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High Availability - Redundancy for All
July 7, 2014
by Barry Spielman, Marketing Manager, AudioCodes
In a recent post on the AudioCodes corporate blog, I discussed the need for businesses to remain on-line at all times. The ability to continue service should the connection to the service provider or on premise equipment go down – High Availability - is a critical one for all businesses, large and small alike. The blog discussed the various elements of High Availability, including survivability, resiliency and redundancy and the importance AudioCodes attaches to providing these capabilities in its Session Border Controllers (SBC), especially redundancy, across the range of sessions, from tens to thousands. Click here to read more.
Confencing - the Gateway Drug to UC?
May 7, 2014By Alan D. Percy, Senior Director of Marketing, AudioCodes
I've spent time with a number of our partners more recently discussing the opportunity to extend their Unified Communications practices – much of the conversation centered around helping businesses voice-enable their UC implementations. Many of the partners I've spoken with wonder how to get their end-customers to "test the waters" of Unified communications, without a huge commitment.
The challenge is – how do you get a business “hooked” on Lync voice?
Lync with Avaya - Taking a Closer Look
April 7, 2014By Alan D. Percy, Senior Director of Marketing, AudioCodes
Unified Communications has matured and is on the minds of many CIOs as a means to improve collaboration and reduce costs. But for those businesses with Avaya communications systems, the road to implementing UC can be daunting.
One solution that is getting a closer look is using Microsoft Lync with Avaya.
3 Steps to Understanding the Cost Saving Benefits of Microsoft Lync
March 18, 2014Guest blog by Curtis Johnstone, Unified Communication (UC) product architect with Dell Software and a Microsoft Lync MVP
As organizations realize the promised benefits of better collaboration and more efficient communications from their Unified Communication (UC) solution, the cost saving benefits are drawing more attention. UC solutions such as Microsoft Lync are being deployed to reduce travel costs, reduce existing telephony and web conferencing costs, and even reduce physical office space costs as remote workers are first class citizens and capable of effectively working from anywhere.
A recent survey commissioned by Dimensional Research on Lync Adoption and Challenges confirms that for organizations that have adopted Microsoft Lync:
• 80% hoped to save on their travel budgets
• 76% hoped to reduce costs of other web and teleconferencing tools
• 66% hoped to reduce meeting room space costs
• 55% hoped to reduce spending on traditional telephony costs (e.g. desk phones)
• 36% hoped to reduce email expenses
Despite these intentions the survey also revealed that over half of organizations did not know they were successful in achieving any of these desired outcomes!
Getting insight into how much cost savings a UC solution brings to the table is difficult. The dimensional research survey confirmed that close to 70% of companies that have adopted Lync cannot easily report on savings.
The primary challenge in determining UC cost savings are establishing comparable cost metrics for existing non-UC costs such as telephony, travel, and meeting rooms.
Lync in the Enterprise and Thinking "Big"
February 9, 2014By Alan Percy, Senior Director of Marketing, AudioCodes
As preparations come together for the upcoming Lync Conference in Las Vegas, one pattern seems to be emerging – Lync is making strong inroads in Enterprise. Just looking at the end-customers expected at the event and the scheduled presenters, you can see a long list of household names, most of which are home to over 10,000 employees. Large enterprises have some unique challenges, requiring their network architects to “think big”.
Enterprise Scaling and SIP Trunk Consolidation
January 14, 2014
AudioCodes announces high-capacity SBC for Enterprise SIP Trunking
By Alan Percy, Senior Director of Marketing, AudioCodes
Large global enterprises have made it clear that SIP is part of their future. The challenge for them is making the migration. With complex multi-site networks, an array of telecommunications suppliers, lengthy contracts and network infrastructure, things don’t happen overnight.
School District Passes the Lync Test
November 14, 2013
Proving that preparation will get you to the head of the class
By Alan Percy, Senior Director of Marketing, AudioCodes
Earlier this summer I wrote about the importance of network readiness and preparation in advance of enterprise-wide implementations of Microsoft Lync – quoting Benjamin Franklin “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail” Apparently the administrators at Allen Independent School District in Allen, Texas were paying attention in their American History class and heeded Ben’s advice as they began their Lync implementation.
I recently wrapped up a case study with David Spann, Executive Director of Technology for the Allen Independent School District, discussing the preparations he and the school district made prior to their implementation of Microsoft Lync. By the way, Allen ISD is no run-of-the-mill school district, with 11,800 student and teacher workstations, close to 1,000 computers in administrative offices, and over 2,000 tablets, the Allen ISD rivals many enterprises with a complex multi-site network.
Lync, Skype, Education and the Eraser
October 13, 2013
Lync and Skype enable distance learning, but how to keep your attention?
By Alan Percy, Senior Director of Marketing, AudioCodes
This week I had the opportunity to spend some time in Redmond, working with the Lync Marketing team on our 2014 plans in their new home in Building 5 on the Redmond campus. The facility is pretty impressive with gleaning new fixtures, plenty of glass and unusual “hangouts” for impromptu meetings. One thing that is hard to miss in the entrance of Building 5 is the “in your face” Skype video wall and signage.
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UC Video and Vanity
September 27, 2013
It’s not technology holding back video
By Alan Percy, Senior Director of Marketing, AudioCodes
A couple weeks ago I participated in a discussion at ITExpo West, discussing some of the aspects of “Living with Lync” – essentially a group of experienced Lync users, sharing their experiences with those that are early in their deployments. These conversations almost always start with discussing presence and exploration of etiquette on when it is appropriate to call or contact someone. Does green mean I can just call, or should I send an instant message first?
The Cloud and Lync Survivability
August 21, 2013
Migrating to the cloud requires a clear survivability strategy
By Alan Percy, Senior Director of Marketing, AudioCodes
As businesses examine their options for migrating to Unified Communications with Microsoft Lync, many are looking at cloud-based solutions as a means to reduce capital expenditures and shift to a pay-as-you-go subscription model. With Lync 2013, there are a number of hosted cloud, dedicated cloud and hybrid cloud options that move the communications solution from the end-customer premise and into the cloud.
However, moving to the cloud does put a significantly greater dependency on the wide area network (WAN), and without a survivability strategy, a simple firewall miss-configuration or network interruption can put even basic voice communications out of service.
