As more and more goes from physical to digital, this week Ribbon announced the completion of their transformation of their Session Border Controller Software edition (SBC SWe) and its availability through Amazon Web Services (News - Alert) (AWS).
SBCs have been around since the turn of the century and are an essential element of Voice over IP (VoIP), ensuring sessions are initiated and completed in a highly secure and performant way.
Part of what makes up Ribbon Communications (News - Alert) after years of consolidation of Real Time Communications (RTC) tech companies and the evolution of their platform as one which serves hundreds of Communications Service Providers (CSPs) and carriers, and thousands of large global enterprises and organizations, are multiple SBC pioneers, including NextTone, Reef Point, NextPoint, Sonus and Edgewater who have pooled their IP and experience over the years.
The company said in their announcement the SBC SWe “is now available with a ‘Pay-As-You-Go’ licensing model in the AWS Marketplace.
“Our new Pay-As-You-Go licensing offering really simplifies the purchasing decision and ordering process for the SBC SWe in the AWS Marketplace,” said Tony Scarfo (News - Alert), Executive Vice President and General Manager, Cloud and Edge Business Unit at Ribbon. “We want to make it as easy as possible for Amazon customers to get the same advanced collaboration capabilities and protection that our SBC SWe delivers to enterprises and service providers around the world in their private clouds.”
This is a growing relationship. In 2019, for example, Ribbon announced its SBC SWe’s support of Amazon Chime Voice Connector, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) service that enables enterprises to migrate their telephony workloads to AWS. (Amazon Chime is a communications service that allows users to meet, chat, and place business phone calls inside and outside of their organization from a single application with the security provided by AWS).
Ribbon’s SBC SWe provides Amazon Chime customers security, high availability and interoperability for Voice over IP (VoIP) traffic being sent to and from Amazon Chime Voice Connector. The new Pay-As-You-Go licensing model aligns with the consumption model that is required to purchase Amazon Chime Voice Connector.
This licensing model allows enterprises who purchase Amazon Chime Voice Connector for SIP Trunking (which requires an SBC) to also conveniently and cost-effectively purchase the Ribbon SBC SWe in AWS Marketplace. In addition to supporting Amazon Chime Voice Connector, the Ribbon SBC SWe can be deployed using Pay-As-You-Go licensing to support all other SBC use cases in AWS, such as Microsoft Teams Direct Routing, Contact Centers, Unified Communications (News - Alert) and SIP Trunking.
“Ribbon’s enterprise customers should derive significant value by deploying the company’s SBC SWe on AWS, such as extended global reach and the ability to easily integrate with public cloud-based services,” said Greg Collins, Founder and Principal Analyst, Exact Ventures. “Offering the Ribbon SBC SWe in a consumption-based licensing model provides enterprises with even greater flexibility in addressing their communications and collaboration needs.”
The SBC SWe Pay-As-You-Go model will be sold through qualified Ribbon channel partners, including a leading systems integrator, Eastwind Communications (News - Alert).
“There is a pent-up demand from enterprises for cost-effective, consumption-based, carrier-grade communications solutions like the SBC SWe – so we are delighted to work with Ribbon and AWS to make this available in a secure environment like AWS,” said Tony Agostinelli, President of Eastwind. “We have a long history of working with Ribbon and have had great success selling their solutions. The SBC SWe’s new licensing option in AWS Marketplace will only make it a more attractive offering.”
A SBC is a device commonly installed in VoIP networks to control the signaling. A session is a call between two parties and can consist of information of call or video along with data. Border refers to a point of differentiation between two networks.
SBCs allow only authorized sessions to pass through the border and acts as a router. The controller can tame all types of interactions including VoIP, IP video, video calling, text chat and video collaborating, text messaging and more.
Benefits of using SBCs include security, usability, and economy. The SBC safeguards service providers and enterprises databases from any unauthorized access and replaces the need for secure VPN connections.
According to one analyst firm, the SBC (Session Border Controller) market size is anticipated to record a CAGR of around 8.5% over the forecast period i.e. 2020-2028.
Growth in SBCs is related to the popularity of SIP Trunking, and according to another analyst firm’s forecast in 2019, the SIP Trunking Services market worldwide is projected to grow by US$7.8 Billion, guided by a compounded growth of 10.8% and is poised to reach over US$9.5 Billion by the year 2025.
Arti Loftus is an experienced Information Technology specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the research, writing, and editing industry with many published articles under her belt.Edited by
Maurice Nagle
