It is amazing to watch how technologies, even those involving what many would consider “network plumbing”, go from being niceties to necessities. Interestingly, two that fall into this category are Session Initial Protocol (SIP) and Web Real-time Communication (WebRTC).

The first is the enabler of cost-effective IP communications which is how we as users experience such things as presence and thanks to Session Boarder Controllers (SBCs) is a key enabler for bringing legacy communications to state-of-the art, made possible by things like transcoding. Additionally, they have proved invaluable for security reasons while SIP Trunking has been instrumental in propelling the transition to all IP networks, and have facilitated easier and enhanced access to the cloud. SIP has taken a bit of time to be adopted in a big way by enterprises but to say that its adoption is accelerating as a key enabler of all aspects of unified communications (UC) might actually be a bit of an understatement. 

As for WebRTC, the enabler of real-time communications from a web browser without the need for plug-ins—while it may not be living up to its advanced hype of a few years ago as the next big thing—is making an impact. In fact, visit any communications industry hackathon and count how many of the hacks involve WebRTC.  Plus, also note that many of those hacks are not aimed at consumer services but actually are for enterprise apps with enabling omni-channel contact centers emerging as the low hanging fruit in the market. 

In short, SIP and WebRTC are perfect complements for accelerating the desire—I would argue need—for enterprises to have  reliable and secure multiple media real-time interactions both for internal and customer facing use. What this means is you need to know how and why they work so well together and what you need to be thinking about in introducing both of them into your operations.

Realities are that for enterprises ready to take the WebRTC plunge, those SBCs can make the move easy and extremely productive if they are aware of and follow best practices.  Deployed at the edge of the network, as noted, SBCs can be invaluable for ensuring real-time multiple media interactions are conducted safely and with reliable and compelling user experiences. They facilitate sessions, recognize and neutralize threats, and serve as the bridge between legacy systems and those that are truly next generation in terms of features and functions.   

As SBC and networking solutions provider SONUS explains, there are three key factors IT departments need to be aware of:

• WebRTC must integrate seamlessly into established SIP environments
• Enterprises and service providers need to be judicious about network security to prevent attacks over WebRTC.
• WebRTC will open up new revenue streams and means to improve customer satisfaction

Those three factors and a few more are going to be the topic of a forthcoming the webinar, Three Ways to Tame the Wild West of WebRTC.  To be held April 21, 2015 11:00AM EDT/8:00 PDT, you are invited to join me and David Tipping (News - Alert), Vice President and General Manager, SBC Business, SONUS as we explore in detail how SBCs can make your implementation of WebRTC a success.  

WebRTC is ready, willing and able to provide significant value-added in your enterprise and success is a matter of finding out from experts the things you should consider in evaluating and deploying SIP and WebRTC-based omni-channel capabilities.