Unified Communications

Yeastar to showcase Contact Centre Solution at UCX 2024

Yeastar, a provider of Unified Communications (UC) solutions and a continuous driver of UCaaS and CCaaS in recent years, has announced its participation in UCX 2024, which is being held in London from 2-3 October 2024. At the exhibition, Yeastar is poised to unveil its Contact Center Solution, underpinning its commitment to the user experience and delivering enhanced, full-fledged and user-centric communication experiences from London to across the globe. UCX 2024 is set to be a best-in-class event in the realm of unified communications and collaboration, and since 2008, it has supported over 150,000 IT professionals. This year it will not only spotlight the latest UC market-leading trends and cutting-edge technologies transforming how next-gen businesses communicate both internally and externally, but it will also feature a comprehensive range of topics including data, AI and automation, customer experience, IT operations and service management, and more. Yeastar offers the following 'Easy-first' solutions: Yeastar Cloud Phone System: Yeastar offers a cost-effective cloud solution to eliminate high IT expenses, hardware maintenance, and complex setups. Users can benefit from a unified experience with advanced cloud functionalities and real-time central management for a streamlined, ready-to-deploy system. Ideal for both large enterprise and start-ups, Yeastar’s flexible subscription plan and enterprise-grade UCaaS infrastructure ensure seamless connection and collaboration across any device and location, maximising ROI.• Yeastar Central Management: a centralised platform to simplify UCaaS service delivery and on-premises device management.• High Availability Solution: N+1 High Availability with four full-fledged deployment choices and enterprise-grade redundancy.• Microsoft Teams Integration: Embded app with all enterprise-grade features (and thus no need for a Teams phone license or Microsoft Calling Plan).• Bulk Auto-provisioning: Configuring IP Phone in clicks, supporting 270+ mainstream IP models.• CRM-friendly Integration: Seamless integration with popular CRM platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, etc. The latest offering is the Yeastar Contact Center Solution, a multi-tasking solution designed for efficiency. With an ‘Easy-first’ approach, it enhances agent productivity through robust call and chat report management. Advanced call centre and omnichannel capabilities integrate seamlessly with SMS, Facebook, and WhatsApp via APIs, streamlining workflows and saving valuable time. “Stepping out is crucial, and we’re excited to connect with industry pioneers and gather valuable insights at the UCX2024,” says Arya Zhou, Head of Global Sales at Yeastar. “We are eager to showcase Yeastar's future-proof, scenario-oriented products; especially the brand-new Contact Center solution, designed to meet businesses’ daily communication and collaboration needs. Yeastar is looking forward to engaging with visitors, understanding their challenges, delving into their needs, and exploring opportunities to drive the future of Unified Communications together.” Yeastar will be at Stand R36. For more from UCX, click here.

CMC Networks deploys satellite connectivity for business continuity

CMC Networks, a global Tier 1 service provider, has added Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellite connectivity to its portfolio of solutions. This multi-orbit approach addresses the diverse connectivity needs of remote regions and challenging environments across Africa and the Middle East, removing the limits on digital transformation. On 15 March 2024, Africa saw another connectivity incident involving a major internet outage affecting West and Central Africa, caused by a break in submarine cable systems. Four of the nine subsea cables that connect South Africa to the rest of the world were reported as damaged due to incidents on either side of the continent. During this time, South Africa’s internet infrastructure also experienced significant issues. This event underscored the vulnerabilities of submarine cables, which are critical infrastructures for internet connectivity across continents​​. CMC Networks uses multiple submarine cable systems and therefore could divert traffic and use optimal routes to bypass the outage. The company’s satellite solutions enable wide-reaching, high-performance and resilient networking, utilising constellations from world-leading providers. The distributed nature of the constellations adds redundancy and minimises downtime on customers’ networks, improving business continuity and enhancing user experiences, reducing the reliance on subsea cable infrastructure. “Our goal at CMC Networks is to accelerate digital transformation across Africa and the Middle East, no matter the location. With the addition of LEO, MEO and GEO satellite solutions, we can provide seamless connectivity across geographies and during network and power outages,” says Marisa Trisolino, CEO at CMC Networks. “The recent damage to subsea cables and the subsequent disruption to businesses across South Africa has highlighted the need for a wide variety of connectivity options and digital infrastructure that has the resiliency to ensure business continuity during unforeseen events. Our satellite solutions enable service providers and enterprises to manage risk and maximise uptime.” Its LEO satellites sit just over 1,000km above the Earth’s surface, providing ultra-low latency connectivity for a primary or backup connectivity solution, and consumer Internet use cases such as high-frequency trading, high-performance computing applications and more, with a round-trip delay (RTD) of +-80ms. The MEO satellites have an altitude of 8,000km, with 150ms low latency connectivity and a larger Earth view. This provides fibre-like broadband performance for enterprise-grade networking. The GEO satellites orbit 36,000km from Earth, maintaining a fixed position. These satellites provide reliable connectivity for less-latency-sensitive applications and services such as broadcast TV and low-speed data communication. “Recent outages show that service providers and enterprises need diverse connectivity options. Networking is mission critical and networking strategies must include multiple backup connectivity that can be delivered with a simple and seamless model,” says Geoff Dornan, CTO at CMC Networks. “Our network supports a wide range of LEO, MEO and GEO use cases across Africa and the Middle East which is a real value-add for customers looking to add additional redundancy to their networks. You can’t predict what will happen across your network, but you can be proactive and prepare to adapt.”

Spirent Communications has announced that Indonesia’s new Telecommunication Equipment Testing Center (BBPPT) has selected it to conduct high-speed Ethernet network equipment and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing. Utilising Spirent TestCenter enables labs to facilitate advanced testing features that include high scalability, automation, and real-time reporting for complex network systems. Located in Tapos, Depok, West Java, the BBPPT is being developed by Indonesia’s Communication and Information Ministry. The laboratory will be completed by the end of the year and begin operations early in 2024 to provide telecommunication equipment and device testing. The aim of the centre is to be able to protect and maintain the quality of equipment, and guarantee that tools and devices intended for use in Indonesia meet the exacting technical requirements demanded by next generation communications networks. The company’s partner on the project, Unitronic Jaya, says that Spirent was chosen by the BBPPT because it is recognised as a leader in the field of network testing, and is backed by the strong local knowledge and IP network engineering expertise of its partner. Churn Hoong, Country Manager for Spirent’s Southeast Asia region, says, “We are pleased to be working with the rapidly developing BBPPT project to help ensure high-level IP network testing services that will benefit Indonesia and neighbouring countries. Spirent TestCenter will play an important role by providing the labs with accurate and reliable test results that are essential for ensuring the quality and performance of the ICT equipment.” The Spirent TestCenter is an end-to-end test solution delivering high performance with deterministic answers. Service providers, network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) and enterprises use it to test, measure, and validate its networks and deploy services with confidence – from traditional performance testing to rigorous analysis of virtualisation, cloud computing, mobile backhaul, and high-speed Ethernet. BBPPT is the master laboratory under the MCIT in Indonesia. When completed, it will be one of the sophisticated in Asia, with six laboratories outfitted with cutting-edge equipment to provide a testing ground for next-gen communications equipment.

Avnet, Schneider Electric and Iceotope deliver Micro Data Centre

Avnet, Schneider Electric and Iceotope have been joined by Lenovo to deploy its Lenovo ThinkSystem SR670 servers in a highly scalable, GPU-rich, liquid-cooled micro data centre solution. Sealed at the chassis level, the new solution enables artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads to be deployed in close proximity to the location of data generation and use regardless of how harsh the environment is. Avnet is providing the integration services for the solution on behalf of Schneider Electric and Iceotope to help them deploy globally to a wide range of customers. The unique capabilities and technologies Avnet brings to the partnership include: Conversion of the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR670 to liquid cooling and integration of Schneider Electric’s APC NetShelter liquid-cooled enclosure systemSoftware development to deliver Out of Band Management (OOBM) capability. Through Witekio, an Avnet company, Avnet is working with Iceotope to offer a RedFish-compliant solution that is enabled by Avnet’s MaaxBoard IoT single board computerA full portfolio of lifecycle services such as warranty support, field installation and maintenance, advance exchange, repair/refurbishment, and IT asset disposition and value recovery The groundbreaking solution is based on Iceotope’s Ku:l 2 liquid-cooled chassis which provides unique value by completely isolating the critical IT from the environment with a perfectly sealed and resilient enclosure. This enables secure and tamper-proof computing, storage and networking, providing an extra level of physical and I/O connective security in the most extreme locations and climatic conditions. With Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure IT solution, remote monitoring and management is taken to a new level enabling proactive insights on critical assets that impact the health and availability of IT environments, so infrastructure performance is optimised and risk is minimised. “Liquid cooled servers that are cost effectively deployed at scale will revolutionise the server industry as well as computing in general by cutting energy usage, noise and space requirements,” says Scott MacDonald, President, Avnet Integrated. “As a leader in industrial solutions, Avnet Integrated is uniquely positioned to simplify the deployment of this solution for our customers in collaboration with Schneider Electric, Iceotope and Lenovo. Our ability to solve complex problems on a global scale for large customers while closely collaborating with all partners is what differentiates us as an advanced systems integrator.” David Craig, CEO Iceotope comments, “The infrastructure to provision edge expansion will be installed where space provides, outside traditional data centres – we call this the Fluid Edge. Iceotope is dedicated to ensuring the durability, reliability, efficiency and long-term viability of Fluid Edge facilities, where air cooled approaches have a limited future. Partnering with Lenovo to bring the Ku:l Micro DC to life has accelerated our capability to provide a proven and warranty-backed, chassis-level immersion cooled HPC design solution to this expanding market.” Steven Carlini, VP Innovation and Data Centre, Schneider Electric states: “This integrated, immersion cooled solution brings highly intensive and efficient edge computing capabilities that “drop into” applications from the edge to large scale HPCs. The ability to bring these ready-to-deploy liquid cooled solutions to market proves the strength of the Avnet, Schneider Electric and Iceotope partnership.”

Taeknizon chooses Neutrality.one to connect Cloud Deployments

Neutrality.one has been selected by Taeknizon to connect its cloud services with software-defined wide-area networking (SDWAN). The solution enables enterprises to enhance their Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) services and evolve towards internet and private cloud architecture. Taeknizon’s customers benefit from greater visibility and control over their operations by gaining the ability to connect to the cloud with secure and high-performance networking. neutrality.one will provide Taeknizon with SDWAN underlay and overlay services to enable an end-to-end experience from the edge to the cloud. The solution supports users as they seamlessly migrate from traditional on premises services or public cloud to private cloud infrastructure. “The rapid adoption of cloud services across Asia-Pac and the Middle East is driving demand for elastic, scalable and secure networking. Enterprises across these regions accelerated cloud adoption in 2020 and in 2021 they’re recognizing the benefits of going beyond MPLS and adopting SDWAN. Our goal is to make that migration as simple and seamless as possible,” comments George Szlosarek, CEO at neutrality.one. “Together with Taeknizon, we’re helping enterprises to maximize the potential of the cloud and remove any limits on their agility and scalability. They benefit from a smooth transition to SDWAN that underpins cloud-first strategies.” Taeknizon is a fast-growing private cloud service company headquartered in Singapore with operations and infrastructure in UAE, Qatar, KSA, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, India and the US. Taeknzion’s Taekni Cloud offers a variety of services via its private cloud offerings such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Backup as a Service (BaaS), Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), Security as a Service (SECaaS). In addition, Taeknizon’s services cover cyber security solutions, consultancy and data center solutions. Taeknizon’s zero CAPEX pay as you go modeleliminates the need for CAPEX investments, with a predictable monthly subscription cost to help customers streamline their IT budgets. Taeknizon offers an integrated enterprise-risk management approach, with agile and high-level resiliency, while balancing business service availability requirements and risk tolerance. “Growth in cloud adoption is matched with the need for a new networking model. Our enterprise customers want to connect and get the most out of their cloud deployments and SDWAN can be a big part of that. By working with neutrality.one, we’re expanding the solutions we can offer enterprise customers and offering them a flexible foundation for connecting their applications and services,” says Anithan Chandran, Chief Operating Officer at Taeknizon. “The team at neutrality.one are experts in networking the cloud and understand what it takes to deliver reliable, resilient and secure connectivity. We look forward to growing together and helping more enterprises make the move to the cloud.”    Over the last 12 months, neutrality.one has been building out its global networking capabilities and partnering with world-leading software-defined networking providers. It has established a point of presence in datamena in Dubai and is efficiently scaling its operations locally and globally. It is dedicated to the acceleration of network transformation and maximizing the value of SDWAN for the enterprises in the Middle East and Asia-Pac.

Semtech and AWS collaborate on AWS IoT Core for LoRaWAN

Semtech Corporation is now working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to integrate the LoRaWAN protocol on the network server with AWS IoT Core, AWS's managed cloud service. This allows connected devices and systems to easily and securely interact with cloud applications and other devices. AWS IoT Core for LoRaWAN is a fully managed service that enables enterprise IoT developers to connect low-power wireless devices and systems to AWS through Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) without having to develop or operate their own LoRaWAN server. This simplifies the development of IoT solutions that take advantage of the long range, low power consumption, and security of Semtech's LoRa® ICs and the LoRaWAN protocol. To get started with AWS IoT Core for LoRaWAN, IoT developers can obtain AWS-qualified gateways running the LoRaWAN protocol from the AWS Partner Device Catalog and select a range of LoRaWAN CertifiedTM solutions on the LoRa Alliance website. The AWS Management Console allows developers to quickly register gateways with AWS IoT Core for LoRaWAN by deploying the service with its unique identifier and selecting LoRaWAN as its radio frequency. To enroll devices with LoRa ICs, developers simply enter the vendor-provided credentials, identifiers, and security keys into the console and follow the configuration instructions. In addition, AWS IoT Core for LoRaWAN provides a variety of device management capabilities, including security and plug-and-play for AWS IoT Analytics. "Based on our collaboration with Semtech, IoT developers can use LoRaWAN to simplify the development process and provide their applications with long-distance data connectivity," says Dirk Didascalou, Vice President IoT at Amazon Web Services. "It also allows you to provide energy-saving devices with increased security. We are excited to work with Semtech to accelerate the adoption of IoT and LoRaWAN by our customers so they can deliver innovation faster and focus on their core mission to increase business value." Developers can also access Semtech's LoRa cloud, a simple API-based service that integrates easily with AWS IoT Core for LoRaWAN and provides the ability to locate any LoRaWAN-enabled device—including devices that use Semtech's recently introduced LoRa Edge power-saving geolocation platform. "AWS IoT Core for LoRaWAN accelerates the development of IoT applications by providing a plug-and-play experience," comments Mohan Maheswaran, President and CEO of Semtech. "In addition, working with AWS enables enterprise customers who use AWS to take full advantage of LoRaWAN as the protocol continues to attract great interest in the IoT market across a wide range of industries, from smart home and communities to asset tracking."

Kao Data announces strategic appointments for its next phase of growth

Kao Data has announced two senior director appointments to underpin its next phase of campus growth and bolster its leadership team. Following the recent appointment of CEO Lee Myall, Rod Faul joins as Senior Client Director from VIRTUS, and Tom Bethell joins as Business Development Director from Next Generation Data (NGD), bringing over 40-years combined data centre, HPC and telco experience to the business. “I am delighted to be welcoming both Rod and Tom to Kao Data,” says Lee Myall, CEO, Kao Data. “By strategically investing in our team and differentiating ourselves through the talent of our people, we’re ensuring the right foundations are in place to deliver our vision of becoming the UK’s world-class home for high performance colocation, HPC and AI, and support the company’s next phase of growth and development.” With 30-years experience within the telco and data centre sectors Rod Faul joins Kao Data from VIRTUS where he, and the sales team, were instrumental in growing the company’s data centre portfolio. His large-scale commercial contract wins contributed to transforming the organisation from a single location data centre operator to a brand now responsible for operating 100MW’s of capacity. Prior to that, Rod’s experience across telco also led him to secure sales of more than £70m in revenue for organisations including Level3 and Telefonica. “During a time of market consolidation, mergers and acquisition, Kao Data offers significant opportunities to innovate and work with clients outside of the industry norms,” says Rod Faul, Senior Client Director, Kao Data. “I’m delighted to be joining the team at Kao Data, and believe that our location and the expertise of our industry-leading technical team offers customers within the hyperscale, HPC and AI communities a scalable, resilient and highly-efficient home for their digital infrastructure.” Tom Bethell also joins Kao Data as the new Business Development Director. Tom has spent many years servicing customers in the data centre, HPC and telco sectors and notable experience includes his work to identify and close high-value deals including FTSE 500 companies, and his work alongside the HPC, MSP and Telco communities at NGD. Tom also worked at China Telecom, Six Degrees Group and Pulsant selling voice, network, cloud and data centre services to mid-market enterprise organisations. “Kao Data’s ability to meet and support customer demands for HPC and AI infrastructure is unrivalled in our industry, and I’m excited to be joining the team,” comments Tom Bethell, Business Development Director, Kao Data. “Our location within a hotbed of HPC, AI and start-up innovation presents incredible potential to be the UK number one colocation facility for intensive and GPU-powered compute. I believe that this, combined with the depth and expertise of our leadership team and our growing cloud capabilities, will be a recipe for long-term success.” Kao Data has recently signed a connectivity partnership with Megaport, a leading Network as a Service (NaaS) provider, expanding its capabilities to provide on-demand cloud connectivity from hyperscalers including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. The partnership increases the data centre’s global cloud and connectivity capabilities and will provide a strategic location north of London, as well as the closest Megaport on-ramp to Cambridge’s academic, high-tech and scientific communities.

Acronis expands its reach in cyber protection, joining the MPC Alliance

Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, announces today that it has joined the MPC Alliance, a global association with the mission of improving data security through the implementation of the secure cryptographic technology of multi-party computation.  MPC is a mathematical approach to digital security, reducing the dependency on third parties to maintain the privacy of our digital footprints, which have grown in value and are vulnerable to misuse. MPC is a subfield of cryptography, allowing multiple parties to compute an output using their private data without disclosing their data to any third party, and is capable of doing so while guaranteeing the correctness of the output even if some data becomes corrupt.  Acronis has adopted MPC technology as it develops cyber protection solutions that address safety, accessibility, authenticity, and security challenges. Acronis services are trusted by 5.5 million individuals and companies worldwide.  Amongst a range of MPC research initiatives, Acronis is working with Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University to create encryption and secure data management technologies to enable a secure MPC platform for business-to-business transactions, ensuring data can be shared between multiple untrusted parties while keeping shared data private.  Acronis Technology President and co-founder Stanislav Protassov concludes: "Multi-party computation is of interest to Acronis into which we have devoted research resources. Implementing MPC technology in our cyber protection solutions is essential to apply a trusted third party that receives the input and confidentially computes the result, not revealling any data."  

Technology may be restricting digital transformation success

Placing an all-encompassing focus on the role of technology when making digital transformation decisions could actually be restricting the chances of success for UK businesses according to new research from Telstra. The company’s newly released white paper, Disruptive Decision-Making research, surveyed 3,810 senior decision-makers from 12 industries in 14 markets around the world to uncover insights into strengths and weaknesses around their digital transformation programs. Leaning too heavily on technology When rating decision-making across four factors for success (people, processes, technology understanding and partnerships), British businesses ranked ‘technology understanding’ as the area where they feel by far the most confident. According to the white paper, 77% of UK respondents felt their organisation makes technology decisions ‘well’ or ‘extremely well’. While the understanding of technology and its performance is important, other factors are equally significant.  Telstra’s Managing Director for EMEA Tom Homer explained that organisations that are highly digitally mature show greater focus on people and processes, saying: “I believe that digital transformation is technology-enabled, but people-led. Yet our research shows employees are not being given the attention they warrant. Successful digital transformation relies on more than the right technology. It requires the right culture, the right people and the right processes to support them. Digital transformation should be a company journey that involves upskilling and changing employee mindsets, adapting structures and ways of working, and creating teams that can maximise the new technologies being introduced.” Whole-of-business approach needed The research also found that a company-wide approach to digital transformation is significantly more likely to result in success. However, 53% of UK organisations are allowing business departments to drive individual digital initiatives instead of the whole company. Organisations in the UK rated their top three digital transformation priorities as (1) optimise technology to move faster, (2) manage risk and compliance, and (3) protect digital assets from cyber threats.  Increased customer experience but increasing profit harder The research found that while organisations in the UK are increasing their investment in digital transformation, many businesses had yet to realise the financial impact of their efforts. Investment in digital transformation is also on the rise with 25% of businesses investing more than one million in digital transformation products and services over the past year. This is set to increase as 24% of respondents said their company’s total spend on digital transformation would grow by more than 10% in the next three years. However, showing ‘hard outcomes’ of this investment was more difficult.