AudioCodes: Thriving and Scaling Up with Lync

Earlier this month, AudioCodes announced their new Mediant 9000 Session Border Controller (SBC) that expands the simultaneous session capacity to 16,000 concurrent sessions. This is now the largest in the Mediant SBC family and positions AudioCodes very well for the large and very large enterprise market segments. Since it is very important to connect Unified Communications (UC) systems securely to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), AudioCodes asked for review and commentary on this announcement.

To put this announcement into context, since each SBC session can support one call on a SIP trunk, the 16,000 sessions of the Mediant 9000 would support normal telephone traffic for up to 320,000 employees in a typical external calling ratio of 20 employees per trunk or could support a contact center with approximately 1,000 agents with a reasonable ratio of 1.6 trunks per agent. Of course, there are many other uses for SIP sessions on the AudioCodes Mediant SBCs, but this provides some perspective on the scalability of this new SBC model.

It is also impressive that AudioCodes provides a software-based version of their SBC that can be run on Common Off-the-Shelf (COTS) hardware, including virtual machine implementations. Thus, the AudioCodes SBCs are adaptable to essentially all common enterprise infrastructure architectures.

Perhaps the most interesting theme of this announcement, and of AudioCodes’ 2013 earnings announcement this week, is the emphasis on their success as part of the Microsoft Lync ecosystem. The release quotes Shabtai Adlersberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of AudioCodes as saying, “AudioCodes fourth quarter 2013 performance was underlined by strong sequential growth of sales in the Microsoft Lync voice segment and growth in sales of session border controller products.” This is reflective of Microsoft’s recent reports of both on-premises and cloud-based growth of Lync licensing and adoption. AudioCodes reported 7.6% revenue growth in 2013, to $137.2 million, and profit growth of $8.4M compared to 2012.

This success builds on the comprehensive AudioCodes One Voice for Microsoft Lync (One Voice) program introduced in early 2012. One Voice organizes a suite of components that an enterprise customer is likely to need for deployment and operation of Microsoft Lync.

• SBCs: Session Border Controllers came into being as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) communications moved beyond the on-premises phones and devices connected to an IP-PBX and started traveling through the public networks including both the PSTN and Ethernet Backbone networks. Most of all, these SIP sessions needed to be protected from all sorts of IP-based attacks, ranging from Denial of Service (DOS) attacks to session interception and monitoring with false credentials. Few enterprises – whether public or private sector – would consider leaving their voice and UC communications unprotected. This is still the core of the demand for SBCs.
  
  
• Gateways for PBXs/IP-PBXs: The SBC provides a bridge from the new Microsoft Lync UC system to the enterprise’s existing PBX system(s), to avoid the time and cost of replacing the existing PBX and all the desktop phones. This allows the enterprise to move much more quickly and economically to capture the benefits of UC.
  
  The SBC can also provide a directory-based routing capability for calls between the PBX, the UC system and the PSTN, to either avoid or simplify dial plan complexities that can occur during migration or co-existence of legacy PBXs with new IP-PBXs or UC systems.
  
  
• Survivable Branch Appliance (SBA): The SBC can sustain certain levels of communication for a physical site if the Wide Area Network (WAN) connections to the primary or backup UC site are disrupted. The (SBA) design and specifications are part of the Microsoft Lync system architecture and AudioCodes is a leading producer of these SBAs.
  
  
• Management Tools: The AudioCodes SBCs can be managed both with the AudioCodes Element Management System (EMS) and with the Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), which is the likely preference for large enterprises that are deploying and operating Microsoft Lync systems.
  
  
• IP Phones: A family of IP phones is available as part of the One Voice program. The 400HD line of IP phones, such as the 420 HD IP phone, are certified Lync-compatible and deliver high-definition (HD) audio for user comfort and convenience as well as business effectiveness, based on the clarity provided.
  
  
• Gateways to other devices: Optionally, the AudioCodes SBC can also provide gateway services to analog devices, media conversions to other protocols such as T-1,
  
  
• Communications Applications: Optionally, a number of communications applications can be added to the Mediant SBCs, including Automated Attendant, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Call Recording, and Fax Server.
  
  
• Professional Services: AudioCodes supports their partners and the enterprise buyers with services to assure successful implementation and operation. This includes globally available planning, design, and implementation as well as on-going support services. AudioCodes can deliver these services in conjunction with their system integration partners or directly to the customer, as is most appropriate.

It certainly appears that AudioCodes has both understood the scope of the market opportunity for UC-type SBCs and executed well on that understanding, via One Voice for Microsoft Lync, to deliver the scale and range of functions needed for customer acceptance. Further, AudioCodes seems to be experiencing a positive return on their investment in the products, software, and services to support Microsoft Lync implementations.

It’s pretty clear that AudioCodes would already be on the "short list" of infrastructure partners for a Microsoft Lync deployment; now, AudioCodes has an even more compelling proposition for the growing number of enterprises that are scaling up the conferencing and enterprise voice capabilities of Microsoft Lync. We look forward to seeing the AudioCodes team at the upcoming Lync Conference 2014 in February as well as at Enterprise Connect 2014 in March.

This paper is sponsored by AudioCodes.