Merrill Lynch reported that it will install IP PBX and phone gear from Avaya and Cisco with the U.S., Brazil, Australia and Japan headquerters installing an Avaya IP-PBX supporting 10,000 employees and their branch offices using Cisco IP phones with a centralized Cisco IP-PBX that will support 14,000 financial advistors.
When a huge financial firm like Merrill Lynch puts its trust in VoIP and sees it as a secure technology when you consider all the possible liabilities due to the multi-billion dollar transactions they do daily, one has to stand up and take notice...
It is also significant because Merrill dropped Cisco as it's VoIP provider for 7,500+ workers in its New Jersey headquarters and in Japan in mid-2003 due to security concerns. I guess Merrill Lynch got over that mental hurdle or Cisco and Avaya did a great job selling them.
Technorati
Del.icio.us
Slashdot
Digg
twitter
isn't this old news? i mean, i heard of this 2 years back.
in fact, back then, they are actually rolling back their pstn phone.
Yep, it is old news, except like I said, Merrill Lynch "pulled" their VoIP out in 2003, and then 2 years later they re-deployed it.
I guess the real story should be what changed their minds? What changed security-wise that made them comfortable with VoIP?
Merrill Lynch has been with Cisco in the past and now mixes Cisco and Avaya:
News.com Merrill Lynch
Maybe a better title would be: Merrill Lynch goes Avaya. What makes you think it was a security thing?