown jewels of Riverbed’s business to a high gloss, showing off even more facets of those gems. The enhancements also allow Riverbed to better capitalize on acquisitions by integrating acquired technologies into its Steelhead appliances, thereby increasing their value. Several new functions such as UDP acceleration, expanded video support, and VDI help to expand the addressable market for its Steelhead appliances.

Market Impact

High on the WAN optimization market, because in total, the wide range of new features could very likely spur even greater distance between Riverbed and its next closest rivals. Riverbed has already opened up a large lead in its dominance in the WAN optimization market, and these enhancements will only serve to extend that.

Competitive StrengthsCompetitive Positives

• Despite the fact that Riverbed did not release its UDP support when promised, it is still fairly unique in offering that acceleration; Cisco and Blue Coat do not yet have such support in their WAN optimization appliances. This gives Riverbed time-to-market advantages over its chief rivals and addresses an underserved part of the market for optimizing disaster recovery services, some VDI, and other UPD-based applications.

• Riverbed continues to demonstrate what has made it the dominant WAN optimization provider by a large margin; that is its continued focus on making its appliances among the most feature-rich in the market by adding capabilities important to its large and growing base of customers.

• Riverbed is positioning its Steelhead WAN optimization line to capitalize on the growing interest in VDI by expanding its already broad support for Citrix VMware and Microsoft VDI environments to include optimization for Citrix ICA over SSL encrypted links, as well as a new client drive mapping feature that enables the acceleration of content accessed directly from thin clients including thumb drives.

• Over the last several quarters, Riverbed has pulled away from its major competitors, now commanding just over half of the market and twice the share of its next closest competitor. With such strong momentum at its back, and its continued aggressive push to deliver consistent feature expansion based on customer requirements, Riverbed is well positioned to increase its dominance.

Competitive WeaknessesCompetitive Concerns

• Riverbed was due to deliver UDP acceleration and application visibility on the Steelhead appliances in H1 2011. The late delivery of those capabilities could cause it to lose time-to-market advantages and raise the ire of customers counting on that functionality earlier.

• Cisco has carved out a strong position in optimizing performance for VDI and video with the 4.4 release of its WAAS software, which includes context-aware data redundancy elimination features focused specifically on VDI and video traffic (see Cisco Looks to VDI and Video to Gain Advantage in WAN Optimization Market, October 7, 2011). It received good initial validation from third-party reviewers. Its renewed push in VDI traffic optimization will give Riverbed a run for its money.

• Despite the addition of new security features in RiOS 7.0, Riverbed does not deliver the same level of security that rival Blue Coat can offer by virtue of its existing WAN security business. Blue Coat recently integrated key Web security in its MACH 5 appliances that exploits the company’s new cloud-based Web security service, eliminating the need to backhaul Web traffic to a central location from remote locations.

Response & Recommendations

• If Cisco’s context-aware DRE (data redundancy elimination) does in fact improve the user experience, especially compared to Riverbed’s VDI and video optimization, Cisco should hire third-party testers to validate that advantage. Cisco is hanging its WAN optimization hat on that innovation, and it should be prepared to demonstrate its superiority (if that exists) over the market leader.

• Once Blue Coat develops a customer base for its new Web security services integration with its MACH 5 WAN optimization appliances, it should highlight the benefits in customer case studies, looking for ways to quantify the benefits of that integration and publicizing those metrics. That integration gives Blue Coat good differentiation as well as a good cloud story, something which Riverbed does not yet have.

• Cisco needs to quash rumors that it will abandon its WAAS appliance line in favor of integrated router features/blades if it is to continue to compete successfully against Riverbed. If Cisco is committed to being a top-tier competitor in the WAN optimization market, it needs to demonstrate that commitment clearly. One of the ways to do that is to maintain better feature parity with market leader Riverbed.

• A little paranoia can be a good thing, if it motivates an organization to be vigilant for shifts in market dynamics. Riverbed has done a great job of focusing on customer requirements, but its success could blind it to subtle changes in market demands. Competitive pricing and responsiveness to partners and prospects should not be sacrificed as Riverbed continues to pull away from its nearest competitors.

Buyer Actions

• It is only a matter of time before latency-sensitive VDI pervades the enterprise network, and video has already achieved mainstream status as a tool for a variety of enterprise activities. Network operators should verse themselves on how those applications behave across the network, what their requirements are in terms of latency, and what options exist to better support them across far-flung enterprises.

• Existing Riverbed customers should be heartened by the wide range of new features Riverbed has included in the latest RiOS release (7.0). Its ‘something for everyone’ update reflects the diversity in Riverbed’s broad customer base and demonstrates the vendor’s commitment to its customers.

• Prospects looking to add WAN optimization to their networks, especially to support new latency-sensitive applications traffic such as VDI and video, should evaluate the different approaches to accelerating those newer traffic types. Each competitor brings unique techniques to the battle, along with differentiated feature sets.

Analytical Perspective

Borrowing a page from rival Cisco, Riverbed is doing a good job of integrating acquired technologies into its Steelhead appliances, thereby increasing the value of the products. Just as Cisco has integrated a variety of network services into its switches and routers, so too is Riverbed integrating acquired technologies such as its Cascade Shark packet capture and network performance management as well as Skipware satellite communications optimization into RiOS 7.0. At the same time, RiOS 7.0 addresses a wide range of customer requirements that reflect the diversity of its customer base, enabling Riverbed to broaden the appeal of its Steelhead appliances. New UDP optimization now enables Riverbed to optimize bulk file transfers used in replication or disaster recovery applications as well as some VDI implementations, such as VMware’s PCoIP protocol for VMware View. At the same time, all major WAN optimization providers recognize the new opportunities for expanding the addressable market with the enterprise adoption of video as a tool for a variety of purposes, including training, employee communications, marketing, and more. Chief rivals Cisco and Blue Coat have recently expanded their video optimization techniques. Blue Coat, in particular, added stream-splitting for Adobe Flash just one month earlier; it had already delivered the ability to cache Microsoft Silverlight content locally, although it does not claim to provide stream-splitting or application layer multicasting for Silverlight yet.

All this comes at a time when Riverbed is distancing itself from its major rivals. By some estimates, Riverbed owns just over 50% of the WAN optimization market, which is about twice that of its next major rival, Cisco Systems. That is up from about 34% of the market just two years ago. Common wisdom suggests that WAN optimization is a three-horse race between Riverbed, Cisco, and Blue Coat, despite the healthy number of smaller rivals still competing in the market. Of course, as the clear market leader, Riverbed has a very large bull’s eye on its back, and competitors will be keen to take advantage of any missteps it makes. At the same time, nervous investors will keep the pure-play focused to some extent on the short term, although Riverbed has demonstrated good long-term vision in its acquisitions and partnerships.

Solución de Colaboración de Avaya gana el premio de la revista PC World En Español en la categoría de mejor software para solución de movilidad

2011-11-23T16:35:00.000-08:00

Avaya Flare® Experience y Avaya Aura® Collaboration Server fueron elegidas como las soluciones líderes para la comunicación y la colaboración en tiempo real

BASKING RIDGE, Nueva Jersey – Avaya anunció hoy que PC World En Español, líder en la región como fuente de noticias especializada en tecnologías de la información, distinguió a Avaya Flare® Experience y Avaya Aura® Collaboration Server con el premio al mejor software para solución de movilidad. Este premio es un reconocimiento al liderazgo demostrado al ofrecer una plataforma de comunicaciones con sólidas herramientas de colaboración que permite aumentar la productividad de las empresas.

Avaya Flare Experience es un software de colaboración que aprovecha al máximo la plataforma de comunicaciones basada en SIP Avaya Aura para brindar comunicaciones optimizadas multi-sesión y multi-modales en tiempo real desde el escritorio. Con este software, los usuarios se comunican y colaboran sin importar el tipo de red que utilicen o cómo accedan a ella.

Avaya Aura Collaboration Server brinda los elementos básicos de Avaya Aura® en un único servidor. Permite que empresas con una infraestructura existente, ya sea de Avaya como de otros proveedores, evalúen las novedosas terminales y aplicaciones SIP de Avaya sin la necesidad de actualizar la totalidad de su red de comunicaciones.

OpenFlow: Distributed Network Nirvana or Academic Science Project

2011-10-24T15:39:00.000-07:00

OpenFlow will move from the academic to the commercial in the next 24 months
Vendors’ perception of OpenFlow will determine whether they resist or embrace the technology

From its beginnings at Stanford as a research project to becoming a technology movement that has start-ups building businesses around it, OpenFlow has emerged as a topic of discussion in many networking circles today. OpenFlow is essentially the proposal to add a hook into an existing network device that enables control and forwarding actions to be centrally managed off-device and then implemented identically across all devices in the network. Whether this control includes table replication, routing actions, security policies, or even access control list (ACL) population, all are possible with the OpenFlow architecture. Consider that a device could merely execute packet handling directions versus actually having to determine which decision to make. This, in turn, could radically reduce the processing requirements on the device itself, in addition to enabling a consistent policy application across a very large number of devices (theoretically, tens to hundreds of thousands), which would vastly simplify management. OpenFlow also offers the operator the ability to integrate intelligence into the network without relying on the network device’s operating system or even application awareness that can then execute and apply QoS and security policies. While some vendors offer devices that possess this ability today on a select portion of their portfolio, there are exceptionally few environments that are 100% standardized on a single vendor’s latest generation of products.

LifeSize Adds Mobile HD Streaming To Video Center Play

2011-02-17T15:30:00.000-08:00

By Chad Berndtson, CRN
feb. 15, 2011 2:22 PM EST

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LifeSize Communications on Tuesday added HD video content streaming for mobile devices to its flagship video management appliance, the latest step for the video company's expansion beyond its well-known video endpoints and into the broader infrastructurearena.

Specifically, the LifeSize Video Center will now be enabled for mobile streaming, meaning users can access live and on-demand HD video content from PCs, but also Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) iPhones, iPads and iPods connected to Wi-Fi or cellular networks. The one-way streams, such as from corporate or classroom presentations, are accessed via Web browser without any additional softwareneeded, according to LifeSize.

In addition, the Video Center now includes automatic adaptive streaming, meaning that users can stream an HD recording from a LifeSize 220 Series video endpoint at up to four different bitrates -- preserving the quality of video on mobile devices or even in instances of choppy bandwidth.

Users can also access and store video content using their existing network attached storage (NAS), and the LifeSize Video Center'sAPI is enhanced to let developers build Video Center content into third-party systems.

LifeSize first debuted the Video Center in April 2010 -- an appliance that processes HD video where it's created and offers advanced management of video content for network administrators and users to stream, record, auto-publish and store video, audio and data content.

The new enhancements will all be part of LifeSize Video Center Version 1.2, which will be available for download in March. Video Center is currently listed at $29,999 MSRP.

Cost savings and ease-of-use are two of LifeSize's most important value propositions to VARs and customers, said Rafi Anuar, product manager -- especially as a compelling alternative to video channel heavyweights like Cisco (NSDQ:CSCO) and Polycom.

"These are built from scratch, in house: both the endpoint side of the portfolio, and the infrastructure side of the portfolio, which includes Video Center and our bridge products," Anuar told CRN.

"When we set out to do Video Center, we looked at how existing solutions were architected," he added. "We use the LifeSize 200 series to transcode the video before it ever leaves the endpoint -- all that heavy transcoding work is being done right on the endpoint."

Video Center can offer up to 20 concurrent HD recordings, and 50 in standard definition. It can also enable up to 1,000 live video streams and up to 350 simultaneous on-demand streams, all in 720p30 HD video.

LifeSize, which was acquired by Logitech in 2009, has about 15,000 customers in 100 countries, according to its executives.

Its channel program, which LifeSize retooled about a year ago, numbers about 1,500 VARs, and OEM and integration partnerships with the likes of Avaya and Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT).

HP Networking Unified Communications Platforms Face Less Than Certain Future

2011-02-04T09:44:00.000-08:00

Competitive Positives

• The VCX Unified Communications Platforms remain on offer within the HP Networking portfolio.
Customers can still purchase them; channels can still actively sell them.
• HP has committed to releasing at least one additional software update – VCX 9.8 which will be available later this year.
• HP has a wide range of relationships with developers of telephony systems and software.
These can be leveraged to help transition VCX customers to other products when and if the need arises.

Competitive Concerns

• HP has not the committed marketing and sales resources vital to raising awareness of VCX in the market.
• Without a significant amount of marketing and sales resources dedicated to VCX the product is highly likely
to fail in the extremely competitive UC market.
• For much of 2010 HP worked to integrate VCX into its portfolio of networking products, giving customers
and channel partners every indication that it was committed to the product.
• Without VCX HP will have no unified communications products in its portfolio,
a weakness compared with Cisco, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent and Siemens Enterprise, all of which deliver an end-to-end portfolio
of voice and data products.

Event Summary

January 27, 2011 – HP Networking has placed its VCX Unified Communications Platforms into maintenance mode. The company will continue supporting the products but ongoing development of them has by and large ceased.

Analytical SummaryPerspective

• Very negative on HP placing into maintenance-only mode the UC systems and software that came with its acquisition of 3Com. Since its acquisition of 3Com HP added the VCX line of PBXs and ancillary communications software to portfolio of networking systems, narrowing its market focus to the SMB rather than to both SMBs and enterprises as the products were positioned under 3Com. HP stopped short of actually discontinuing the VCX line of communications solutions. But with HP not committing to its long-term development or dedicating marketing resources that would raise its visibility in the UC market, HP will very likely create a downward spiral from which the VCX will be unable to survive as a viable UC offering.

Vendor Importance

• High to HP, because without VCX as a viable product HP will not be able to execute on the portion of its UC strategy which, for the past few months, has been to sell its own branded telephony systems to SMBs. Though HP could simplify technology partner relationships with Avaya and others made complicated by a UC product line under the HP Networking brand, it would leave HP without a telephony platform of its own. As a result HP would not be able to offer an end-to-end line of voice and data solutions as Cisco, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent and Siemens Enterprise can deliver.

Market Impact

• High to HP customers and resellers with investments in VCX systems and software because it is looking like the VCX’s days are numbered. If the product slips from maintenance-only to end-of-sale, VCX customers and resellers will gradually need to seek other options for the business communications solutions they respectively buy and sell. Low to HP’s competitors in the UC market because VCX does not have much visibility not does it often appear on RFPs.

Avaya Acquires Konftel

2011-01-11T15:59:00.000-08:00

The acquisition of Konftel by Avaya is most interesting, and undoubtedly of much more significance than might be represented by the tiny acquisition price ($15M). We suspect the deal signals a significant hardening of the rift between Avaya and Polycom. At one level, the acquisition gives Ayava

some significant voice technology which Avaya might embed in its overall product portfolio. Indeed, the press release states that Avaya intends to leverage Konftel’s product portfolio with Avaya’s multi-modal technologies and user experiences to deliver innovative and differentiated capabilities that reach

across Avaya’s platforms. A t another level the acquisition gives Avaya a wired and wireless voice endpoint product line and reduces Avaya’s reliance on Polycom.

One year ago, Polycom listed Avaya as one of its seven strategic partners. In the interim, however, Avaya signed an OEM agreement with LifeSize / Logitech and has now acquired Konftel, a company that has had a strong speakerphone presence in Europe and is a major Polycom competitor there.

On another front, Polycom has tightened its relationship with Microsoft and made much ado of that strategic partnership while Microsoft has released Lync and positioned this strong UC offering as the next PBX killer –a direct threat to Avaya’s current business if not its future vision.

If the enemy of your enemy is your friend, what about the friend of your enemy’s enemy’s friend?

Polycom Enhances Unified Communication Solutions for Microsoft Lync Server 2010

2011-01-03T14:58:00.000-08:00

Polycom, a provider of unified communications (UC) solutions and a Microsoft (News - Alert) Gold Certified partner,announced enhancements to its comprehensive portfolio of voice and video solutions for Microsoft Lync Server 2010

Industry analysts say the partnership between Microsoft andPolycom (News - Alert) will offer the interoperability, a rich feature set, and simplified management and administration capabilities that customers demand today.

“Polycom is teaming with Microsoft to transform business communications by offering our customers the most comprehensive, intuitive, interoperable, end-to-end UC experience,” said Joe Burton, Polycom chief technology and strategy officer, in a statement.

“Through our shared commitment with Microsoft to deliver flexible standard-based solutions, we offer an enterprise-grade, personalized communications experience to customers—one that is more collaborative, engaging, and accessible—and with demonstrated ROI for customers.”

Polycom HDX series telepresence systems and Polycom UC Intelligent Core Infrastructure are the industry’s first telepresence solution designed to be fully interoperable with Microsoft Lync, according to company officials.

Lync offers a single interface that unites voice, IM/presence, audio-, video-, and Web-conferencing into a richer, more contextual offering and a single identity making it easier and more efficient for users to find contacts, check their availability and connect with them.

Supporting standard-based H.264 High Profile technology, Polycom telepresence solutions reduce bandwidth requirements for HD video communication by up to 50 percent, while also working with Lync.

The HDX series telepresence systems and RMX conference platform are now part of a full portfolio of Polycom UC endpoints optimized for Lync. Other solutions included in the portfolio are the Polycom CX500 and CX600 UC devices and the Polycom CX3000 IP conference phone, the only conference phone optimized for Lync.

Polycom’s devices optimized for Microsoft Lync offer Polycom HD Voice, time-saving features such as single sign-in, calendar access, and advanced presence on vibrant color screen displays.

These video solutions from Polycom incorporate Microsoft’s RTV codec, enabling communications throughout enterprises as well as B2B environments and across multiple collaboration tools.

The Polycom solutions also enable customers to collaborate from their desks, on the road, at home, or in a conference room using standards-based Polycom solutions.

Utilizing Microsoft’s Edge Server, Polycom’s UC Intelligent Core infrastructure traverses firewalls and enable federation between organizations that would otherwise not be able to collaborate via video or would require the additional cost and management complexity of gateways to connect, the company said.

The company is also preparing its partner ecosystem to deliver Microsoft-optimized solutions by offering a dedicated Microsoft UC enablement program designed to assist channel partners to successfully sell, implement and service the Polycom offerings.

Polycom solutions optimized for UC increases the competitiveness of organizations by enabling people to easily leverage productivity-enhancing voice, video, presence and data collaboration tools through the familiar environment of their everyday workflow, company officials said.

“The arrival of Microsoft Lync elevates productivity and transforms business communications,” said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of unified communication at Microsoft. “Polycom’s support of Lync, with their new portfolio of Lync-optimized voice and video solutions, helps enable business users to stay connected from virtually anywhere, anytime.”

Polycom and Microsoft recently announced mutual R&D and go-to-market activities to ensure customers interoperable end-to-end UC solutions that encompass software, hardware, networking and services, and will enable customers to improve business productivity and reduce travel, telecom and IT operating costs.

The company now offers a full suite of standards-based UC voice, video, conferencing, and collaboration solutions optimized for Lync, with enhanced video interoperability expected in the first quarter of 2011.

The new CX series UC devices are now available through certified Polycom reseller partners, like Operaciones Integradas, S.A. de C.V., with an MSRP U.S. $199 for the CX500 IP phone, designed for use in public areas; $299 for the CX600 IP desktop phone; and $849 for the CX3000 IP conference phone, the company said.

Integrate, Automate and Innovate

2010-12-23T16:12:00.000-08:00

Englis Version

In this year several situations have occurred. Situations in years above could not have imagined:
1. 3Com and its partners: H3C and TippingPoint was acquired by HP2. Some products Aethra were purchased by Radvision. Aethra leavesworld of Video Communication.3. Nortel Networks is attached to Chapter 11 in the U.S.4. Avaya acquires the business of Nortel Networks. Nortel leaves thetelecommunications market.5. Logitech acquires LifeSize. Logitech enters the world of video communication.6. Cisco acquires Tamberg.

The world of telecommunications has changed dramatically in the last quarter the first decade of the millennium.

Nowadays it is very normal for unified communications. This type of lets the user communications in a single device: Video, Data and Voice. But most important is that today does not keep in one place.Communications are mobile. No matter where you find yourself mobile device allows you to have a presence.
With the development of the Internet every day, with the expansion of public networks Mobile technology has increased. Is it possible that in a short time the offices disappear? Does increased work at home? Is this good forconducting business? Why the increase in lifestyle?
Mobile phones, the first generation of which were introduced in mid of the 1980's have been constantly evolving since its inception. Today 2B over mobile phones are in use and about 80% of the populationworld is within reach of a mobile phone signal. Mobile phones have been traditionally used for voice communications, but now can serve as a platform for a variety of media - including data and video. 3G is the third generation mobile phone technology standards. Typical services associated with 3G include voice,wireless data and broadband telephony, all in a mobile environment. No However, with the capacity for high speed data transfer Fi, 3G has improved or made possible a large variety of applications additives, such as mobile video, mobile and secure e-commerce based location services, mobile games and audio on demand. For example, with 2.5 G (or a slightly improved version of the wireless technology second generation), a three-minute song takes about six nine for download. The use of 3G, you can download in 11 to 90 seconds.
There are nearly 100 million 3G wireless subscribers worldwide. The U.S., with over 200 million mobile phone subscribers crossed the 10% mark 3G penetration for the first time in 2006, while Japan was thehead with more than 50% of its subscribers using 3G handsets.
While the 3G market may be finally gaining ground, industry is rapidly approaching a crossroads, where the needs of different market segments can vary substantially, and the rewards potential (and losses) for different technology vendors and operators mobile communications could be considerable.
What beginning of the decade ahead? The world is changing day by day, hour after hour,every second.

Versión en Español

En éste año que termina varias situaciones han ocurrido. Situaciones que en años anteriores no se podían imaginar:

1. 3Com, y sus empresas asociadas: H3C y TippingPoint, fue adquirido por HP
2. Algunos productos de Aethra fueron adquiridos por Radvision. Aethra deja el mundo de la Videocomunicación.
3. Nortel Networks se adhiere al capitulo 11 en Estados Unidos.
4. Avaya adquiere la parte empresarial de Nortel Networks. Nortel abandona el mercado de las Telecomunicaciones.
5. Logitech adquiere a LifeSize. Logitech entra al mundo de la videocomunicación.
6. Cisco adquiere a Tamberg.

El mundo de las telecomunicaciones ha cambiado drásticamente en éste último cuarto de la primer década del milenio.

Hoy en día ya es muy normal de COMUNICACIONES UNIFICADAS. Éste tipo de comunicaciones permite al usuario tener en un solo dispositivo: Video, Datos y Voz. Pero lo más importante es que hoy en día no nos mantiene en un solo sitio. Las comunicaciones ya son móviles. No importando dónde te encuentres el dispositivo móvil te permite tener PRESENCIA.

Con el desarrollo día a día del Internet, con la ampliación de las redes públicas, la tecnología móvil se ha incrementado. ¿Será posible que en corto tiempo las oficinas desaparezcan? ¿Se incremente el trabajo en el hogar? ¿Esto es bueno para la realización de negocios? ¿Para el incremento del modo de vida?

Los teléfonos móviles, la primer generación de la cual se introdujeron a mediados de la década de 1980, han estado en constante evolución desde su creación. Hoy, más de 2B teléfonos móviles están en uso y alrededor del 80% de la población mundial está al alcance de una señal de teléfono móvil . Los teléfonos móviles han sido tradicionalmente utilizados para comunicaciones de voz, pero en la actualidad puede servir como plataforma para una variedad de productos de comunicación - incluyendo datos y vídeo . 3G es la tercera generación de móviles telefónicos estándares de tecnología. Los servicios típicos asociados con 3G incluyen voz, datos inalámbricos de telefonía y banda ancha, todo ello en un entorno móvil. Sin embargo, con la capacidad para la alta velocidad de transferencia de datos inalámbrica, 3G ha mejorado o hecho posible una gran variedad de aplicaciones adicionales, tales como video móvil, comercio electrónico móvil y segura , basado en servicios de localización, juegos móviles y audio bajo demanda. Por ejemplo, con 2,5 G (o una versión ligeramente mejorada de la tecnología inalámbrica de segunda generación), una canción de tres minutos tarda entre seis y nueve minutos para descargar. El uso de 3G, se puede descargar en 11 a 90 segundos.

En este momento hay casi 100 millones de abonados 3G inalámbrico en todo el mundo. Los EE.UU., con más de 200 millones de suscriptores móviles, cruzó la marca de 10% de penetración de 3G por primera vez en 2006, mientras que Japón se quedó a la cabeza con más del 50% de sus suscriptores el uso de teléfonos 3G.

Mientras que el mercado 3G puede ir definitivamente ganando terreno, la industria se está acercando rápidamente a una encrucijada, donde las necesidades de diferentes segmentos de mercado puede variar sustancialmente, y las recompensas potenciales (y pérdidas) para los vendedores de tecnología diferente y operadores de comunicaciones móviles podrían ser considerables.

¿Qué inicio de década nos espera? El mundo cambia día tras día, hora tras hora, segundo tras segundo.

Avaya IP Office Moves a Step Closer to Replacing Nortel BCM

2010-11-23T08:41:00.000-08:00

Competitive Positives

• Linux option less expensive, more reliable, easier to install
• Beginning of Norstar- and BCM-to-IP Office migration path
• New video conferencing options
• IP Office positioned as key system alternative
• SCS positioned to help Avaya win business in select markets

Competitive Concerns

• Unclear if BCM to be developed further
• Multi-site management software doesn’t support BCM
• New installation DVD specific to Linux
• IP Office Essential Edition Partner Version not a global product
• SCS limited both in market and in Avaya portfolio

Analytical Summary

Perspective

• Positive on Avaya’s enhancements to SMB communications portfolio, because they evidence positive momentum in the company’s efforts to combine the Avaya and Nortel portfolios. Transitioning Nortel clients to Avaya has been and remains a top priority and this latest round of product updates paves the road for bringing Business Communication Manager (BCM) customers into the IP Office fold.

Vendor Importance

• Moderate to Avaya, because the company is gradually consolidating its communications initiatives in the SMB market around IP Office. This will help Avaya focus development, marketing, sales and support resources more tightly than has previously been possible.

Market Impact

• Moderate on the market for SMB PBX systems, because the product enhancements touch on IP Office, BCM, Partner, Norstar and Software Communication System (SCS) – nearly the entire base of Avaya and Nortel communications products for the SMB space. There are few Avaya SMB customers that will not benefit from the product upgrade in some way, shape or form.

Competitive StrengthsCompetitive Positives

• IP Office 6.1 introduces a Linux option that is less expensive, more secure, more reliable and, thanks to administration software enhancements specific to 6.1, easier to install than IP Office’s current Windows operating system. This gives Avaya customers a choice in underlying operating system, which is not always the case with IP PBX systems sold into the SMB space.

• With IP Office 6.1 Avaya introduces some of the first features that will allow Nortel customers to migrate away from BCM and to IP Office while retaining the value of investments in Nortel technology. Specifically, BCM IP phones (the 1100 and 1200 Series) can register to a IP Office 6.1 system, and IP Office 6.1 auto-discovers and auto-provisions the BCM devices. With handsets often constituting 50% of the price of a PBX system sale, BCM customers’ ability to retain existing end stations while migrating to IP Office will be a very attractive option. Furthermore, future versions of IP Office are expected to further extend investments in BCM technology, which should further contribute to Avaya retaining BCM customers and resellers.

• With version 6.1 Avaya has brought its new video conferencing products to bear on IP Office. Previously the Avaya Video Conferencing Solutions supported only its enterprise communications systems, and previously IP Office only supported point-to-point video conferences driven by its soft-phone interface. When integrated with the Avaya Video Conferencing 1040 system, IP Office can support four-way video conferences, and support for video-capable IP phones from Polycom and Grandstream opens up new end point options not previously available to IP Office customers.

• Nortel’s Norstar key system reached its end of sale in October 2010, while Avaya’s Parnter key system was discontinued this month. Both moves were expected as part of ongoing product rationalization in Avaya’s SMB portfolio and the company’s drive to penetrate the small business market where traditional key systems have been popular Avaya previously announced a version of IP Office specific to the small business market (IP Office 500v2) as a migration alternative for Partner customers. And version 6.1 introduces IP Office Essential Edition, which replicates certain Norstar features, giving it a look and feel familiar to Norstar users.

• Avaya has repositioned Software Communication System (SCS) to help it penetrate specific regions where IP Office sales have been weak or non-existent. Going forward the company will target sales of the product to Brazil, where tariffs on hardware have priced IP Office out of the market; Malaysia, where software-centric communications solutions sell well; and Japan, where Avaya has never marketed an SMB offering. Such a strategy should help the company create a presence in countries where sales have not historically been strong. Also, focusing SCS on only these markets helps Avaya to reduce the number of communications systems it sells in other key markets, and so to avoid cannibalizing IP Office sales.

Competitive WeaknessesCompetitive Concerns

• Though Avaya released version 6.0 of the BCM software in September, it is not clear at this time if the product will be developed further. With the end-of-life date for BCM systems not yet announced, it is not known how long new investments in the product will retain their value to customers and resellers, regardless of the announced BCM-to-IP Office migration plan. It has long been known that IP Office will eventually be Avaya’s main PBX platform for the SMB market, but how much longer BCM will remain a viable alternative is much less certain.

• IP Office’s multi-site management software, which was enhanced with version 6.1, does not support BCM. This could prove problematic for resellers and businesses with multiple BCMs installed who are planning to phase in IP Office gradually.

• The streamlined provisioning software that allows resellers to set up an IP Office system in 30 minutes works only with the new Linux option.

• The IP Office Essential Edition Norstar Version is available in Middle East and Africa only, where there is a large and vibrant community of Norstar resellers, and replicates key system features. There is also a large base of Norstar customers in North America, but they will be encouraged to migrate to IP Office Essential Edition Partner Version. While there is nothing inherently wrong with Avaya meeting the needs of specific customers and resellers, developing a region-specific version of its SMB PBX runs counter to the product rationalization and simplification efforts Avaya has under way. However, this is understood to be an interim step until the BCM/Norstar migration is complete early next year.

• Avaya is not just repositioning SCS as a communications platform for regions in which it has little to no market presence, namely Brazil, Malaysia and Japan. Avaya is restricting new sales of the product to these countries for the time being. A communications system for businesses of all sizes when it was originally a Pingtel and then a Nortel product, SCS’s target market was restricted to SMBs when Avaya took over the product.

• Under Nortel SCS was sold worldwide, whereas Avaya is now shutting down SCS sales activities in Europe, North America, Latin America and elsewhere. (Existing SCS customers in these regions, however, will continue to be supported.) With these moves and until marketed more broadly, SCS has effectively been removed as a competitive UC offering in most markets and regions, and is no longer a competitive differentiator for Avaya in the markets most relevant to its business.

Response & Recommendations

• Avaya competitors need to continue aggressively targeting the Nortel channel. Avaya remains in the midst of a long-term product consolidation process. The decisions the company is making clearly appeal to many Nortel resellers, who have been actively training on and selling Avaya products. But other resellers are likely feeling disenfranchised and are ready to count their options.

• Avaya needs to reconcile corporate messaging that it is transitioning away from hardware- and toward software-based products with its decisions to restrict the regions and markets in which the one software-only PBX in its portfolio is sold. Rather than embrace SCS’s software-centric product design, Avaya seems to be placing considerably more R&D effort behind its system-based communications products.

Avaya’s VENA Makes a Mark in the Data Center Fray

2010-11-12T09:24:00.000-08:00

November 10, 2010 – Avaya debuted its vision of how to build next generation networks that better accommodate virtualized resources and real-time applications with its Virtual Enterprise Network Architecture. VENA is intended to reduce costs and simplify network design and operation across data center and campus networks by streamlining provisioning and reducing the need to redesign networks to support new application traffic.

Analytical SummaryPerspective

• Positive on Avaya’s Virtual Enterprise Network Architecture (VENA) launch, because it demonstrates—first and foremost—the strength of Avaya’s commitment to its data networking business, and also establishes a credible approach to enabling customers to build next-generation networks. VENA draws on former Nortel network engineering talent to solve issues of scale and efficiency in virtualized environments. And it draws on its strong network management tools to provision new network services to accommodate new virtualized applications rapidly and accurately.

Vendor Importance

• High to Avaya, because it intends to grow the data networking business it acquired with Nortel as a business in its own right, rather than just play a supporting role to its UC, contact center and business collaboration business. The VENA architecture is a central element to help it revive its former competitive position in data networking, starting with the data center and moving out into the campus. The architecture also can be positioned in enterprise networks fueled by other suppliers’ equipment, offering Avaya the opportunity to grow market share.

Market Impact

• Moderate on the enterprise networking market, because while it may give the former Nortel installed base a good reason to stick with Avaya and base their next generation network designs on Avaya’s vision, it’s not clear that VENA will help to steer Avaya’s existing UC, contact center or business collaboration customers towards Avaya’s data networking, or help Avaya displace established rivals.

Competitive StrengthsCompetitive Positives

• Avaya delivered the VSP 9000 next generation 10 GbE switch in a controlled release ahead of the architecture launch, which allowed the company to develop strong customer references who can speak to the benefits of Avaya’s approach in real world terms (see Nortel Keeps Innovating with VSP 9000 Core Switch, May 20, 2009). Unlike rivals such as Juniper, who described their strategies/visions without having the key supporting technologies in place, Avaya with its VENA launch can bolster its message with endorsements from customers that already have switches in production. That sets Avaya apart from the pack.

• Avaya is addressing a significant pain point in its efforts to speed the delivery of network services in support of new applications. That has been a big point of contention between network operations and application owners. By simplifying the provisioning of new network services and increasing the level of automation to both speed delivery and reduce human error in the process, it is creating a good differentiator.

• Avaya in its January roadmap announcement said that it has added an overlay dedicated networking sales force incented to sell data networking products, and it has obviously been producing results for Avaya. Avaya in August claimed that its data networking unit has produced four consecutive quarters of quarter over quarter growth, and its data networking business increased 30% in its second quarter. Now that sales force has greater ammunition for data center sales with the VENA vision and software upgrades for the Ethernet Routing Switch 8600, 8800 and VSP 9000.

• Key to the success of Avaya’s VENA strategy is its management tools, such as the Configuration and Orchestration Manager, which Avaya enhanced with a new Virtual Services Manager. The tools provide centralized provisioning of VENA’s Virtual Services Fabric and Virtual Service Networks, and they simplify Shortest Path Bridging configuration. The inclusion of wizards that lead network operators step by step through the provisioning process should help to reduce human error, which is the single biggest factor in network outages.

• Avaya’s use of fully programmable network processors in its switches such as the ERS 8600 and new ERS 8800 allows customers to adopt these next generation capabilities through a software upgrade, rather than a rip and replace hardware upgrade. (see Spring Interop 2010: Avaya Demonstrates Commitment to Former Nortel Data Networking, April 28, 2010). That type of investment protection is unique to Avaya and should appeal to prospects outside Avaya’s existing installed base of data networking customers.

• Avaya is unique in promoting the network-wide visibility it can provide through its network monitoring tools, along with simplified end to end provisioning. This is a refreshing change from the lip service most other networking vendors give to network monitoring and management of next-generation data center networks.

Competitive WeaknessesCompetitive Concerns

• We said it before and we’ll say it again: Avaya’s high level message about being unique in delivering “always on” (reliable), efficient and scalable networking technology is the same tune being sung by every other enterprise networking vendor. That marketing message won’t be an attention grabber for any prospect that’s examined the next-generation network architectures of other rival vendors.

• Rivals will undoubtedly describe Avaya’s vision as a sincere form of flattery, given that it’s messaging seems to mimic their themes. In fact nearly every enterprise networking vendor describes their technology as scalable, reliable (always on) and efficient. And like all other vendors, Avaya is promoting flat networks (eliminating the aggregation layer in a three-tier network design) as the best way to simplify data center networks. Being just about the last one to describe your vision for next generation networks gives rivals the opportunity to say, “been there, done that.”

• Avaya’s reliance on its management tools to help deliver its VENA vision is a mixed blessing. While such tools are necessary for successful deployment of virtual networking, but management is almost always an afterthought in any major networking upgrade or project. Getting new customers to pony up for these tools up front before deployment will be a tough job to accomplish, as will getting sales people to push them as an essential element of the switching sale.

• Avaya is basing the core of its virtual switching fabric on the emerging IEEE 802.1AQ (Shortest Path Bridging) standard to eliminate the spanning tree hurdles. Standards are great, but their purpose is to insure interoperability and none of the other vendors that have outlined their architectures have pledged support for that emerging standard. The competing IETF emerging standard, TRILL, has generated greater support. Although Avaya is confident that SPB is a superior approach to TRILL, superior technology does not always win out.

• The VENA launch was thin on partnerships, with only four partners supporting its vision: VMware (which partners with everybody), QLogic for converged networking processors, Coraid for converged storage, and SilverPeak for data center WAN optimization. It will be important for Avaya to fill that out with more partners who can help fulfill a vision of seamless, interoperable and simplified virtualization in the data center.

• Security, which has been a huge stumbling block for cloud computing, plays a very minor role in the VENA architecture. Avaya describes its virtualization as being inherently secure by virtue of the separation of application traffic into separate virtual networks. That sounds like the same lip service server virtualization vendors such as VMware gave five years ago before they got security religion.

Buyer Actions

• Avaya customers who have, as Avaya officials described it, “hit the pause button” on their Avaya network infrastructure, can now safely hit the play button. Any needed upgrades that were put on hold can be moved forward with assurance that Avaya is strongly committed to its portfolio. And with the VENA launch, Avaya has continued the former Nortel heritage of networking innovations with its software upgrades for the ERS 8600, 8800 and now generally available VSP 9000. Avaya customers looking to upgrade their data center networks to meet the challenges of virtualization and real time applications should evaluate Avaya’s approach.

• Enterprise network and IT managers should investigate Avaya’s claims of simplified virtualization as they examine their next move in the data center. Those with Cisco, HP, Extreme, Enterasys or other investments should not discount Avaya – if only to keep the others honest about their own capabilities and commitments.

HP Has Ability to Compete in UC Market but Must Move Quickly

2010-10-18T15:30:00.000-07:00

HP has rebranded 3Com’s PBX systems and communications applications as part of its HP Networking E-Series portfolio, and recently there has been a version 9.5 release of the VCX product, including a new line of Series 350x IP telephone sets. In repositioning 3Com’s telephony, messaging, conferencing, contact center and other communications software as HP products, the company clarifies how it plans to compete in the unified communications market.

Perspective

Moderate on Hewlett-Packard relaunching 3Com’s business communications products, because despite the 3Com telephony and UC products being available for many years, HP’s current IP PBX and enterprise telephony penetration is very low and the company is well behind the competition in exploiting the market potential and capabilities of the 3Com products in terms of marketing, distribution and buyer mindset.

Vendor Importance

High to Hewlett-Packard, because the 3Com acquisition and the resulting rebranded 3Com UC products that have become part of the HP family provide an opportunity for incremental revenue in the areas of SMB telephony and unified communications. This can complement HP’s increasingly strong data networking and server businesses and tap into a rapidly-growing revenue stream.

Market Impact

Low on the unified communications industry, because HP/3Com’s UC market penetration is minimal, the established vendors have a substantial head start in terms of time and competitors are on par or ahead of HP in UC solution capabilities.

Competitive Positives

• The 3Com VCX product family of technically sophisticated, software-based SIP switches gives HP a product line that can cover SMB through large enterprise and multi-location sites. It is comprised of three major products – 3Com VCX Connect 100 (up to 100 users), 3Com VCX 200 Connect (up to 250 users) and the 3Com V7000 (up to tens of thousands of users) – providing HP with the ability to make a strong and broad attack on the enterprise IP PBX/UC market.

• Though VCX PBXs are capable of scaling to meet the needs of very large enterprises and in some cases have been deployed in businesses needing a telephony platform that supports thousands of lines, going forward HP plans to market VCX only as an SMB platform. This will help HP focus sales and product initiatives on a very specific industry segment. Additionally, unlike the enterprise PBX market, there is no very dominant leader in the SMB PBX market. This should help put HP in a better position to stake a claim in it.

• HP has formed multiple UC-related partnerships with several industry leaders including Aastra, Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft and Siemens Enterprise Communications. These remain in place and will be focused mainly on sales opportunities in the enterprise market, not the SMB space, where the VCX products will be positioned. This will help minimize direct competition between HP and its UC partners in the enterprise space. It also puts HP in a better position to be a provider of UC solutions across all sizes of customer businesses.

• HP has been active in the UC market through telepresence and data networking product offerings, the latter of which can now be positioned as part of a larger voice-data solution that incorporates third-party call control technology. This market position in data networking products can allow HP to offer a converged voice communications and data networking solution, which could benefit the company when VCX is positioned to small and mid-sized enterprises seeking a more holistic UC solution from a single vendor.

• In September, HP announced the VCX 9.5 release, launched the 350x Series IP Phones and provided necessary collateral and product data sheets on the HP networking Web sites for all VCX products. This is a good demonstration of continued R&D activity behind the products as 3Com’s business is being integrated into HP. HP also has put in place VCX IP telephony certifications and authorizations on the HP partner portals for existing HP resellers to get certified on the VCX product family. This should help bring 3Com resellers into the larger HP channel program, as well as begin making 3Com VCX products more easily available to traditional HP resellers.

Competitive Concerns

• HP’s current strategy in the telephony market is to sell the VCX to SMBs, position partners’ PBXs in the enterprise market and, in the mid-market, sell either VCX or partner products depending on whether or not the customer wants an all-HP UC solution. This is a much more complicated strategy than HP has to date pursued in the UC market and it remains to be seen if HP can execute on it.

• By focusing VCX sales on the SMB market, HP tries to minimize direct competition with PBX developers in the HP AllianceONE program. This could to some extent work since HP has traditionally engaged in co-marketing and other initiatives with partners’ enterprise PBXs. However, all of HP’s PBX partners actively sell telephony and UC solutions to SMBs and HP will compete directly with them in this space. As a result, HP will have more complicated relationships with most of its UC partners going forward. These existing HP UC partnerships could confuse the competitive landscape and result in very complex cooperative/competitive relationships. This makes the future of these relationships uncertain.

• By narrowing sales and marketing initiatives on the SMB space, HP cannot leverage the full breadth of 3Com UC products. The VCX V7000 enterprise-class IP PBX remains in the HP product portfolio despite HP’s insistence that it will not compete with partners in the enterprise telephony market. A number of the VCX applications, such as the contact center platform, are optimized for enterprise, not SMB, adoption. In not rationalizing its enterprise PBX and communications applications, HP is sending out a mixed message, saying that it does not plan to compete in the enterprise UC market but is retaining products that allow it to do so.

• The VCX products are nearly invisible in the marketplace. They have a very small market share, with only about 2,800 VCX servers deployed in both enterprise and SMB settings. It will be difficult to leverage them to catch up and compete with Avaya, Cisco, Siemens Enterprise Communications and others that have been actively selling products and applications into the enterprise IP PBX and UC market for the past decade.

• While HP describes telephony as an important revenue stream, it is clearly a subset of the larger UC and collaboration market opportunity. If HP is not in fact pursuing other opportunities in the UC market – such as messaging, collaboration, video conferencing, presence and other advanced applications – the company’s ability to capitalize on its new UC product initiatives could be quite limited.

• 3Com’s UC solutions are largely software-based. The development and management of software products is not a traditional strength of HP, a company that was built largely on a hardware development and manufacturing tradition. The management and lifecycle planning of a software-centric telephony enterprise application family will likely be problematic to HP, especially if it is not deemed to be a major focus of HP success.

Cisco Consumer TelePresence Will Have Enterprise Implications

2010-10-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

Cisco introduced an HD video solution for the consumer market. Cisco umi telepresence connects to an existing HD television and a broadband Internet connection to create a clear, natural and lifelike video communications experience. umi will become generally available in the U.S. on November 14. It will list for $599 plus a monthly fee of $24.99 for unlimited video calls, video messaging and video storage. Sales will be through Best Buy stores, direct from Cisco and through Verizon, which will bundle umi with its FiOS service in early 2011.

Analytical SummaryPerspective

• Perspective: Positive on Cisco’s umi, because it not only extends Cisco’s immersive video conferencing technology into the consumer space, but also because plans are already underway to integrate umi with Cisco’s larger portfolio of TelePresence products. Once this integration work is complete, umi will have increased relevance in vertical markets with a business-to-consumer focus and possibly to “prosumers” who might eventually be able to use umi as a business communications tool in a teleworker environment.

Vendor Importance

• Vendor Importance: High to Cisco, because the company has been developing a consumer-based application of its telepresence technology for more than a year. Though umi falls short of being a full-fledged member of the Cisco TelePresence portfolio for business video conferencing, this is could change over time as Cisco, its customers and resellers explore business uses of the new product.

Market Impact

• Market Impact: Low on the enterprise market, because umi will mainly challenge vendors and service providers delivering video conferencing solutions for consumers. It will take time for umi to have much meaningful impact on Polycom, LifeSize, Vidyo and other competitors in the market for video conferencing solutions for business use.

Cisco is threatening to competitors in the collaboration platform market

2010-10-07T10:12:00.000-07:00

English Version

Cisco is threatening to established rivals within the collaboration platform market. The vendor has at last begun to make use of a series of technology investments made over the past two years, most notably the acquisitions of Jabber, PostPath, and IronPort. For example, Cisco has introduced WebEx Mail, an enterprise-grade, SaaS-based messaging product built with technology purchased from PostPath. Conversely, Cisco has also sought to develop collaborative technologies internally, building its own social networking platform, Cisco Quad, and expertise location solution, Cisco Pulse. With such additions, Cisco can now field a comprehensive unified communications (UC) and collaboration portfolio that spans the premises and cloud while maximizing the company's expertise in security, network performance, and connectivity. The overall company's focus on network-ware IP-based communications and collaboration sets it apart from its application-centric rivals such as Oracle, IBM, Google, and Microsoft.

However, across all areas of improvement, Cisco must face a number of challenges that will give its rivals a window of competitive opportunity. For example, while Cisco's recent introduction of several collaborative solutions catapults the vendor into closer competition with more traditional collaboration players, the introduction of so many new solutions calls attention to the vendor's relative immaturity within the collaboration space. It now has a number of differentiated solutions, However, those are not yet firmly established within the vendor's sales and channel organizations; nor are they technically mature or feature-complete compared with longstanding collaboration solutions from rivals such as Jive, Novell, Microsoft, IBM, and others.

Cisco is building its collaboration PaaS and SaaS solutions on top of an already well-established, global data center backbone, which currently houses the company's WebEx Web conferencing service. With seven data center hubs spread across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, the Cisco Collaboration Cloud has proven itself enterprise-worthy, boasting customers within 90% of the Fortune 500, supporting 225,000 user sessions per day across more than 150 countries, and delivering service uptime of more than 99.99%. Note that most cloud-based collaboration services only guarantee 99.9%.

Cisco's recent introduction of several collaborative solutions (Pulse, Quad, WebEx Mail, etc.) catapults the vendor into closer competition with more traditional collaboration players and plays to the company's strengths as a network-centric vendor. However, the introduction of so many new solutions calls attention to the vendor's relative immaturity within the collaboration and conferencing space. It now has a number of differentiated solutions. However, those are not yet firmly established within the vendor's sales and channel organizations; nor are they technically mature or feature-complete compared with longstanding collaboration solutions from rivals such as Jive, Microsoft, IBM, and others.

Versión en Español

Cisco es una amenaza establecido para a sus rivales en la plataforma de colaboración del mercado. El vendedor ha empezado por fin a hacer uso de una serie de inversiones en la tecnología en los últimos dos años, en particular la adquisición de Jabber, PostPath, y de IronPort. Por ejemplo, Cisco ha introducido WebEx Mail, a un nivel empresarial, producto de mensajería basados en SaaS construida con tecnología adquirida a partir de PostPath. Por el contrario, Cisco también ha tratado de desarrollar las tecnologías de colaboración internos, la creación de su propia plataforma de redes sociales, Cisco cuádruple, y la experiencia solución de localización, Cisco pulso. Con estas adiciones, Cisco puede ahora completar un campo de comunicaciones unificadas (UC) y la cartera de colaboración que se extiende a los locales y las nubes al tiempo que maximiza la experiencia de la empresa en materia de seguridad, rendimiento de la red y la conectividad. El general de la compañía se centran en las comunicaciones red-ware basadas en IP y la colaboración que la distingue de aplicaciones de rivales como Oracle, IBM, Google y Microsoft.
Sin embargo, en todas las áreas de mejora, Cisco debe enfrentarse a una serie de retos que dará a sus rivales una oportunidad competitiva. Por ejemplo, mientras que laintroducción reciente de Cisco de varias soluciones de colaboración catapulta el vendedor en estrecha competencia con jugadores de una colaboración más tradicionales, la introducción de nuevas soluciones para muchos llama la atención sobre la relación de proveedor inmadurez en el espacio de colaboración. Ahora tiene un número de soluciones de diferencia, sin embargo, aquellos que no están todavía firmemente establecido en las ventas del proveedor y las organizaciones de canal, ni están técnicamente maduros o completa de funciones en comparación con las soluciones de colaboración de rivales como Jive, Novell, Microsoft, IBM y otros.
Cisco está construyendo su colaboración PaaS y soluciones de SaaS en la parte superior y ya están bien establecidos, los datos globales columna vertebral del centro, que alberga actualmente la empresa WebEx servicio de conferencias Web. Con siete centros de datos repartidos en los centros del Norte América, Europa y Asia-Pacífico, el Cisco Collaboration Cloud ha demostrado alarde a los clientes de la empresa, dentro de los 90% de las empresas Fortune 500, el apoyo a 225.000 sesiones de usuario por día en más de 150 países, y la entrega de servicio de tiempo de actividad de más del 99,99%. Tenga en cuenta que la mayoría de colaboración basado en la nube da garantía sólo del 99,9%.
La introducción reciente de Cisco de varias soluciones de colaboración (pulso, Quad, WebEx Mail, etc) catapulta a el proveedor más cercano en la competencia con más tradicionales jugadores de la colaboración y juega a las fortalezas de la compañía como una red centrada en proveedor. Sin embargo, la introducción de nuevas soluciones para muchos llama la atención de la relativa inmadurez del proveedor en el espacio de colaboración y conferencia. Ahora tiene una serie de soluciones diferenciadas. Sin embargo, aún no están firmemente establecido en las ventas del vendedor y las organizaciones de canal, ni son técnicamente maduros o de características completas en comparación con la colaboración de soluciones de datos rivales como Jive, Microsoft, IBM y otros.

Meeting the Needs of Emerging Services with Innovative Technology

2010-10-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

COMPREHENSIVE MPLS VPN SOLUTIONS

Meeting the Needs of Emerging Services with Innovative Technology

The VPN market is growing at a record pace worldwide. IDC reports that provider- provisioned VPNs now dominate the VPN services market with VPNs deployed by over half of the multisite companies that have 50 or more employees. The worldwide VPN services market reached $24.4 billion in 2007 and is expected to climb to almost $36 billion in 2012. In the U.S. alone, it is estimated that the VPN market will have a 10.4 percent CAGR increase over the next five years.1

The Challenge

The need to increase revenue while achieving operational efficiency is driving the need for increased multicast traffic, particularly for the growing deployment of voice, video, and collaboration-based applications. For instance, providers with an installed base of Layer 3 VPNs for unicast service are looking to upsell with new media-rich solutions. Numerous services, such as IPTV and financial applications, now demand scalable, reliable, and secure next-generation (NG) multicast VPN (MVPN) solutions. Service providers and cable operators are offering virtual private LAN service (VPLS) to small and medium businesses, as well as to large enterprises. Another growing revenue generator is IPv6 VPNs for new mobile applications. To address these divergent needs and in anticipation of changing environments, you would want to consider implementation flexibility, scalability of service instances, size of route tables deployed, and your ability to extend the service reach.

Multi-Access, Multiprotocol, Multidomain MPLS VPN Solutions

Juniper Networks® supports a full breadth of technologies to deliver diverse services and meet these evolving needs (Figure 1). Juniper’s comprehensive solution set enables service providers, large enterprises, telcos, cable companies, and information-intensive enterprises to cost-efficiently roll out networks that offer scalable control and forwarding planes, continuous service, and feature richness. VPN deployments using Juniper technology are standards-based and securely interwork amongst multiple providers, enabling you to exceed the most stringent service level agreements (SLAs) and resiliency requirements. Common protocols offer a consistent, streamlined operational model, thus reducing overall operating and troubleshooting costs.

Challenge

Meeting the dynamic requirements of rapidly growing, worldwide VPN markets

Solution

• Established service solutions: Next- generation multicast VPNs, VPLS, IPv6 VPNs

• Innovative technology solutions: P2MP LSP, LDP-BGP VPLS interworking

Benefits

• Better operational efficiency • Improved scalability • Enhanced flexibility • Extended service reach

• Minimized service disruption

1VPNs provide numerous services within a variety of delivery models. This wide deployment of VPN services requires the availability of multiple access connectivity options, service reach across protocol and administrative domain boundaries, and support for multiple topologies and traffic profiles. Drivers include consolidations (mergers and acquisitions), interprovider partnerships, and changing end-user requirements based on available access connectivity and protocol options. To meet these dynamic needs, Juniper has created a comprehensive and flexible MPLS VPN toolkit that offers an array of options across multiple parameters.

• Flexible access connectivity options across multiple topologies, protocol and administrative boundaries.

• Scalable control and forwarding planes.

• Maximized bandwidth and network efficiency for multicast with P2MP optimizations for VPLS and multicast VPN.

• Self-contained multihoming mechanisms for highly available edge service nodes.

• Consistent operational model for IPv4, IPv6, unicast, and multicast across L2 and L3 VPNs.

• Simplified operations with reduced template-based configuration, maintenance, and troubleshooting complexity.

• Cost-efficient rollouts with minimal network disruption.

For more information, call us or write us

T: +52 722 2173030

E: dposadas@operacionesintegradas.com.mx

Market Metrics and Industry Reports Videoconference

2010-10-05T10:08:00.000-07:00


Chart: Carson Wagonlit Travel’s Travel Management Institute. (1) Synergy Research Group (www.srgresearch.com) has announced the launch of its VideoConferencing + TelePresence Market Research service, providing quarterly market share tracking and analysis. The worldwide market totaled $1.1 billion in 1H 2010, an increase of 32% over the same period last year. Synergy is forecasting the market to approach $2.5 billion in 2011. "This market has seen a radical shift with Cisco acquiring Tandberg," said Jeremy Duke, Principal Analyst and Founder, Synergy Research Group. "With only two major players in this large and expanding market, we anticipate the market to remain extremely dynamic with new market entrants, partnerships/alliances, and further acquisitions." Top 5 Ranked Vendors- and their Q2 2010 market share were: Cisco/Tandberg 43.4% Polycom 28.8% Huawei 9.1% RADVISION 3.4% SONY 2.0% Synergy Research finds that the videoconferencing market is split rather evenly amongst the top 3 regions of APAC (34%), NAM (33%), and EMEA (30%). APAC is experiencing the strongest year over year growth, posting 55.4%, compared to EMEA's 20.5% and North America's 8.5% growth. Also noted in H1 2010, was very strong growth in Brazil and Mexico driving the Latin American region with year over year growth exceeding 100%. Synergy is tracking the following equipment vendors in its VideoConferencing + TelePresence service: Avaya, Cisco/TANDBERG, HP, Huawei, Kedacom, LifeSize, Magor, RADVISION, SONY, Teliris, and ZTE. (2) The number of Telepresence rooms installed at companies has grown from an estimated 2,000 globally in 2008 to around 3,500 in 2009. The number of rooms installed in hotels and other public spaces in forecast to rise from dozen or so in 2009 to about 100 in 2010 as more providers enter the market, according to a recent report from Carson Wagonlit Travel’s Travel Management Institute.

STEELHEAD MOBILE

2010-10-04T10:59:00.000-07:00

With Steelhead Mobile, companies of any size can give mobile workers LAN-like access to corporate files and applications no matter where they are, anywhere in the world. With a simple software package installed transparently on their laptops or desktops, Steelhead Mobile can overcome the challenges of variable locations, inconsistent links, and high-latency environments that all conspire against mobile workers.

Steelhead Mobile works by interacting directly with any Steelhead appliance to optimize applications the same way in which two Steelhead devices would work together. At least one Steelhead Mobile Controller (SMC) (either appliance or Virtual Edition) is required to manage Steelhead Mobile licensing.

Click here for the new Steelhead Mobile Feature Brief.

For end-users, applications and collaboration work exactly the same - simply much faster. No changes are required to applications or the normal processes that workers perform daily. IT managers do not need to make any changes to routers, VPN infrastructure, SSL/HTTPS servers, or any of the other key technology in their enterprise. In fact, IT managers can control whether or not end-users see anything at all (like the Steelhead Mobile system tray icon), or if they want Steelhead Mobile to be completely invisible to the end-users. The only thing that mobile users will be aware of is the benefits, with reduced data charges from bandwidth reduction of 85-99%, and application acceleration 8x to up to 100x forKEY ENTERPRISE applications like the Oracle E-Business Suite, Lotus Notes, and Microsoft Exchange.

Software is deployed out to end-user machines via MSI packages. Using theSteelhead Mobile Controller (SMC), IT administrators control the installation process as well as the configuration policies that determine what optimizations take place per user or groups of users.

With Steelhead Mobile, mobile workers can be more productive than they ever imagined would be possible.

Steelhead Mobile provides simple configuration controls through the software client interface and can be managed remotely from the Steelhead Mobile Controller as well.

Steelhead Mobile

Operating System

Windows 2000 SP4, XP SP2 (32 bit versions only), Vista (32 bit and 64 bit versions), Windows 7 (32 bit and 64 bit versions)

Mac OSX 10.5 and 10.6 (Intel only)

CPU

Celeron 650 MHz

Memory

256 MB

Disk Space

256 MB

Steelhead Mobile Controller (SMC)

Required: Either Steelhead Mobile Controller Appliance or Steelhead Mobile Controller Virtual Edition

Concurrent Clients Supported per SMC

4000 (SMC-Appliance) / 100 (SMC-Virtual Edition)

VPN Compatibility

Yes

Wireless PC Card Compatibility

Yes

SSL/HTTPS Compatibility

Yes

MSI Package Builder

Yes

Steelhead Auto-detection

Yes

Federation Between Skype, Avaya is a Step Forward in UC Interoperability

2010-09-30T16:37:00.000-07:00

Summary

Avaya and Skype announced a strategic agreement that involves both go-to-market joint technology integration initiatives. The first phase, which involves Skype Connect support on a variety of Avaya and legacy Nortel communications and contact center systems, is expected to be available in North America in November 2010. The second phase, involving instant messaging federation and video interoperability, will be a 2011 deliverable.

Analytical Summary

• Perspective: Positive on the product integration work between Avaya and Skype because the companies plan to deliver federation between their instant messaging software and interoperability between their video conferencing software. Currently there are no major UC vendors whose solutions deliver IM and desktop video software that interoperates with Skype, so this would be a competitive differentiator for Avaya. Given that Avaya and Skype currently share a common private-equity owner in Silver Lake, such co-development work could be a sign of the companies’ ability to work more closely together than they have historically. If this is in fact the case, Avaya could have an edge over competitors without as close a working relationship with Skype.

• Vendor Importance: Moderate to Avaya because while the IM federation and video conferencing interoperability with Skype would be unique in the market for UC solutions, Skype has not entered into an exclusive relationship with Avaya. Rather, Skype plans to create an interface that will allow other vendors to federate their UC solutions with Skype instant messaging in the same way Avaya is proposing. High to Skype because to date the company’s interoperability efforts with PBX and UC developers have centered around Skype Connect, an offering focused solely on voice communications. Skype is now proposing to extend interoperability to other communications modalities, allowing businesses to create a bridge between corporate-based UC solutions and the Skype community.

• Market Impact: Moderate on the market for unified communications solutions, because federation with consumer-based instant messaging and desktop video is nothing new. Several UC solutions, such as those from Microsoft and IBM, federate with public IM services such as AOL AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, and Google Talk. With this kind of interoperability extended to Skype, businesses would be able to better facilitate intercompany communications with partners and customers leveraging the Skype network. However, the Avaya-Skype solution is to be restricted to North America. Until this is expanded internationally or other UC solutions developers deliver Skype federation in Europe, Asia, and Latin America only a subset of the Skype user base will be impacted by integration work of this sort. (For more on Skype Connect, which Skype previously announced Avaya support for, please see Skype Connect Could Diversify Revenue Streams in Time for IPO, August 31, 2010.)

The Challenges of Integrating UC and Video Conferencing

2010-09-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

The Challenges of Integrating UC and

Video Conferencing

Today’s business environment demands ever increasing productivity for our information workers. Unified communications pulls together different modes of communications: simplifying collaboration, reducing human latency, and increasing the speed of business. Integrating video conferencing with a UC platform further extends this productive environment by adding the positive values of visual communications to the collaboration experience.

In today’s market, best of breed UC and video conferencing solutions are not available from the same vendor, so integration of these solutions is required. This integration task provides significant challenges to an enterprise IT team in terms of the time needed to design, test, and deploy the integrated solution. In addition, the learning curve for deploying these new technologies can be substantial.

A further challenge is to get the user community to integrate the use of the video conferencing capabilities into their daily work flow, so the value it provides can be realized by the enterprise. Workers grow accustomed to their daily business practices and resist change, unless tools are easy to use and provide clear advantages.

The investment made to integrate video and UC, both in capital costs and time, does not deliver full value to the enterprise until the integration is complete and fully operational, and until the users incorporate this new capability in their daily workflow. Figure 1 below shows graphically that this time, referred to as ‘time-to-value’, includes both deployment time and user uptake time.

Reducing time-to-value will increase the return on investment (ROI) for the company by enabling user productivity sooner. It is possible to reduce both the deployment time and user uptake time by applying the right experience and expertise.

Polycom Professional Services has the experience and skills to help reduce both components of time-to-value. In this paper we will review both the challenges of a video and UC integration and the ways in which Polycom Professional Services can reduce schedule-risk and enhance the final outcome, providing better time-to-value.

Obstacles to Success

Software integration across vendors is a complex process, requiring detailed knowledge about both vendors’ products and interactions between them. Video conferencing and UC are no exception. A plethora of features provide many opportunities for focusing the solution on specific business issues of the company. This means that each integration and deployment is customized to the needs of the enterprise, creating integration issues that differ from standard deployments. To build these solutions efficiently, a team with deep knowledge of all components is needed.

Let’s review the potential challenges facing an enterprise which is about to integrate best-of-breed Polycom video with a Microsoft® UC solution.

Business Specific Challenges

The highest return on investment for voice and video deployments is often from Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) the intent of which is to reduce the human latency in a business process. These solutions focus the integrated video and UC infrastructure on specific use cases within the enterprise to shortcut the existing process and make it more responsive to the internal or external customer.

These CEBPs often require integration that has features specific to the implementing enterprise, which may not fit the standard categories defined by vendors of the UC or video conferencing equipment. These creative business solutions often require creative integration solutions to work.

In addition to the CEBP requirements, an enterprise may have specific corporate goals for video conferencing service delivery, such as availability, set-up time, the need for ad hoc conferencing as well as scheduled conferencing, integration with existing scheduling approaches or integration with existing legacy video conferencing, support for remote offices through the enterprise WAN or through VPN connections. Video conferencing with remote participants over the Internet may also be required.

Mixed vendor equipment environments are also common. The best strategic plan for having a single vendor solution across the enterprise may be thwarted by an existing infrastructure or by corporate acquisition, mandating “inter-vendor” interoperability.

Video Conferencing Is Different

On the surface, video conferencing looks as if it should be very similar to telephony, with the additional bandwidth requirement in the network and the need for an MCU for multipoint conferencing. The reality of a real video conferencing deployment is more complex.

Executive level conferences may need to be managed: to place calls ahead of meeting-time start, to frame the participants correctly on the screens, to support recording, streaming or security protocols, and/or to establish calls outside the organization. The legacy video conferencing infrastructure may require deployment of an ISDN gateway or H.323 gateway, and a different type of dial- string for connecting to those endpoints. Placement of critical video conferencing components must take into account their availability, access, bandwidth requirements and global latency incurred by topology and call patterns. These and other issues require video conferencing-specific knowledge to ensure that the design is highly reliable and meets the ease-of-use and functionality goals of the enterprise.

Multivendor Complexity Challenge

In today’s rapidly changing market, multivendor solutions promise to bring broad value while still providing best-of-breed functionality. But these integrations bring with them the risk of complexity and multivendor interoperability issues. Vendor-to-vendor interoperability may change as software revisions change. Interfaces may not behave the same way they did in a previous version, or in the version demonstrated during the sales process. And even if access to the right personnel within the two companies is possible, they may not have the same focus which can lead to delays in resolving issues or compromises in functionality.

Real-Time Network Challenge

Converged IP networks that support data, voice, video, and collaboration traffic must be properly designed to make sure that all applications perform with sufficient quality to meet the goals of the organization. Real-time traffic streams (voice and video) require a different design approach than supporting traditional data applications, an approach that affects bandwidth allocation, traffic classification, and quality of service (QoS) deployment, and may also require new measuring and monitoring tools. Video conferencing is the toughest application being carried on these networks today, requiring both high-bandwidth and low-loss, low-jitter transport.

Making sure the corporate network will properly support the video conferencing traffic is critical to a successful deployment. Network teams that have not previously supported video conferencing must learn the approaches necessary to support and monitor video conferencing traffic within the enterprise network.

User Learning Curve Challenge

The value of new tools is not realized until the enterprise employees have integrated their use into their daily business routines. User assimilation of the new technology is the second major component of time-to-value.

There are four key components that accelerate user assimilation, including:

• Familiarity • Ease of use • Initial positive experience • Internal marketing

A large number of hardware and software components may be involved in Microsoft and video conferencing integration including:

• Microsoft® LyncTM Server 2010

• Microsoft Office Communications Server

• Microsoft Exchange Server

• Microsoft Outlook®

• Microsoft Active Directory®

• Video and ITP endpoints

• Desktop video

• MCUs

• Polycom® CMATM and DMATM solutions

• DHCP, DNS and NTP Services

• SQL Servers

• Public Key Infrastructure

• Firewall traversal

• Conference Recording

• Network Bandwidth

• Network QoS

• Dial Plan

• Legacy video

A series of services may be required for the video conferencing solution that requires integration between the Microsoft and Polycom components, including:

• Use cases

• Scheduling

• Presence

• Endpoint management

• Call negotiation and management

• Dynamic bridge management

• PSTN integration

• Resource management and planning

Familiarity: If the user interface for the new technology is the same or very similar to what is already being used, the learning curve is short and workers intuitively understand how to make use of the new technology. This is of course one of the primary goals of UC integration, to make video conferencing an extension of the communications tools and/or scheduling tools already in use by the organization. If video conferencing meetings can be scheduled the same way that other meetings are scheduled, users will quickly understand how to do it. And if setting up a video call is equivalent to setting up a voice call, users will understand it quickly.

Ease of Use: Making the user interface easy also supports rapid uptake. Keeping the required number of steps to a minimum, making each step lead to the next, providing directory services or buddy-lists so users do not have to know or dial extensions, providing links in scheduling notices, and providing a similar user interface both on the desktop and on the room-based equipment all lead to a simple-to- use and intuitive approach. The right integration strategy can provide this simplicity.

Initial Positive Experience: A user who has a positive initial experience with video is much more likely to come back and use video again. A poor initial experience is much harder to overcome, and users will be reluctant to depend on the system for important meetings. Having the system properly deployed and tested before exposing it to the users is critical to user uptake and time-to-value.

Internal Marketing: Promoting the use of the new technology within the company is important for raising awareness and increasing usage. Internal marketing may promote the value of the video experience, the reduced travel requirement, the contribution to the environment, or it may align video use with a key executive sponsor. A positive internal push to use the technology will embolden workers to give it a try and to incorporate it into their daily work flow.

The highest ROI for the video conferencing investment will come with high utilization—and thus with enabled workers. Getting it right the first time, making the user interface easy and familiar and promoting the use of the technology within the organization will accelerate user uptake and thereby shorten the time-to-value.

Technical Resources Challenge

While the deployment of an integrated UC and video conferencing solution may have a short ROI, have corporate sponsorship and be an exciting new endeavor, the IT team may not have the resources to dedicate to the integration and deployment effort. IT teams today are under heavy pressure to increase productivity and decrease costs, and often are operating with a flat or reduced budget. Team members are managing more operational tasks than they were last month or last year.

A new deployment often needs the best and the brightest of the IT team to learn the new technology, design a solution, pilot the design and then roll it out within the organization. This requirement could remove these key technical team members from operational tasks for months. Who is going to handle the priority 1 trouble tickets during this effort? Will the occurrence of priority 1 tickets mean the schedule for the video integration slips, delaying deployment and impacting its ROI?

Education Challenge

Specific knowledge of the video conferencing and UC environment are needed to successfully deploy the video/UC integrated solution in a timely manner. While enterprise teams will undoubtedly have bright and skilled team members, they don’t know what they don’t know until they encounter it. New concepts, new types of network traffic and new challenges in integrating disparate systems all require learning. Training time may be at a premium, and the schedule may not allow for it.

Challenge Summary: Improving Time-to-value

Although the initial justification for deploying video conferencing may be based on hard dollar returns such as reducing travel costs, the real value comes with increased productivity, increased collaboration across geographic sites, better interpersonal relationships and increases in the speed of business. These ‘softer’ benefits are hard to quantify for a formal ROI analysis, but have returns that are much higher than travel reduction for enterprises that change the way they

do business through the use of video conferencing technology. These benefits are the strongest value provided by a video conferencing deployment.

The goal of a UC integrated video conferencing deployment is to bring these key benefits to the enterprise in an integrated manner so that the cost of administration is low, use of the technology is easy and intuitive, and users will quickly learn to take advantage of video and integrate it into their daily work. Once users are on board and using UC integrated video conferencing, the company will experience its benefits and value.

Polycom offers experienced professionals to support this transition, with exactly that goal in mind. Using the experience and expertise of the Polycom Professional Services team and learning from them during this transition can ensure a rapid, on-time deployment and

a positive initial experience for users.

Softswitching Update: How Will Telecommunications History Treat the Era of the Softswitch?

2010-09-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

Will history be kind to the softswitch? As any technology enters the twilight of its deployment years, as is the case with fixed and, eventually, mobile softswitching, it is only natural to consider the technology’s legacy. Approximately a decade into its commercial existence, softswitching must be judged to this point as serving as a major catalyst of the IP transformation movement that has finally spread to nearly every corner of the communications industry. The softswitch, however, has made its mark largely in the core of the network, where its primary role has been to oversee the conversion of long distance voice traffic from TDM to IP. The most indelible aspect of the softwitch’s history may end up being that the technology lost much of its significance at about the same time the VoIP movement reached the edge of the network. As operators continue to contemplate the replacement of Class 5 TDM switches, it is likely that it will not be the softswitch, but instead its successor, that oversees the bulk of the migration. As softswitching and IMS will coexist for the next several years, multiple questions remain unanswered regarding the role softswitches will play in the overall IP transformation during that timeframe. Will most operators that have yet to replace TDM switches migrate directly to IMS or make an interim step by deploying Class 5 softswitches? Which softswitches offer the smoothest and least expensive transition to IMS? Though the mobile softswitch market will remain strong for the next few years, will operators now look more closely at IMS migration roadmaps as competitive differentiators between products?

Avaya's “Flare Experience” Signals Big Changes in Business Communications User Interface Technology

2010-09-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

VERSION EN ESPAÑOL

El dispositivo de escritorio Avaya representa un esfuerzo nuevo y máximo de la compañía en el desarrollo de puntos terminales. Es una tableta basada en Android que ofrece video de alta definición y audio a través de una variedad de la tecnología inalámbrica (WiFi, 3G/4G) y las redes de cable. Está estrechamente integrada con otras tecnologías de comunicación de Avaya, así como compatible con la tecnología de videoconferencia de otros fabricantes. Además, el software proporciona una interfaz elegante destellos a una variedad de vídeo, telefonía y la colaboración - en todos los sentidos un paso adelante respecto a la forma de vídeo de escritorio, la mensajería de telefonía, empresas de comunicaciones instantáneas y las modalidades se entregan a los escritorios de hoy en día.
• La Experiencia "Flare" proporciona un punto de integración gráfica para voz, vídeo y comunicaciones basadas en texto, audio y videoconferencia y de telefonía y mensajería instantánea agregada en los servidores de presencia y servicios múltiples. Las llamadas y las conferencias se establecen a través de una interfaz de arrastrar y colocar, y en una tableta con pantalla táctil. Un "foco" metáforico ofrece una forma única y altamente conveniente para administrar las comunicaciones múltiples, conferencias y sesiones de colaboración.
• El software de llamarada puede crear una lista única de los contactos de los sistemas PBX, aplicaciones de Microsoft como Exchange y entornos Web 2.0 tales como Skype y (en una versión posterior) Facebook y LinkedIn. Los usuarios pueden arrastrar y soltar para establecer contactos de voz, vídeo o sesiones de comunicación basadas en texto con cualquier número de ellos. La solución Avaya Aura dispositivo de vídeo es el vehículo de la primera entrega de la Experiencia Flare, pero Avaya planea hacer Flare disponible en PC, Macintosh de escritorio, dispositivos móviles, no Avaya dispositivos de pantalla táctil (presumiblemente Apple IPAD y otros dispositivos similares basados en Android) y Avaya servicio de web.alive virtuales basadas en avatares mundo. La experiencia se espera que generalmente los mismos, a través de dispositivos, aunque la serie precisa de características probablemente a cambios basados en el extremo apoyado puntos.

• Avaya ha ampliado a determinadas características del software Flare para ejecutarse en el extremo más alto de los teléfonos de Avaya de escritorio IP de la serie 9600. Más concretamente, los teléfonos 96x1 puede firmware actualizado para apoyar algunas de las características Flare, incluyendo la capacidad de ver la presencia, mayor integración con los contactos, las personas entran y salen de conferencias, enviar mensajes instantáneos directamente desde la pantalla del teléfono, y alerta a los usuarios si están hablando al mismo tiempo en silencio.
• La solución Avaya Collaboration Server ofrece una forma sencilla de implementar en la empresa nuevos productos de videoconferencia. Muchos de ellos requieren que los clientes actualizar a la última - 6,0 - versión de los productos puntuales que conforman la solución Avaya Aura . Si un cliente no está listo para una actualización a gran escala, o si el cliente necesita para apoyar una infraestructura de múltiples proveedores de PBX, Collaboration Server proporciona un conjunto completo de las comunicaciones, presencia, mensajería y otras aplicaciones en un entorno de servidor virtualizado. nueva conexión de Avaya soluciones de conferencia de vídeo a Collaboration Server permite a las empresas para implementar los nuevos productos rápidamente, sin costosas actualizaciones de software en toda la empresa.
• La ronda de Avaya Video Conferencia Solution ayuda a las comunicaciones de la empresa de cartera, que anteriormente carecían de un conjunto de sistemas de videoconferencia. Aunque el punto de productos diversos en la serie 1000 de Avaya llegan a través de una relación OEM con LifeSize Communications, hay claras ventajas de ofrecer una Avaya marca conjunto de puntos de vídeo conferencia final.Esto incluye la capacidad de Avaya para modificar el software LifeSize subyacentes para apoyar las funciones de llamadas como en espera, transferencia y mudo, con integraciones previstas nuevas en futuras versiones de la solución Avaya Video Conferencia. También se compromete a agilizar la adquisición y despliegue de productos combinados de Avaya-LifeSize, así como la posibilidad de proyectos conjuntos de I + D iniciativas en el futuro.

ENGLISH VERSION

Avaya Desktop Video Device represents a new high in the company’s end point development efforts. It is an Android-based tablet that delivers high-definition video and audio over a variety of of wireless (WiFi, 3G/4G) and wired networks. It is tightly integrated with other Avaya communications technology, as well as supports third-party video conferencing technology. Additionally, the Flare software provides elegant interface to a variety of video, telephony and collaboration – in every way a step up from how desktop video, telephony, corporate instant messaging and other communications modalities are delivered to desktops today.

• The “Flare Experience” provides a graphical integration point for voice, video and text-based communications, audio and video conferencing, and telephony and instant messaging presence aggregated from multiple presence servers and services. Calls and conferences are established via a drag-and-drop interface and on a touchscreen tablet. A “spotlight” metaphor provides a unique and highly convenient way to manage multiple communication, conferencing and collaboration sessions.

• The Flare software can create a single list from contacts from PBX systems, Microsoft applications such as Exchange, and Web 2.0 environments such as Skype and (in a later release) Facebook and LinkedIn. Users can drag and drop contacts to establish voice, video or text-based communications sessions with any number of them. The Avaya Aura Video Device is the first delivery vehicle for the Flare Experience, but Avaya plans to make Flare available on PCs, Macintosh desktops, mobile devices, non-Avaya touch pad devices (presumably Apple iPad and similar Android-based devices) and Avaya’s web.alive avatar-based virtual world service. The experience is expected to be generally the same across devices, though the precise set of features will likely to change based on the end points supported.

• Avaya has extended certain features specific to the Flare software to run on the higher end of Avaya’s 9600 Series IP desk phones. More specifically, 96x1 phones can be firmware upgraded to support some Flare features, including the ability to see presence, tighter integration with contacts, move people in and out conference, send IMs directly from the phone’s display, and alerting users if they are talking while on mute.

• The Avaya Collaboration Server delivers an easy way to implement the company’s new video conferencing products. Many of them require customers to upgrade to the latest – 6.0 – version of the various point products that make up the Avaya Aura solution set. If a customer is not ready for a full-scale upgrade, or if the customer needs to support a multivendor PBX infrastructure, Collaboration Server delivers a full set of communications, presence, messaging and other software in a virtualized server environment. Connecting Avaya’s new video conferencing solutions to Collaboration Server allows an enterprise to deploy the new products quickly, without expensive enterprise-wide software upgrades.

• The Avaya Video Conferencing Solution helps round out the company’s communications portfolio, which previously lacked a set of video conferencing systems. Though the various point products in the Avaya 1000 Series come via an OEM relationship with LifeSize Communications, there are distinct advantages to offering an Avaya-branded set of video conferencing end points. This includes Avaya’s ability to modify the underlying LifeSize software to support call features such as hold, transfer and mute, with further integrations planned in future releases of the Avaya Video Conferencing Solution. It also promises to streamline the procurement and deployment of combined Avaya-LifeSize products, as well as the possibility of joint R&D initiatives in the future.

Mexico 200 years later.

2010-09-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

Today, Mexico has been a pioneer in the telecommunications industry. Large manufacturers are set out in the country as the best to ship and install your new products before anyone in Lationoamerica. And not so much by economics but by the vision of entrepreneurs so that through technology companies grow.
These days we celebrate the bicentennial of Independence. Communications 100 years ago became barely uploaded to a telegraph pole and using. For 200, the messengers came on horseback from one place to another. Today we have the Unified Communications and more so. Video, Presence, Voice, Data. All in one device. How things have changed for the better! Do not you think?
Viva Mexico! Bicentennial Happy Holidays.

Logitech Announces Plans to Acquire LifeSize

2009-11-18T08:35:00.000-08:00

This is the letter from the CEOs

"Our two companies share a vision for the role of video in business and professional communication, believing that anywhere there is voice there should be video. That means offering a life-like, HD-video communication experience that is as seamless and mainstream as a telephone call not just in the board room for a select few, but in any meeting room in the enterprise, as well as at one's office desk or while telecommuting from home.

LifeSize started this journey with many of you more than five years ago. And together we have changed the landscape of workplace collaboration and built relationships with more than 9000 customers around the world.

It's time to go farther. Logitech, the world leader in webcams and a pioneer in the development of PC-based video calling, is a natural fit for LifeSize from a business, innovation and cultural perspective.

With Logitech's backing, LifeSize will be able to scale more effectively to deliver technology solutions to more customers and partners around the world. And by closely collaborating on innovation, we believe that we can accelerate the realization of our vision.

Voice-only communication knows almost no boundaries. We believe Logitech and LifeSize in partnership with other leading technology companies can drive innovation, price/performance and open standards so that the experience of visual communication is just as common and natural.

Together with our partners, we will continue to deliver standards-based, high-quality, flexible video-communication solutions that are scalable, secure and accessible to anyone, anywhere.

We are in the early stages of an important communication revolution and we will continue to set the pace of innovation for our customers and our partners. We look forward to making this journey together with you.

Sincerely,

Craig Malloy,

Founder and CEO of

LifeSize Communications

Gerald P. Quindlen,

President and CEO

of Logitech "

Comunicaciones Unificadas

2009-10-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

No aprovechar las Comunicaciones Unificadas es Perder Oportunidades

Las organizaciones que han resuelto incorporar las Comunicaciones Unificadas es su infraestructura tecnológica ya han capitalizado sus beneficios y recogido sus frutos en términos de eficiencia, rentabilidad y productividad.

La agilización en el proceso de gestión de datos se logra con la integración de las fuentes de intercomunicación, como los mensajes de voz, fax, e-mail, video conferencias y servicios de chat internos, está generando beneficios reales en términos de control y reducción de costos, productividad de los usuarios y una simplificación y cobertura en las comunicaciones, que favorece la colaboración a nivel corporativo.

El cambio histórico que están propiciando las Comunicaciones Unificadas aún está en su fase inicial. Su potencial de evolución está generando nuevos desarrollos y aplicaciones que sólo serán aprovechados por quienes han resuelto incorporarse al progreso tecnológico.