Nortel and IBM are bringing integrated voice over IP and multimedia applications to IBM's Power System server platform.Nortel and IBM on April 2 announced that they plan to extend their integrated suite of voice over IP and multimedia applications to IBM’s new Power System server platform.
An updated version of Nortel’s Software Communications System, which integrates IP PBX and unified communications functions with IBM’s Lotus Sametime, Lotus Notes and Domino collaboration capabilities, will move beyond its roots as a point product for the System i to run across IBM’s full portfolio of servers, including the Power Systems as well as IBM System x and Power Blades.
The suite, designed specifically for SMBs (small and midsize businesses) with between 30 and 500 employees, allows customers to exploit the reliability, scale and fast processing of IBM’s new Power Systems for their VOIP applications.
“Power Systems are the most available, reliable real-time processing platforms in the world. While business applications are transaction-centric or document-centric, communications is human-centric and it requires real-time processing. That is why this is a marriage made in heaven,” said Lori McLean, general manager of the Nortel/IBM Alliance in Toronto.
The Nortel Software Communications System on the Power Systems runs in a separate partition, so that it doesn’t have to compete for processing power with the four or five other applications SMBs typically run on their systems. “That allows us to do real-time collaboration,” said Richard Solosky, IBM Alliance global product marketing director at Nortel, in Boston.
Nortel designed the open-source SCS to be simple to operate and use. The second release of the software incorporates additional ease-of-use features based on customer feedback.
“It’s simple to manage and maintain with an easy-to-use Web interface. It’s pre-integrated with Notes, Sametime or Microsoft Exchange. One partner found it took about 15 minutes to get it running with 120 users,” McLean said.
The software, which will be available through both Nortel and IBM VARs, is also priced simply on a per-seat basis. “It’s dead simple in every aspect of it,” she added.
The software provides IP PBX communications using industry standard SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) signaling along with presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing, unified messaging, and integration with a range of third-party applications. It supports both soft and hard clients and PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) gateways.
Nortel’s Software Communications System Release 2 is due April 17 on the Power Systems platforms, and versions will be available for the Power X and Power Blades in the second half of the year.
To date Nortel and IBM have certified four VARs to install and support the suite on System i servers. The two vendors hope to qualify 20 national partners to market the software on the Power Systems by the end of the year.
