Nortel and IBM Power AheadNortel and IBM Power Ahead
Last June in a blog on VoIPLoop I discussed a new venture between Nortel and IBM whereby Nortel would develop an SMB communications solution for the IBM System i. The solution, now known as Nortel Software Communication System 500 (SCS 500) is alive and well, working in controlled introduction sites. Nortel tells me that general availability is imminent, by the end of April 2008.
April 3, 2008
Last June in a blog on VoIPLoop I discussed a new venture between Nortel and IBM whereby Nortel would develop an SMB communications solution for the IBM System i. The solution, now known as Nortel Software Communication System 500 (SCS 500) is alive and well, working in controlled introduction sites. Nortel tells me that general availability is imminent, by the end of April 2008.
Last June in a blog on VoIPLoop I discussed a new venture between Nortel and IBM whereby Nortel would develop an SMB communications solution for the IBM System i. The solution, now known as Nortel Software Communication System 500 (SCS 500) is alive and well, working in controlled introduction sites. Nortel tells me that general availability is imminent, by the end of April 2008.However this post is not just an update on the availability of the solution. Nortel announced today that the SCS 500 will be integrated into the entire IBM Business Systems portfolio. The Nortel telephony solution will be available with the IBM Power Systems (the convergence of IBM's System i and System p), System x and Power Blade servers.
The good news here for Nortel is that the IBM Business Systems servers market is huge, worth north of $17 billion to IBM in 2007. System i, while an interesting portion of IBM's total market, was just that - a piece of the total pie.
During our briefing, Nortel provided an update on the features and capabilities of SCS 500 as well as an explanation of how the solution is being positioned within the Nortel communications solutions portfolio.
1. From a size perspective, the SCS 500 is positioned between the BCM and the CS 1000 solutions. The target number of users is 30-500, while the BCM range is below that and the CS 1000 above.
2. From a technology perspective, SCS 500 is a pure SIP solution. The BCM and CS 1000 solutions can combine digital, IP and SIP endpoints. 3. In terms of applications, the out-of-the-box unified communications capabilities are stronger for the SCS 500 but the traditional solutions have much richer contact center solutions.
Perhaps the key difference between the SCS 500 and existing Nortel solutions is ability to migrate. BCM and CS 1000 offer existing customers some re-use of Norstar and Meridian equipment and applications. On the other hand, the SCS 500 is best suited to the business ready to completely chuck what they have in place and start from scratch with a solution based on open source code. Sounds a little like Digium's Asterisk target market...
