Re: Why are gateways required in a Microsoft UC Solution?

Posted March 9, 2009

Brenda Perea--Why are gateways required in a Microsoft UC Solution?

NET--Gateways are needed to integrate with legacy networks and telephony equipment.  Microsoft UC passes VoIP traffic between desktops without requiring any other modification to the corporate IP network. It does not, however, provide any connectivity to PBXs and/or external service provider networks. Its connectivity to IP PBXs and IP-based service providers is also limited to a small number of vendors and requires specific recent releases of those vendors’ products. Few if any companies, however, want to completely rip and replace their entire telecom infrastructure at one time. A Microsoft UC deployment is typically first implemented in a particular targeted area of the business where it will deliver the greatest ROI – and then rolled out to other areas in successive stages. Moreover, as providers compete with each other and offer different pricing incentives, the rules about which voice traffic goes where will likely change over time. Companies therefore find it prudent, if not and necessary, to implement a third-party VoIP solution that integrates Microsoft UC into existing non-Microsoft telecom infrastructure as a way to flexibly switch voice traffic originating from Microsoft UC users to multiple networks as required at any given time.

David Yedwab--What’s NET’s value proposition in the Microsoft OCS UC equation?

NET--Microsoft UC is a powerful platform for increasing staff productivity, improving responsiveness to business problems and opportunities, and reducing operating costs. But, the right gateway architecture is needed in order to fully realize those gains.

NET’s VX Series and Quintum Series switches and Gateways are significantly differentiated from commodity VoIP gateways in ways that make them particularly suitable for the challenges associated with Microsoft UC implementation. Key attributes of the VX Series solution include: Suitability for diverse telecom environments, remote office survivability, VoIP security and Active Directory integration. NET VX and Quintum Series switches provide many other capabilities that make them especially suitable for Microsoft UC deployments – including link quality management, support for consolidation of UM voice mailboxes, and music/message-on-hold functionality. In summary, NET’s VoIP switches and gateways minimize implementation challenges and enable companies to fully leverage Microsoft UC’s rich functionality for maximum business benefit.

Brenda Perea--Can you go into depth on the value prop differentiators?

NET--The VX Series’ Any-to-Any MultiPath architecture (along with its built-in SIP to SIP mediation) provides full connectivity between Microsoft UC users on an IP network and any other telecom infrastructure – including PBXs and IP PBXs – without requiring additional hardware or reconfiguration of existing devices. NET VX Series switches include built-in SIP survivability functionality that ensures continuity of basic calling functions on SIP phones in remote offices even in the event of an OCS failure – or in the event that IP network connectivity to a UC server in a central location fails. VX Series switches also implement a broad range of encryption protocols, including TLS for signaling security and SRTP for media security – as well as IPSec, SCIP, and MD5 Authorization. And unlike other hardware solutions that compromise performance when using encryption, VX Series switches encrypt at wire speed. VX Series switches allow programmable call control to be driven by telephony data from Microsoft Active Directory and LDAP servers. AD integration opens up a universe of possibilities for rules-based call routing – including the programming of failover scenarios that direct calls to users’ cell phones in the event that LAN/WAN connections to UC desktops are down. It also allows the VX switch to determine whether a call should be routed directly to a user’s phone or via an OCS Server to a UC desktop.

David Yedwab--What lessons did Avanade learn from its own OCS R2 deployment?

NET--Avanade learned that the projections for hard and soft cost savings appear to be pretty accurate.  That network savings, travel displacement and other hard cost avoidance can be substantial.  A roadmap to get to the end-state needs to be developed and organizational buy-in is essential.

Brenda Perea--What is your definition of UC?

NET--UC is communications integrated to optimize business processes.  UC integrates real-time and non-real time communications with business processes and requirements based on presence capabilities, presenting a consistent unified user interface and experience across multiple devices and media types. In other words UC is communications integrated to optimize business processes. UC breaks down today’s silos of communications. Done right it’s really one application with a supporting rules engine that unites such diverse communications components as presence, messaging (i.e., IM, email, voice, video) and collaboration modes (i.e., voice, data, video telephony, A/V/Web conferencing and information sharing apps) with business processes, business applications and directories in a way that provides a common user experience regardless media type or device used be it hard phone, softphone or mobile.

David Yedwab--Including Avanade’s experiences, what’s the quickest most effective path to ROI in a UC deployment?

NET--In this economy the quickest route to ROI hinges on hard the cash savings associated with protecting, extending and leveraging your existing telecom investment while driving down telecom costs. SIP trunking (supported by OCS R2) provides businesses with a painless first step and a seamless migration path to VoIP. It enables businesses to leverage their bandwidth investments by sharing voice and data traffic. Businesses gain the cost savings and flexibility associated with VoIP without having to purchase a new telecom system. SIP trunking is a scalable and affordable alternative to traditional dial tone - offering local, long distance, toll free and international calling at very low rates. Putting Office Communicator (OC) clients on PCs will leverage VoIP to drive down local, long distance and cellular costs. Additionally, OCS LiveMeeting and A/V/Web conferencing capabilities drive away outsourced conferencing charges.

This doesn’t mean that companies should write off productivity gains. Far from it, staying nimble is especially important in this environment as companies are forced to compete with fewer resources. And where will companies get the best productivity ROI today? It’s in UC-BB – UC for business. That’s where you’re making UC an integral part of your collaboration strategy. It’s the concept of having context, presence and click to communicate embedded within your business processes. Now, communications-enabling a business processes is difficult because established practices, generally, are deeply entrenched, and changing them requires changing behavior. In some cases, it also requires changing the business process itself. If done well, however, it will lead to soft cost reductions, increased employee productivity and job satisfaction, tighter connections with customers, suppliers and partners, faster decision making and time to market, increased supply chain intimacy and competitive advantages.

Posted March 11, 2009

David Yedwab--I understand the need for gateways for connectivity to the PSTN and legacy gear.  If I were trying to budget for a UC implementation, for about 1000 users across 5 locations with 5 legacy PBXes.  What percentage of my OCS deployment budget needs to be set aside for NET or Quintum gateways?

Posted March 13, 2009

Art Rosenberg--It's not just Microsoft's UC solution that needs gateways. Any UC platform or communication application that starts to exploit IP Telephony, VoIP, and SIP connectivity will need gateways for the same reason. That is, person-to-person voice connectivity through the PSTN. 

I'm still trying to understand some of the technologies needed for a total UC solution. How do you know when you need a gateway, and what should enterprises be looking for when selecting a gateway vendor and/or product?

Good question on how to select a good gateway vendor and the product. A typical UC solution includes a client component, server components, and voice network that includes integration with PSTN and PBX systems. In the case of Microsoft OCS 2007 R2, the client is the Microsoft Office Communicator. There are several servers defined as server roles.

Microsoft OCS allows users to make and receive calls from the public switched telephony network (PSTN) through the use of gateways. Most enterprises have multi vendor, multi-generational PBX systems in their networks. Therefore, it is important that the gateway should be able to convert any protocol to any other protocol to protect the investments made in the voice networks instead of requiring to do a rip and replace. Besides, a good gateway should provide staged approach to migrating legacy PBX users to Microsoft UC.

With the divergent networks, dial plans can become very cumbersome. A good gateway should provide a centralized dial plan for the entire organization taking into account the different dialing restrictions that are inherent to global number formats, and specific vendor implementation requirements.

Security threats can cripple voice networks and other IP network nodes. A good gateway should offer high reliability and resiliency with features like high availability, load balancing, and security through encryption and firewall capabilities to thwart Denial of Service attacks. Microsoft requires TLS and SRTP for protecting signaling and media traffic. A gateway should be able to support these encryption technologies.

It should be expected that the IP networks may go down once in a while. When an IP network goes down, the branch office networks may get isolated. A good gateway should offer protection against IP failures by providing survivability features such as providing alternate routing/failover connectivity to PSTN and local phone services with registered SIP/Wifi phones.

Many enterprises often require to switch calls from one service provider to another in order to keep their long distance  charges low. A good gateway can flexibly switch calls between service providers to provide least cost routing.

Enterprise users still conduct business using fax machines, and analog devices like postage meters, HVAC equipment, security systems, and other modem based devices. A right gateway provides a smooth transition to unified communications for these legacy devices.

Finally, only a vendor that has the range of equipment that meets every enterprise use from small business to large enterprise can offer one stop solution and reduces UC deployment project risks.

Marty and David, here is an approximation. The answer should be very similar to the PSTN case Marty gave. Looking at your scenario, multiply the number of users  by $400 for the OCS costs (same as given by Marty). Then add the VX costs (2 GW’s). The GWs for 1000 users assuming 1:10 ratio, cost of each GW is roughly $18K per node. Assuming High Availability, 2 GWs will cost about $36K. The cost of GWs will be roughly 9 – 10%.