Nortel Networks Ltd. has announced a series of new products and upgrades to help enterprises deliver multimedia applications to workers out of the office.
“”What resellers should see when they look at our portfolio is that they’ve got more flexibility than ever in being able to configure and
develop solutions for customers,”” said Anne Swenson, the company’s marketing manager for enterprise multimedia solutions.
The solutions, which will be available this quarter, take advantage of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), a text-based protocol based on HTTP and MIME used for integrated voice-data applications.
Nortel is seeing an increased demand by corporations to offer better communications services to employees who are either road warriors or work out of branch offices, she said.
No prices were provided.
The announcements include two new products:
• BayStack 5520 Ethernet Switches are what Nortel says are the first stackable Gigabit switches providing Power-over-Ethernet for mid- and large-sized enterprises. “”Customers have been forced to choose between buying a Gigabit switch or Power-over-Ethernet,”” said Swenson. “”We put them together in the same box to eliminate having to make a choice.””
• Communications Server 2100 for large enterprises that need carrier-class reliability. It provides enhanced support for SIP and new wireless IP telephones.
Other announcements dealt with enhancements to existing Nortel products including:
• Release 4.0 software for Communications Server 1000, an IP-based PBX that has been enhanced to increase support from 10,000 to 15,000 clients per call server;
• Release 3.0 software for Multimedia Communications Server 5100, a multimedia applications server. The software’s new capabilities include chat, multiparty videoconferencing and Web collaboration.
While the standard software can handle up to 60,000 users, a micro version is available for companies with as few as 50 users;
• Release 22.0 of Nortel’s Alteon operating system, which includes SIP load balancing.
These products will be sold through Nortel enterprise resellers including telcos such as Bell Canada.
“”Demand is starting to grow”” among small and medium-sized companies for rich media solutions, noted Phil Lightstone, a principal in Bell’s business solutions practice in Toronto. The increased adoption of voice-over-IP is one indication of that demand, he said as companies seek ways of integrating voice and data networks.
Over time as companies see how easy VoIP can be delivered when properly installed they’ll increasingly move to finding ways to take advantage of using video over networks, he predicted.
