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Blue Jeans Network Rolls Out "MCU Killer" in the CloudMOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Blue Jeans Network, the leader in interoperable video conferencing services, today announced new pricing plans that give customers the opportunity to experience business grade multi-way videoconferencing in the cloud, without the high cost of entry and interoperability constraints of traditional on-premise bridging hardware (commonly known as multipoint control units, or MCUs). This new offering, which allows customers to license a variable number of concurrent connections (known as "virtual ports") from Blue Jeans, enables businesses of all sizes to get in the game at a much lower cost and skip the headaches associated with purchasing, installing, maintaining, and managing traditional MCUs. According to Wainhouse (News - Alert) Research, the video conferencing infrastructure market currently represents about $700M a year and is dominated by Cisco and Polycom. It is a market that has seen little fundamental technology change in the last ten years and correspondingly very small cost reductions in that time. "Our goal was to make video conferencing a practical alternative for businesses of any size. To do that, we knew we had to make it just as easy, open, and affordable as traditional audio-only bridging systems," said Krish Ramakrishnan, CEO of Blue Jeans Network. "By combining improved functionality over legacy MCU systems with the economics, ease and security of the cloud, our customers can now use video to improve their business collaboration. Better yet, money that previously would have been spent on MCUs can be reallocated to update or acquire more video conferencing endpoints." When comparing the five year total cost of ownership for customers with growing video conferencing needs, the Blue Jeans offering can be just ¼ the cost of a typical hardware-based MCU. And, beause the Blue Jeans cloud model is elastic, it also allows customers to right size and grow, rather than over size and waste. This is especially important as more desktop and mobile video conferencing endpoints get deployed, driving the need for ports beyond the range for which legacy MCUs were designed. Additionally, Blue Jeans offers unmatched interoperability. It is the only multipoint bridging solution that can allow a single video conference to include participants on room-based systems, desktops, and mobile devices that are running a variety of popular business and consumer video endpoints from Cisco, Polycom, Skype, Microsoft (News - Alert), Lifesize, Google, and more. Blue Jeans can also include audio-only participants on the phone. Ramakrishnan states, "Unlike other cloud and service 'marketechtures,' Blue Jeans took a dramatically different approach by designing our global multipoint bridging service from the ground up. Other providers have simply cobbled together a network of traditional MCUs. The reality is that in the end, their customers are still stuck with the same cost, complexity, and rigidity problems of the legacy MCU architecture. By applying concepts pioneered by companies like Google (News - Alert), Akamai, and Amazon, Blue Jeans has architected a scalable multipoint bridging solution that leverages off-the-shelf hardware and proprietary software to deliver a single global high performance virtual MCU." "Blue Jeans has taken a new approach to hosted video bridging," said Ira M. Weinstein, senior analyst and partner at Wainhouse Research. "Traditional hosted bridging providers leverage 3rd party, hardware-based video bridges designed to support the needs of a single company. Instead, Blue Jeans developed a software-based bridging platform that runs on standard industry servers and offers industry-leading interoperability. The result is an economical, highly scalable, and feature-rich hosted bridging offering that is turning heads throughout the industry." "Increased video conferencing usage to companies and individuals outside of our organization forced us to look for a video bridging solution," said Jerry Stucki, Office Services Manager / IT at Fenwick and West. "The quote we received to buy a hardware MCU was outside of our budget and prevented us from moving forward. When we learned of Blue Jeans' cloud-based MCU we were impressed with the ease-of-use and interoperability, and at a significantly lower cost of a hardware MCU, it made it an easy decision. Blue Jeans is a useful tool that makes hosting multipoint video calls easy." For more information about Blue Jeans Network please visit http://bluejeans.com/mcu. About Blue Jeans Network At Blue Jeans Network, our mission is to make video communications as easy and pervasive as audio communications, enabling more effective collaboration at work, at home, and on the road. Our cloud-based conferencing service makes this possible by enabling customers to connect with each other seamlessly any time, anywhere, and from practically any device. The Blue Jeans Network extends high quality video communications beyond the traditional boundaries of specialized conference rooms and into the mainstream, allowing individuals and employees throughout an enterprise to interact more effectively with each other, and with their customers, partners, suppliers, family, and friends. Blue Jeans Network is a private company headquartered in Mountain View, California. For more information go to: http://bluejeans.com.
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