No Jitter Roll: Five for Friday 2019-12-12No Jitter Roll: Five for Friday 2019-12-12
A look at the latest news coming out of the SD-WAN market and from Microsoft, LogMeIn, Logitech, and Observe.AI.
December 12, 2019
For this week’s No Jitter Roll, we look at several SD-WAN announcements, a Linux version of Microsoft Teams, messaging integrations for a customer engagement platform, two collaboration kits, and funding for an AI startup.
SD-WAN Services Still Hot
As the year winds down, SD-WAN providers continue enhancing their offerings, and winning over enterprises. Here’s a look at some of the SD-WAN announcements made this week:
Silver Peak Enhances SD-WAN Edge Platform – New capabilities for the Unity Edge Connect platform include multi-fabric orchestration and management, one-click automation, and advanced segmentation
Cato Networks Launches Instant*Insight – This feature brings together networking and security to eliminate deployment complexity and provide a single timeline of network and security problems from a single interface
World Fuel Services Selects Aryaka – World Fuel Services, a global fuel logistics company, has leveraged Aryaka’s SD-WAN solution to simplify and optimize its network as part of a digital transformation project completed in conjunction with Aryaka's U.S. partner Pluto Cloud Services, Aryaka announced.
Microsoft Teams Now on Linux
Microsoft this week announced a public preview of Teams for Linux users, making it the first Microsoft 365 app to come to Linux desktop. Linux users will have access to the core capabilities of Teams and can download the native Linux packages in either .deb and .rpm format, Microsoft said. Additionally, Linux users can try Teams for free without a subscription service.
LogMeIn Gets the Message
SaaS provider LogMeIn has added WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook Messenger, and SMS text integrations for its Bold360 customer engagement platform.
With the Bold360 platform, enterprises can deploy AI-powered chatbots to handle routine queries in messaging channels or use bots to intelligently route information to agents, LogMeIn said. Additionally, Bold360’s Voices Dashboard will display customers intent and queries from these messaging applications and other channels.
Logitech Eyes Open Office Collaboration
Logitech this week unveiled two collaboration kits (a standard and pro level) for open office environments. Each kit includes a Zone wireless headset and a Logitech office webcam, comes business-certified for Microsoft Skype for Business, and is compatible with additional calling applications like Zoom Phone, Google Voice, and others, according to Logitech.
The pro personal collaboration kit, available for $400, includes a Logitech BRIO 4K webcam. The personal collaboration kit features the Logitech C925e webcam and costs $300, Logitech said.
Observe.AI Finishes Series A Funding
Voice AI platform startup Observe.AI this week completed Series A funding led by Scale Venture Partners with $26 million in capital raised and with participations from Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, 01 Advisors, and Emergent Ventures. Using natural language processing, the Observe.AI platform analyzes customer conversations for coaching advice and can automate quality assurance and compliance tracking processes. With the funding, Observe.AI said it hopes to expand its U.S./Indian teams and accelerate product development.
