Broadvox is closely aligned with several E-SBC suppliers; AudioCodes, Ingate, Cisco and others. However, only recently did I note the growth in the market segment. According to Infonetics, Enterprise Session Border Controller sales grew by 70% in 2010. The growth was fueled in part by the continued adoption of SIP Trunking. In order to take advantage of the new services and capabilities enabled by a migration to VoIP, it is important for businesses to implement systems compatible with SIP and acquire services from ITSPs. In fact, according to the same study, SIP Trunking services grew 220% worldwide in 2010.

Other factors supporting the growth of E-SBCs include merger and acquisition activity. As companies acquire others, incompatible PBXs, IADs and other IP infrastructure interoperability issues arise. These can be best address through an E-SBCs. Additionally, as new technologies emerge such as Microsoft’s Lync product, an E-SBC can enable the enterprise to more quickly deploy the technology delivering potential productivity benefits faster. Finally, there is the issue of security.

A migration to VoIP or SIP Trunking does not increase an enterprises exposure to security breaches. However, as with the implementation of any new application or service that leverages IP technology, securing access for authorized users is important. Ingate and SIPERA make this a mainstay of their promotion of E-SBCs. Others feel that the security discussion can frighten away concerned IT managers not quite ready to embrace the full benefits of VoIP and SIP. When I wrote Practicing Safe SIP my intent was to increase the awareness of various security risks and how to mitigate them. Today, we read about a major security breach where 24,000 Department of Defense files were “lost”.  While not associated with VoIP, it is an important reminder that securing information, access and communications is always an essential action.

Enterprises adoption of E-SBCs will provide bottom line savings of up to 70%, improved productivity through the deployment of Unified Communications and Unified Messaging, interoperability between disparate systems, a more robust network and improved security.

What’s not to like about an E-SBC?