State of Delaware Adopts SBCs to Enable Centralized Communications

By Paula Bernier

“As centralization becomes the model in this economy we’re trying to bring more in,” he says.

Cabry’s department treats each of the state’s agencies as its own customer. That includes 16,000 individuals working out of a couple hundred buildings. When you include the K-12 schools involved in this scenario, it totals about 100,000 people served at about 600 sites, he says.

In its ongoing move toward a more efficient and cohesive network and services, the department recently installed Acme Packet Net-Net 4250 session border controllers, which allow the state’s Avaya (News - Alert) PBXs and Cisco VoIP handsets and IP PBXs to work together and allow for common services in the core. The SBCs also act as a firewall between the various government agencies.

Additionally, the SBCs allow the government network and its users to connect to the rest of the world via a SIP service from Verizon (News - Alert) called the Verizon Burstable Enterprise Shared Trunking service. This allows the state to save money by centralizing its connection to the PSTN and reduce link costs for multiple government agencies. The centralized SIP trunking enables the department to provide a hosted voicemail platform with unified messaging services throughout the state and eliminates the need for additional voicemail systems, maintenance and administration expenses. Cabry says the department has Microsoft (News - Alert) Exchange UC at multiple data centers.

In the future, the SBCs also will allow the department to deliver integrated data, voice and video applications to various state agencies, enable connectivity to PBXs in neighboring states such as Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey and ease communication in case of a disaster.

“After a series of robust technical demonstrations, we determined that Acme Packet (News - Alert) Net-Net SBCs addressed our interoperability requirements, offered the most advanced functionality and were the best fit overall with our vision,” says Cabry. “The breadth of knowledge, support and VoIP technical expertise that Acme Packet brought to the table cemented our belief that deploying SBCs in our network not only meets our communications requirements today, but also paves the way for additional applications, like videoconferencing, in the future.”

Adds Seamus Hourihan (News - Alert), executive vice president of marketing and product management for Acme Packet: “More and more government organizations at both the state and federal level are seeing the benefits of deploying SBCs in their networks and are relying on Acme Packet, as the SBC market leader, to provide the needed security, interoperability and scalability. At the forefront of this trend, the State of Delaware is realizing the practical benefit of reduced operating costs while at the same time delivering trusted, high-quality, IP interactive communications.” IT

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