Avaya

UC Insecurity

Doug Mohney — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:00:21 -0400

Is time to worry about UC security? In its latest report, entitled "Unified Communications: A Sense of Insecurity," Light Reading thinks so.

Because UC integrates so many established and emerging technologies, it is difficult to predict what future security problems might crop up in the future. Combine that with many existing security features in existing UC platforms that are not implemented correctly, and there is some cause to be worried.

UC providers are turning to third-parties such as Clarus Systems and Sipera to look over their systems and find vulnerabilities, as well as encouraging customers to seek third-party assistance to review internal security policies before installing a UC solution. Hosted solutions run by service providers may be less vulnerable, but end-user misuse could "trickle up" to affect larger UC installations.

Other tidbits include assigning enterprise users the "most glaring point of vulnerability" when it comes to UC security breaches and the potential damage from a major UC breach is leading Cisco, Avaya, and Microsoft to work together to establish tighter UC security.

For more:
- Light Reading summary of its UC security report

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Avaya, Cisco and Nortel Patching VoIP ASAP

Doug Mohney — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:48:49 -0400

VoIP customers of Avaya, Cisco and Nortel should be on the lookout for patches today by 12 p.m. EDT to correct security vulnerabilities discovered by VoIPshield Laboratories.

According to Network World, VoIPShield earlier found and quietly reported the problems to the three vendors to give them time to develop patches for the flaws. Details of the vulnerabilities and vendor fixes are scheduled to be released in a simultaneous announcement between the three VoIP vendors and the security company. Two of the three vendors are expected to issue patches with the third to issue an advisory.

Vulnerabilities found affect VoIP PBXes and softphone software. If exploited, consequences could include remote code execution, unauthorized access, denial of service, and information harvesting.

Avaya, Cisco and Nortel were chosen by VoIPshield for testing because they represent the bulk of IP PBX sales in North America. Microsoft has been included in the next round of testing with results expected to be announced in about four months.

For more
- Network World reports Avaya, Cisco and Nortel VoIP vulnerabilities

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Newport Networks Riles Up VoIP Security Fears
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Nortel Adds VoIP Security Thru SecureLogix

CONTACT CENTER CORNER: UC KillerApp = Contact Center?

Doug Mohney — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:40:32 -0400

A number of people have circled contact centers as the "killer app" for unified communications (UC) with Information Week taking the latest look at how UC seems to be the perfect fit for the call center environment.

A good return on investment (ROI) is the attractor for putting UC into the contact center. There are plenty of metrics to monitor that relate to either cost savings or increased revenue, plus customer satisfaction measurements and service metrics such as first call resolution. The belief is UC technology can improve first call resolution, so you don't keep people on the phone as long.

The Big Idea for a UC-enabled contact center is having experts throughout the company directly plugged into the contact center escalation list. A UC-enabled contact center agent can tap into a real-time buddy list of corporate subject matter experts and pass off an appropriately screened call to be directly handled without having to escalate through a supervisor or arrange a call back.

Avaya has taken the reverse tactic, suggesting the enterprise could reach into the contact center to leverage its core expertise. A retail store could have a kiosk with a phone and a bar scanner. If you have a question about a product, scan it. The back-end software looks up the product and connects the call to the agent who knows all about the product, rather than having to dig through the store to find the on-site subject expert.

For more:
- Information Week examines Contact Centers As The UC Killer App

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Marketing mudding VoIP and UC; getting creative

Mon, 05 May 2008 06:59:55 -0400

VoIP marketing-speak gets slammed in an xchange piece reporting from Interop Las Vegas 2008. It is a "wealth conflicting lingo," forcing companies trying to get more creative in selling VoIP to the unbuying SMB masses.

On the creative front, ADTRAN is opening up more tiers in its channel program, in addition to launching an IP PBX and adding IP phones to its lineup. Smaller partners targeting 50-and-under users will be allowed to sell IP telephony solutions. Turns out the smaller VARs selling low-volume of ADTRAN gear already have an impressive foothold in the SMB market.

Avaya has added speech recognition for basic commands, as well as speech recognition technologies, with the know-how coming from Nuance. The "Freedom of Speech" capabilities include access to everything within Avaya's UC software through voice, and also adds speech access for IBM Lotus Domino 7.0. There's also Avaya HealthCheck, a proactive test to get a comprehensive view of what is going on within the communications network.

For more:
- xchange's view of the VoIP Scene at Interop
- Avaya's announcements for UC Freedom of Speech and HealthCheck

SPOTLIGHT: Interop shows interest in VoIP, virtualization, WAN

Thu, 01 May 2008 06:59:53 -0400

A quick on-site survey of 117 network engineers and IT executives at Interop in Vegas found that 24 percent of those surveyed were worried about unified communications monitoring challenges; virtualization placed first at 38 percent, while MPLS came in third at 14 percent.

The survey, conducted by Network Instruments and NetQoS, found VoIP adoption strong with 67 percent of organizations already have implemented the technology on their network. Most respondents have implemented Cisco VoIP solutions, followed by Avaya and Microsoft. Looking at the future, seven percent expect to implement VoIP within 12 months while an additional three percent will wait more than a year. The full summary of results can be found on NetQoS's site.

UC battle begins; Cisco, Microsoft Lead, says Infonetics

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:59:58 -0400

Infonetics Research is currently giving Cisco and Microsoft the lead in the battle for the unified communications market, but it's a battle that has just begun. Avaya and Nortel also are recognized in the hunt for more UC dollars, according to the "User Plans for Unified Communications: North America 2008" study.

Companies are not yet convinced Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 is the way to go. Instead, they're sticking with their existing IP PBXes and layering UC applications on top. Microsoft is seeing success by leveraging their penetration in email messaging and desktop environments but incumbent IP telephony players (code for Cisco) are also faring well.

More UC opportunities are anticipated for vendors because many buyers don't know who and/or what they will be buying two years out. Infonetics conducted interviews with 80 medium and large organizations based in North America, with more than 80 percent of those interviewed already adopting some type of UC solution.

In rating Avaya, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, and Nortel, there were no clear winners, with all vendors getting knocked down for interoperability. Companies interviewed said they were adopting UC for improving employee productivity. UC is expected to start as a convergence of voice and email, with companies taking on more complex projects over time.

Is the desk phone dead? There's some data to suggest a decline in the use of the desktop handset, but it may take up to five years to be sure of any trend

For more:
- Check out Infonetics "Cisco, Microsoft locked in battle for unified communications market" release

Microsoft OCS = Cisco entering IP

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:59:55 -0400

Over at UCstrategies.com, Jay Brandstadter is pondering how Microsoft's entry into the world of Unified Communications recalls Cisco's entry into the IP PBX world a decade ago. While Microsoft has pooh-poohed the PBX as old technology it wouldn't want to pursue, Jay has some déjà vu in the matter.

Cisco leaped into the PBX market in 1998 through an acquisition and built themselves into a leadership position through a combination of aggressive marketing, "ample" R&D, and going toe-to-toe with Avaya, Nortel, and other vendors. Cisco didn't create VoIP but they legitimized VoIP through their efforts and learned about telephony along the way. Customers were also willing to pay a premium for Cisco, replacing IBM in the adage "No one every got fired for buying …"

Enter Microsoft going after the PBX market at the low end with Response Point and up market with Office Communications Server (OCS). Microsoft's foothold into the enterprise world is through the desktop and software applications, while Cisco has its beachhead in the network domain.

Can Microsoft beat Cisco by pumping UC? Voice is already moving out of a closed environment and culture to the IT organization. Cisco wants to play in the UC world because it gives them a way to take more money off the table.

For more:
- Jay's blog on Microsoft UC PBX plans

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Microsoft OCS = Cisco Entering IP

Doug Mohney — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:28:17 -0400

Over at UCstrategies.com, Jay Brandstadter is pondering how Microsoft’s entry into the world of Unified Communications recalls Cisco’s entry into the IP PBX world a decade ago. While Microsoft has poo-poo’ed the PBX as old technology it wouldn’t want to pursue. Jay has some déjà vu in the matter.

Cisco leaped into the PBX market in 1998 through an acquisition and built themselves into a leadership position through a combination of aggressive marketing, “ample” R&D, and going head-on with Avaya, Nortel, and other vendors.Cisco didn’t create VoIP but they legitimized VoIP through their efforts and learned about telephony along the way. Customers were also willing to pay a premium for Cisco, replacing IBM in the adage, “No one every got fired for buying…“

Enter Microsoft going after the PBX market at the low end with Response Point and up market with Office Communications Server (OCS). Microsoft’s foothold into the enterprise is through the desktop and software applications, while Cisco has its beachhead in the network domain.

For more:
- Jay’s blog on Microsoft UC PBX plans

Related articles:
Microsoft Announces VoIP Partners for Response Point
Cisco leaps to No. 2 enterprise VoIP vendor

Asterisk--Threatening or Boring?

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:59:58 -0400

Digium CTO and founder Mark Spencer has people talking about Asterisk again. But you wonder if everyone heard the same speech.

Giving a keynote at the IT 360 conference in Toronto last week, Spencer said he wants people to see the open source software as a telephony engineering platform rather than just a vanilla VoIP IP PBX. He plugged SwitchVox, acquired by Digium last year, as an example of how people have taken the core Asterisk software and built innovative applications around it. Other apps cited include a phone-based interface to access eBay auctions to the "Popularity Dialer," a mechanism for placing pre-scheduled callers to users--just the sort of thing to get out of a bad date.

Chris von Neida of Axcess News declared that Avaya, Cisco, and Nortel "better watch out" and says the software is poised to disrupt a $7 billion dollar telecommunications market the way Linux put a beatdown on Sun and Microsoft. This despite the fact Spencer noted they only have 130 employees and it's hard to get carriers to respect you when you're that small.

On the other side of the spectrum, Sean Michael Kerner was bored; he's still waiting for an Asterisk appliance he saw at NXTcomm last year. He more rationally notes both Asterisk (the software) and Digium (the company) have a lot to do before they actually reach full potential.

None of these folks caught some of the more real world politics about who feels threatened by Digium. A number of companies in the Asterisk ecosystem got bent out of shape when Digium bought SwitchVox, seeing acquisition of the SMB turnkey solution as a threat to their own livelihoods.

And Digium is not really worried about the Avaya and Cisco and Nortels of the world as much as they worry about Microsoft and are irritated by the hybrid-hosted model of Fonality. Spencer has compared Microsoft to the Death Star and tends to use adjectives such as "evil" when it comes to hybrid-hosting.

For More:
- DevX News Asterisk more than IP PBX feature.
- Von Nieda's Asterisk Love piece
- Kerner's Asterisk is Boring blog posting

UTStarcom: 500 Billion Minutes Served

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:59:57 -0400

UTStarcom reports the company's mSwitch has carried more than 500 billion minutes of usage from the second quarter of 2005 through the fourth quarter of 2007. Using data from market researcher iLocus, the number would represent 16 percent of global VoIP traffic. In addition, iLocus ranked UTStarcom as the No. 1 vendor for global Class 5 VoIP minutes of usage for the 11th consecutive quarter, giving the company a cumulative 45 percent share of global traffic.

Next Generation Networks (NGN) is a core business area for UTStarcom, as the company capitalizes upon the continuing growth of Internet traffic and the end-of-life of legacy switches. Recent deployment contracts include PLDT in Asia and Jersey Telecom in Europe. UTStarcom includes a comprehensive feature set in the switch and also supports value-added applications such as unified messaging and communications and fixed mobile convergence.

For more:
- UTStarcom NGN Milestone Release
- UTStarcom mSwitch information

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