Sonus helps enterprises migrate to Skype for Business

Sonus Networks has announced a software update that is designed to help enterprises migrate to Skype for Business.

Available July 28, the Sonus SBC 1000 and SBC 2000 Session Border Controllers (SBCs) Release 5.0 delivers Skype for Business functionality including presence reporting for enterprise migration, according to Sonus.

Sonus is a Microsoft Gold Communications Partner and provides Microsoft Enterprise Voice customers features within Skype for Business and Lync environments.

The SBC 1000/2000 are architected to support interworking between legacy communications (PBX) equipment and Skype for Business to aid the migration process for enterprises.

With the presence feature, end users are provided with reporting from the Skype for Business server for users engaged in calls from non-Skype for Business endpoints.

This functionality is intended to provide a simple migration path to Enterprise Voice by identifying a contact's status - on legacy equipment or Skype for Business endpoints.

Release 5.0 also delivers provisioning templates for the configuration of Skype for Business interworking with legacy equipment, SIP trunking solutions, ISDN, IP PBX and FXO clients.

Continued support for SBA functions ensures real-time communications are delivered even if the WAN goes down.

This feature is supported with the latest instantiation of the survivability application, including security enhancements and upgrade simplicity capabilities.

"Enterprises today are assessing the migration from their existing PBX or Unified Communications applications to Skype for Business," says David Tipping, Sonus vice president and general manager Products.

"By arming our partners with SBC 1000/2000 Release 5.0, end users can migrate easily with features like presence, which identifies availability regardless of the PBX being used," he says.

"Nearly 53% of the companies that are consolidating their UC environment are moving to Skype for Business," says Irwin Lazar, Nemertes Research vice president and service director.

"However, implementing Skype for Business for telephony is not a flash-cut. Most will run multiple systems for many years, thus they need the means to integrate Skype for Business into existing telephony systems during transition.

"Using Session Border Controllers can ease integration and management challenges by creating a common platform for dial-plan and policy management," he says.