AVST Acquires SaaS TechnologyAVST Acquires SaaS Technology

Linux-based SaaS platform will let AVST provide premises, cloud, or hybrid solutions.

In yet another sign of the growth of interest in Communications as a Service (CaaS), messaging/UC vendor AVST has announced its intention to acquire software-as-a-service capabilities from Voice Mobility International (VMI).

AVST has signed a letter or intent to acquire the Voice Mobility UCN250 software as a service (SaaS) platform from VMI, with the aim of providing hosted systems to complement AVST's Call Express software, according to AVST President and CEO Hardy Myers.

SMB customers are interested in outsourcing their messaging capabilities, while larger enterprises want the option of using the cloud to provide consistent capabilities to a user base that is likely served by a diverse range of legacy systems, Hardy Myers told me in an interview today. Enterprises also are looking to hosted capabilities because they may not be sure what their communications sytems will look like in 5 years, so they want to keep their options open, he added.

The VMI SaaS platform provides multitenancy and scalability with a platform that was built to run service providers' messaging offerings, added AVST CTO Tom Minifie.

Hardy Myers was adamant, however, that AVST wouldn't be getting into the business of hosting the SaaS platform itself--"unequivocally no," he said. "To do that well, you have to make huge investments in [datacenter] infrastructure," he told me. "That row's been hoed." He added that AVST partners such as Verizon have a core competency in this kind of platform hosting, so it makes sense for them to do this job.

AVST will sell the hosted service through its channel partners for its current product set, Myers said.

The terms of the technology acquisition were not disclosed. Myers said the deal itself will close no later than December 31.