Branching into the rapidly growing multi-service business gateway market, an Israel-based Voice over Internet Protocol company today introduced a new modular, all-in-one device that’s designed to help cable operators offering IP-Centrex and SIP trunking services.

 

Officials from AudioCodes say their “Mediant 1000 Multi-Services Business Gateway (News - Alert)” combines a media gateway, session border controller, data router and firewall, local area network switch, wide-area network access, standalone survivability and on-board general purpose server.

 

The solutions are becoming increasingly critical for small businesses and enterprise branch offices as they seek to meet voice and data connectivity requirements, analysts say.
 

“The integration of multiple networking functions in the same hardware platform simplifies the definition of the Service Provider demarcation point, and helps enterprises manage their network infrastructure using fewer vendors,” said Joe McGarvey, principal analyst of carrier IP telephony infrastructure at Current Analysis.

 

According to research firm In-Stat (News - Alert), the market for multi-service business gateways will grow from $1.2 Billion this year to $2.6 Billion in 2011.

 

McGarvey says that AudioCodes’ (News - Alert) new solution is ahead of the technology curve.

 

A “strong feature of the AudioCodes MSBG is enabling secured SIP trunking using IP to IP session mediation, an integrated SBC and media transcoding, following the market trend of moving to SIP trunking and gradually replacing existing costly PSTN connections,” McGarvey said.

 

Specifically, the Mediant 1000 MSBG is designed to help operators with installation and manageability, AudioCodes officials say. It delivers a cost-effective network device to customers, eliminating the “finger pointing” that comes with multiple stacked elements from different vendors, they say. For large distributed enterprises, the Mediant 1000 MSBG is designed to create secure and reliable inter-branch communications with an integrated product, they say.

 

The company’s vice president of marketing and product management, Lior Aldema, says the new MSBG marks a turning point for AudioCodes, moving beyond the VoIP market to business communications.

 

“The Mediant 1000 MSBG will expand the AudioCodes offering for our channel partners, system integrators, and service providers,” Aldema said. “Independent software vendors and OEM customers are utilizing the integrated Mediant 1000 general purpose server to host their own or third party applications such as IP-PBX software, unified communications applications, Microsoft (News - Alert) mediation server, and other innovative types of applications.”