The Evolution of SBCs to the Cloud and Edge: Ribbon Takes Virtualization to the Next Level

By Matthew Vulpis, Content Contributor  |  December 13, 2021

With the recent rise of digitization, technology has become an essential part of businesses communication strategies. To ensure collaboration, productivity, and connection regardless of location or medium, cloud communications have become the digital backbone of businesses . Whether it’s sharing status updates with colleagues, brainstorming an upcoming presentation, or providing vital customer service, cloud communications are now a critical part of reliable communications for organizations.

Cloud communications today cover a variety of communication mediums, like team messaging, video conferencing, and voice over IP (VoIP), that are accessible from any location and device. This strategy is being rapidly adopted in order to keep up with the advent of new communication devices and applications. Just as of this year, 42 percent of companies have increased cloud application and unified communication adoption, with 67 percent of organizations moving significant portions of their unified communications solutions to the cloud.

However, a cloud communications strategy requires an ample amount of different technologies, which can make it difficult for a company to leverage all the equipment efficiently. This is where Session Border Controllers (SBCs) come into play. An SBC is a special-purpose device that protects and regulates IP communications flows, and as the name implies, SBCs are deployed at network borders to control IP communications sessions.

While originally conceived to protect and control VoIP networks, SBCs are now used to regulate all forms of real-time communications, including VoIP, IP video, text chat, and collaboration sessions, which makes them an attractive piece of technology for businesses in the age of cloud communications.

Today,  Ribbon Communications Inc., a global provider of real-time communications software and IP optical networking solutions to service providers, enterprises, and critical infrastructure sectors, announced the availability of its new SBC CNe (Cloud Native edition) Edge, which leverages next-generation technology to deliver increased performance and customer value.

“Customers including Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and large enterprises are eager to transform their business practices and improve their operational frameworks,” said Tony Scarfo (News - Alert), EVP & General Manager, Cloud & Edge Business Unit, Ribbon. “Our SBC CNe Edge, built on proven cloud technology, enables them to become more dynamic, agile and efficient by leveraging cloud-native features including automation and continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD).”

The SBC CNe Edge is designed for the cloud. It leverages industry-standard Docker containers and Kubernetes orchestration, which enables continuous upgrades, improved resiliency, and reuse of existing enterprise management tools. It scales elastically to 10,000 sessions (up to 100,000 users), dynamically consuming compute resources based on call volume. This elastic design, combined with efficient use of compute resources, can cut cloud compute costs in half versus alternatives, helping customers realize significant energy savings.

SBC CNe Edge provides an intuitive web management interface with built-in templates for popular cloud services, IP-PBXs, and telecom providers. It operates in concert with Ribbon Application Management Platform (RAMP), making it easy for multisite enterprises to centrally manage and monitor a variety of Ribbon security elements across hundreds or thousands of locations.

On top of this, earlier this year, leading data, analytics, and insights platform GlobalData identified Ribbon’s SBC portfolio as a leader in Session Border Controller solutions. The addition of the Unified Communications (News - Alert)-optimized SBC CNe Edge to the portfolio further extends Ribbon’s market leadership and enables customers to migrate their communications workloads to private, public, or hybrid clouds to secure cloud communications and collaboration voice calling applications such as Microsoft (News - Alert) Teams on Azure and Zoom Phone.

“Ribbon’s embrace of cloud-native strategies helps to strengthen its already enviable SBC portfolio,” said John Byrne, Service Director, Telecom Technology and Software, GlobalData. “The company has been at the forefront of supporting the migration to high growth cloud-based collaboration services such as Microsoft Teams Direct Routing and Zoom Phone (News - Alert), and the SBC CNe Edge should further help organizations maximize agility, security, and economics.”




Edited by Luke Bellos
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