AudioCodes Meets the Complex Needs of Connecting UC Solutions
AudioCodes Meets the Complex Needs of Connecting UC Solutions by David Yedwab
To successfully deploy a new Unified Communications solution for an enterprise, you will need appropriate combinations of Gateways, Session Border Controllers and Survivable Branch Appliances (to use Microsoft’s term). These “connectors” are required whether the new UC solutions come from Avaya, IBM, Cisco, or Microsoft, etc. They are required because of the different protocols, formats and signaling mechanisms used by the new equipment likely differs from that used by the PSTN (which virtually all connections still traverse), the existing legacy voice solution (likely TDM), the Enterprise’s WAN and the new SIP trunks, implemented to reduce networking costs. No communications, be it simple point-to-point voice calls nor complex multi-point telepresence meetings, can occur without effective connectors as enablers and managers/controllers.
These various devices provide connection capabilities that are generally not provided natively as part of the major UC provider’s solutions. Let’s take a brief look at each of the three connector families:
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Gateways convert transmission protocols from, generally one standard to another, such as SIP to TDM, to traverse the public network. Gateways also encode fax messages, with its analog circuit switched protocol and its complex handshaking, to be managed and successfully transmitted over IP connections. And, just because both UC-element and SIP-trunk vendors use SIP, interoperation between them is not assured without a gateway that has been successfully tested to facilitate such interoperation. SIP, while a standard, is very general and two implementations may both be standards compliant but may not “talk” to each other. To avoid these incompatibilities about SIP interoperation, the SIP Forum is facilitating SIP interoperability across vendor implementations (through its SIPIT events and SIPconnect interoperability certification). In addition, many vendors and service providers have also implemented SIP inter-operation certifications on a bi-lateral basis.
- Enterprise Session Border Controllers (or E-SBCs) have evolved to ensure safe and accurate transmission of both the signaling and media associated with SIP sessions (ranging from presence status and IM, through voice and on to video and Telepresence) across network borders – such as those between a Service Provider and its Enterprise customers. Best practices support the use of an E-SBC at the enterprise point of demarcation, providing interoperability and security between the enterprise and service provider. .
- Survivable Branch Appliances, a term being used within Microsoft’s Lync UC solution, provide the ability for a branch location that does not have full on-site voice capabilities (via a Lync server) to continue on-premises and PSTN calls (with appropriate PSTN local connections) if the WAN connection to the enterprise network fails. (Note: other UC vendors also have branch survivability strategies.)
Connecting all of the elements in a successful Unified Communications deployment - often from multiple vendors/providers - to make these systems and their users able to “communicate” is no simple task. Making all of these legacy, hybrid and new-technology elements “interoperate” has become exceedingly complex and specialized. Vendors specializing in various types of gateways, and session border controllers have stepped into the breach to meet these needs, and the future will continue to require such vendors with a special focus on these issues - vendors such as AudioCodes.
Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Israel and began as a voice compression technology chip specialist. Since then, AudioCodes has evolved with the voice communications market to become, perhaps, the largest and consistently most profitable of the standalone “connector” vendors, with 2010 revenues of $150 Million (up almost 20% year-over-year, coming out of the recession) and profits increasing to $12 Million (from a small loss the prior year).
AudioCodes provides a broad set of solutions across the three main connector categories – gateways, session border controllers and survivable branch appliances. On the surface, its products appear to be very similar to those of the other connector companies. However, AudioCodes can claim several areas of differentiation from its competitors:
- The same software code base is used across all of the gateway and E-SBC products. This simplifies installation, implementation and management - especially relevant across large geographically distributed environments. And, because of the common code base, the products can be selectively re-purposed to meet the enterprise needs as the UC deployment rolls out. For example, a product can start as a VoIP/PSTN gateway and be converted to an E-SBC. This is an effective approach, as there is no need to rip and replace as a UC deployment is rolled out across an enterprise. Also facilitated by this common code base, the product families scale up and down in size from the smallest voice gateway to the largest centralized enterprise datacenter E-SBC.
- AudioCodes makes its own chips – at its heart AudioCodes is a chip manufacturer, which means, as opposed to many of its competitors, it does not need to await the development of capabilities of outside third-party merchant chip fabricators. This can provide time-to-market advantages for both new capabilities, scale (both up and down) and, potentially, price point advantages that can be passed along to its channels. In fact, several of its resale partners have indicated that they make greater margins selling AudioCodes than other solutions, likely at least in part due to their in-house chip capabilities.
- Having a right-sized focused business that generates growing revenues (due to being in a growing marketplace – UC) and being consistently profitable, provides longer-term stability that instills confidence in procurements by users and sales by channels.
- Experience in leading-edge implementations. AudioCodes has been named as BT’s gateway partner of choice for Microsoft OCS and Lync deployments. AudioCodes solutions were also bid as part of Microsoft’s response to the VoiceCon IPT RFP in 2010 (and reportedly also bid by Microsoft in its 2011 Enterprise Connect response.
AudioCodes products have been tested and work with UC solutions from major vendors such as Microsoft’s Lync (as an approved SBA), IBM’s Sametime Unified Telephony, Avaya’s Communications Manager (AudioCodes is an Avaya DevConnect certified partner), Genesys’ Contact Centers, as well as being a certified gateway for Skype Connect.
AudioCodes uses a two-tier distribution model in North America, where ScanSource and Westcon Group are its leading distributors. AudioCodes also certifies resellers, who also purchase their AudioCodes products through distribution. In addition to instilling customer confidence in the reseller’s capability, the AudioCodes certified resale partners receive a higher discount and, therefore, have the possibility of earning larger profits. Distribution outside North America is more likely to be single tier with a lead distributor/reseller in each country.
Overall, AudioCodes provides important “glue” to make UC deployments successful. Its rich technology heritage and commitment to channel sales as well as becoming part of leading edge new solutions such as Microsoft Lync and Skype Connect show a smart company well positioned to assist the UC market grow in size, success, breadth and depth.
While the future for AudioCodes looks positive, it is not without its challenges. Will enterprises recognize the need and invest in the security and flexibility provided by AudioCodes solutions? Can AudioCodes break out from the other mediation device makers and become a clear market leader? Can it become the provider of choice for UC suite vendors and Go-to-Market channels? Do the mediation capabilities become “baked in” to all UC implementations, eliminating the need for specialized devices? The future will play out and we will see how AudioCodes adjusts, competes and flourishes.
This paper is sponsored by AudioCodes.