All three sessions are being held in St. Georges 108 (in the atrium of the Gaylord Palms)
Pre-registration is requested – Register Me!
]]>Far exceeding the organizer’s expectations, the Lync Conference sold out weeks before the event with over 1,000 paid attendees. (Based on the badge swapping in the hotel foyer, there must have been another 300 people “around the fringes”.) The event was an interesting mix of roughly 1/3 end-customers, another 1/3 resellers/partners and 1/3 vendors, analysts and press - all mixed into hours of great sessions, keynotes and exposition space. What does this mean? Lync has arrived and it is HOT.
We at AudioCodes used the event to kick-off our One Voice for Microsoft Lync branding campaign, featuring a new informational video that was hard to miss on our giant video screen. Feedback from the analysts and customers was very positive – the value of one source for the network elements, services and support is clear.
The AudioCodes 420HD, 430HD and 440HD IP phones were quite the hit with the attendees. Most notably was a “phone premonition” by the popular blogger Matt Landis foreseeing the arrival our 440HD phone. (I’m personally pitching to our executives that we informally call our 440HD “the Landis Phone” going forward.)
My session titled “Avoiding the Pilot Trap” was a hit at the show. Featuring an end-customer presentation from Jeff Bryngelson, Network Manager at American Axle & Manufacturing and a partner perspective from Benjamin Tosado, Principle at Conquest Technology Services, the session discussed some of the challenges that IT Managers and Administrators run into when their Lync pilot projects run into troubles and some first-hand tips on how to avoid a similar fate. Even the critical consultant Sheila McGee-Smith gave us a “best session of the conference” twitter nod for including real customers to share their stories. You can view a recording of the session on YouTube.
AudioCodes, Plantronics, Intelepeer and ScanSource Communications collaborated to organize the first ever “Voice LyncUP”, a social event that cruised the San Diego harbor on Tuesday evening. The event brought together close to 300 end-customer, partners and sponsors out on a cool and windy evening for an opportunity to socialize and share their Lync experiences. We’re looking forward to a bigger and better event next year with more sponsors and attendees.
And most importantly, the event gave us an opportunity to meet, collaborate and listen to a number of our current and prospective customers. Having real eye-to-eye discussions about the needs and wants for business adoption of Lync is impossible to put into words. We left with a new appreciation of what has been accomplished and what is to come from some of the early adopters and highly innovative community that makes up the Lync ecosystem.
One final thought – for those of us that attended this first-ever Lync Conference event, I suspect there will be a day in the future when we say “I was there when….” Looking forward to next year.
You can reach Alan at: alan.percy@audiocodes.com
]]>Image via CrunchBase
Besides juggling the two clients, I must maintain two presence statuses, two directories and two profiles. Sometimes I feel like I live two parallel lives in two parallel universes.
With today’s announcement that Microsoft has reached an agreement to purchase Skype, it appears my two worlds are soon converging. But I don’t expect dramatic changes overnight, there are many technical differences between Microsoft Lync and Skype that I suspect will make the integration a slow, but steady evolution.
For starters, Microsoft and Skype both have proprietary high-definition media coders (RTA from Microsoft and SILK from Skype). In both cases, they’ve made huge investments in the development of the coders and both have significant market penetration. RTA is built into Lync and fantastic at adapting to enterprise network conditions, but Skype’s SILK coder works much better over the open internet where network conditions change minute-to-minute. If you have to choose one, which do you choose?
Beyond the media, directory management tools, status and presence will all need to be integrated. As Skype is an “over the top” service, using the customer’s existing broadband internet service, security has some special challenges too.
Fortunately, you can integrate Skype Connect with Microsoft Lync for calling features today. Using an Enterprise Session Border Controller (E-SBC) in a Back-to-Back User Agent (B2BUA) mode, Skype Connect low-cost calling and inbound Skype Client access can be integrated to Microsoft Lync. The E-SBC also provides that added security needed to protect the enterprise against external attack or abuse.
Using an E-SBC to integrate Skype Connect with Microsoft Lync allows businesses to offer Skype-IDs to the public, enabling “call me” buttons on web sites, replacing toll-free 800 services with free Skype calling. To me, this seems like an obvious initial investment to reduce operating costs while improving customer access to the increasingly mobile consumer and business markets.
I am looking forward to further integration, but see the immediate opportunities for voice integration as a valuable first step.
Like the Ghostbuster characters, sometimes you need to cross the streams to shake things up (let’s just hope we get more than a giant marshmallow man to show for the investment)
As a result of these issues and the need to integrate SIP-based communications systems with a wide range of SIP Trunking service providers, a whole new category of customer premise equipment has recently evolved--the Enterprise Session Border Controller (E-SBC). The E-SBC is designed to be located on the customer premise and sit between the Local Area Network and the external Wide Area Network. Unlike the larger and more complex carrier-oriented Session Border Controller (SBC), the E-SBC is "right-sized" for a range of medium and large enterprises.
Unique functions of an E-SBC include:
Security: Often the first attribute to get mentioned about any SBC. Unlike a firewall, both carrier-class and enterprise-SBCs operate at OSI layers 3 and 4, interpreting the SIP messages and using the information gleaned from the session negotiation, to make intelligent decisions about which request is valid and which message is part of an attack. E-SBCs offer a "front guard" that protects the business network from possible attacks that originate from outside the business (the Internet), elsewhere on the WAN (the carrier) or within the business (an inside job). Stateful packet inspection, Access Control Lists, Topology hiding and Application Layer Firewall functions help keep the bad guys out and let the trusted parties in. Other facets of security include encryption--allowing the SIP sessions outside the business to be fully encrypted without the cost of having encryption on every device or system within the network.
Interoperability: sometimes forgotten, but equally important is the ability to integrate different SIP-based systems from different vendors or vintages with a range of SIP Trunking carriers. As a result of the wide range of protocol options within the RFC-3261 SIP specification, two systems can be completely within specification, but unable to communicate. SIP mediation is often required to convert from one vendor's version of SIP to another. This is especially important as larger enterprises integrate numerous different SIP systems together due to acquisitions, or that may have been bought at different times. An E-SBC eliminates this issue by implementing a back-to-back user agent, essentially terminating one SIP session (using one set of rules) and establishing another session (with a different set of rules), interconnecting previously incompatible systems. Having an interoperability solution is key in maintaining choice for the business and eliminating vendor "lock-in" commonly found with large "standard, but closed" communications systems.
NAT Traversal: one of the big benefits of SIP based communications systems is the ability to put phones in employees' home offices, hotel rooms, etc. for anywhere-anytime communications. To do this, the communications system must be able to traverse the Network Address Translation (NAT) function found at the far end--a built feature found in most home and small business routers. Enabling the remote phones and workstations requires logic to deal with the IP address changes and port number re-assignments that are the result of the far-end router NAT.
Survivability: this is a new twist that some early market trials identified as an issue with decision makers. Basically, buyers need a "CYA" or back-up plan that will allow the business to continue to operate if there are issues with the SIP Trunks. This may be just during the cut-over period, or part of a longer-term disaster recovery plan. The most logical back-up to SIP Trunks are TDM trunks. Not necessarily a one-for-one backup, but a reduced number of TDM trunks that would be able to stand in and allow for emergency or limited service calling. Until recently, this required a separate media gateway that was installed next to the E-SBC and a SIP Proxy to make decisions about when and where to direct the traffic to the TDM trunks. Fortunately, appliances that combine the three capabilities (E-SBC, Gateway and Proxy) together in one device are now appearing on the market, eliminating the costs and shelf space needed for the three separate devices.
As the adoption of SIP-based IP-PBXs and Unified Communications systems grows along with SIP Trunking, an Enterprise Session Border Controller (E-SBC) will become a common tool that network designers use to protect and interconnect their communications.
This is why the time was right for AudioCodes to launch our E-SBC product line, based on the popular Mediant 800, Mediant 1000 and Mediant 3000 hardware platforms.
For a more detailed look at the E-SBC and it's role in enterprise communications, view the on-demand webinar titled "SIP Trunking - Security, Survivability and Interoperability"
For more information on the products, see: www.audiocodes.com/e-sbc
Apple will end exclusive arrangement with AT&T - with competition from Google Android (the operating software for the "Droid") and ever increasing network congestion and performance issues on the AT&T network (see above), Apple will be forced to finally end their exclusive relationship and expand to other carriers. At first to other GSM carriers (T-Mobile) and then CDMA carriers (like Verizon and Sprint). However, an iPhone for CDMA networks requires a different radio in the iPhone which means there will end up being two different phones and users will never be able to jump from GSM to CDMA carriers without buying a new phone.
Google will aggressively exploit Apple / AT&Ts performance issues (see above) and become a strong competitor in the mobile device market with both GSM and CDMA carriers (still with different devices).
HD Voip - the pieces are all there, and the first few carriers are readying their product launches. Your wireline telephone is about to become obsolete. Once you hear it - you will understand.
Fiber-to-the-home - will grow as fast as they can bury the conduit. Whether it comes from Verizon with their FiOS offering or your local cable operator, coax and twisted pair copper wires are dead. Blazing speed Internet, HDTV and video on demand over IP will drive a wooden stake in the heart of the old copper infrastructure. Long live FTTH!
Video over IP - I've seen the future and it's unbundled video over IP services like Netflix, Blockbuster, and Amazon.com with their streaming or digital downloads to your DVR. They completely obsolete video on demand with it's limited choices and start times. Also, why would anyone go into a video rental store ever again?
Blu-Ray - with the HD-DVD / Blu-ray battle ending two years ago and sufficient HDTVs in people's homes, it's time for Blu-ray to take off. But, only if Blu-ray disks also include a DVD or digital copy for the kids room/car/portable player. We've got too many other DVD-only devices around the house to limit playback. But, Blu-ray will have to compete with Video over IP services and will never be as ubiquitous as DVD rentals were 10 years ago.
Twitter is in Twouble - it's 15 minutes of fame are over and it will basically settle in as a replacement for PR news wire services with content by the people and for the people. Much like web pages, email, YouTube and blogging, social media in general will find a home in the suite of communications tools. The bottom line is that talented people will always be needed to create interesting/funny/insightful content to keep your attention - otherwise it's just noise.
Morse Code - sorry to see you go, but when the ARRL and FCC dropped it from the Amateur Radio operating requirements, now there is absolutely no reason to keep it around. --. --- --- -.. -... -.-- .
Jobs recovery - Green energy, Biotechnology and security are the growth areas for the next decade. Kids - make sure you prepare yourselves for these industries / careers.
Energy/Fuel prices - with our sputtering economy taking a long slow recovery, I suspect we will enjoy relatively low fuel prices at least for the first six months. This will give time for the auto manufacturers to figure out how to make a plug-in-hybrid for the masses. Hopefully it will be ready when the prices of fuel take off again.
And with that, I wish you all a very Happy New Year and see you soon!
]]>Time | Presenter | Topic |
4:00 PM | BandTel Joel Maloff Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing | SIP Trunking |
4:30 PM | CTI2 Erez Marom | Unified Communications |
Time | Presenter | Topic |
1:30 PM | AudioCodes Alan Percy Director, Market Development | IP Communications - An Opportunity in a Down Economy? |
2:00 PM | Avaya Bruce Mazza | Branch Office Solutions |
2:30 PM | The VIA Group Jeff Stillings | Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 |
3:00 PM | Genesys Charles Lee Sr. Product Marketing Manager | Empowering enterprise-wide customer service |
3:30 PM | Atlantic Communications Michael Light | Hosted Solutions (Cosmocom) |
4:00 PM | Digium Bill Miller VP Product Management | Asterisk Open Source Solutions |
Time | Presenter | Topic |
1:30 PM | Brian Cuppett ScanSource Comm. | ScanSource Communications |
2:00 PM | Strategic Products and Services (SPS) Mike Taylor, CTO | Avaya Branch Office Solutions |
2:30 PM | Interactive Intelligence Rick Q. Chin Manager, Solutions Marketing | Improving the Customer Experience with CIC |
3:00 PM | EUS Networks Robert Campozano CEO | Asterisk Solutions on Mediant 1000 OSN |
3:30 PM | Sagem-Interstar TBA | Enterprise Fax Solutions |
4:00 PM | Enabling Technology Steve Bruno | Deploying Microsoft Office Communicator |