Deal confirmed, RADVISION to be bought by Avaya.

Bringing to end end many months of speculation, both verbal and financial, Avaya Inc. today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire RADVISION Ltd. Upon closing, RADVISION's enterprise video infrastructure and high value endpoints will be integrated with Avaya's Aura(R) Unified Communications (UC) platform to create a compelling and differentiated solution designed to accelerate the adoption of video collaboration. The RADVISION portfolio includes a full range of videoconferencing products, technologies and expertise serving enterprises, small business, and service providers. It includes standards-based applications, open infrastructure and endpoints for ad-hoc and scheduled videoconferencing with room-based systems, desktop, and mobile consumer devices. The integrated Avaya and RADVISION portfolios will extend intra-company business to business (b2b) and business to customer (b2c) video communications, and also supports internal "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD) initiatives. RADVISION's SCOPIA Video product line and expertise integrated with the open architecture of Avaya Aura(R) will bridge existing H.323 communications networks and SIP-based environments, delivering scalability and a user experience designed to be intuitive and easy to operate. At the close of the transaction, RADVISION and Avaya channel partners will be positioned to deliver complete UC Video integration, operational support, and professional services. In the transaction, which has been approved by each company's Board of Directors, RADVISION shareholders will receive US$11.85 per share, valuing the transaction at approximately $230 million. The acquisition is expected to close within approximately 90 days assuming the satisfaction of agreed-upon closing conditions. Entering into this agreement highlights Avaya's commitment to bring The Power of We(TM) to every Avaya customer, helping businesses to drive faster collaboration, smarter decisions and better business results. Kevin Kennedy, president and CEO, Avaya said "The opportunity for personal workspace is now. Customers demand a rich, collaborative user experience that is interoperable and easy to use. In addition, we believe this transaction will leverage a highly-skilled, incredibly talented and experienced workforce ready to deliver video to enterprise customers. With this acquisition we will seek to extend videoconferencing to any device, anytime, anywhere, making it as easy as a phone call, seizing the opportunity to deliver a fully-integrated solution and architecture that we believe sets us apart from the competition." Boaz Raviv, CEO, RADVISION said "RADVISION has a strong heritage of developing and delivering innovative videoconferencing products and technologies deployed by Fortune 500(R) companies and global service providers. As companies and their customers seek to deploy a wide range of video capabilities as part of their daily collaboration, the combination of Avaya and RADVISION's portfolio will provide flexible and easy to use solutions. Avaya's commitment to quality, innovation, open architectures and industry standards is an ideal fit to advance RADVISION's vision for making video part of everyday life." Commenting on the deal Ira M. Weinstein, of Wainhouse Research said, "The addition of the RADVISION video portfolio to Avaya's business collaboration solutions is a powerful combination. RADVISION's video management capabilities, video bridging solutions, and video endpoint portfolio complement the Avaya Aura(R) unified communications platform. This is a win for both of these companies, their channel partners, and their end-user customers." "Avaya's pending acquisition of RADVISION is welcome news. It will bring Avaya an end-to-end video solution including a mature and reliable suite of infrastructure components, and provide RADVISION access to a global distribution channel and brand association with Avaya. Customers are demanding more powerful collaboration tools, with integrated video and voice solutions that leverage existing video investments, and enable them to benefit from new state-of-the-art technology. Integrating these complementary technologies will help minimize interoperability concerns and provide Avaya customers with a flexible collaboration solution." said Michael Brandofino, EVP, Video and Unified Communications, AVI-SPL.

Avaya comprará al proveedor de videoconferencias Radvision

El proveedor de comunicaciones unificadas está en negociaciones para comprar Radvision, que hace soluciones de videoconferencia para redes 3G e IP por unos 200 millones de dólares

Avaya está estudiando la compra de Radvision por 200 millones de dólares, lo que le ayudaría a competir mejor con Cisco y Polycom, e incluso como el negocio LifeSize Communications de Logitech, anunció Globes, una publicación de Israel.

Al mismo tiempo parece que hay otros interesados en Radvision, muy afectado por la compra de Tandberg por parte de Cisco en 2009 –aunque cerrado el año pasado, por 3,300 millones de dólares. Este acuerdo ofreció a Cisco una amplia variedad de productos para el mercado de gama medio, un área en la que la compañía no tenía presencia.

Tanto la videoconferencia como la colaboración es un mercado que está creciendo rápidamente y que tiene un brillante futuro porque es la opción en que la mayoría de las empresas buscan la manera de reducir costes, particularmente los de viajes, además de aumentar la productividad de sus empleados. Por otra parte, es un tendencia cada vez mayor utilizar estas tecnologías no sólo para reuniones, sino para comunicarse con los trabajadores, partners y clientes.

A principios de esta semana, la empresa de investigación de mercado IDC dijo que el mercado de videoconferencia y telepresencia creció un 24.3% en el tercer trimestre respecto al mismo periodo del año anterior, con ingresos de 680.4 millones de dólares.

Cisco es el líder del mercado con una cuota del 51.6%, algo más del 48.4% que tenía en el tercer trimestre de 2011. En cuanto a Polycom, sus ingresos crecieron un 19.4% en el trimestre. Radvision, por el contrario, perdió 7.4 millones de dólares en el tercer trimestre, con ingresos cayendo hasta los 17.3 millones de dólares frente a los 24.5 millones del mismo periodo del año anterior.

No parece que la decisión de Radvision de comprar los activos de videoconferencia de Aethra por diez millones de dólares haya dado resultados.

Globes asegura que el año pasado HP mantuvo negociaciones con Radvision, pero que el precio de compra acabó con ellas. Finalmente HP vendió su negocio de telepresencia y videoconferencia a Polycom. Como parte del acuerdo, Polycom es ahora el partner exclusivo de HP para los productos de videoconferencia y telepresencia.

Riverbed Proves Again Why It’s the Market and Technology Leader in WAN Optimization

Event Summary

In its Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS) 7.0 software, Riverbed broadened the appeal of its WAN performance booster with acceleration for HTTP-based video, UDP applications, VDI, and integrated network performance monitoring and IPv6. The integration of its Cascade Shark packet capture and analysis allows enterprises to troubleshoot branch office networking problems remotely, without the need to install separate hardware probes.

Analytical SummaryPerspective

Positive on the release of Riverbed’s RiOS 7.0 software update, because it greatly broadens the appeal of Riverbed’s WAN optimization solutions, which already offered great feature-richness. The mixed bag of enhancements demonstrates Riverbed’s intent to focus on meeting customer requirements and reinforce its technology as well as market leadership.

Vendor Importance

Moderate to Riverbed, because the long list of new (and in some cases market-leading) enhancements essentially polish the crown jewels of Riverbed’s business to a high gloss, showing off even more facets of those gems. The enhancements also allow Riverbed to better capitalize on acquisitions by integrating acquired technologies into its Steelhead appliances, thereby increasing their value. Several new functions such as UDP acceleration, expanded video support, and VDI help to expand the addressable market for its Steelhead appliances.

Market Impact

High on the WAN optimization market, because in total, the wide range of new features could very likely spur even greater distance between Riverbed and its next closest rivals. Riverbed has already opened up a large lead in its dominance in the WAN optimization market, and these enhancements will only serve to extend that.

Competitive StrengthsCompetitive Positives

• Despite the fact that Riverbed did not release its UDP support when promised, it is still fairly unique in offering that acceleration; Cisco and Blue Coat do not yet have such support in their WAN optimization appliances. This gives Riverbed time-to-market advantages over its chief rivals and addresses an underserved part of the market for optimizing disaster recovery services, some VDI, and other UPD-based applications.

• Riverbed continues to demonstrate what has made it the dominant WAN optimization provider by a large margin; that is its continued focus on making its appliances among the most feature-rich in the market by adding capabilities important to its large and growing base of customers.

• Riverbed is positioning its Steelhead WAN optimization line to capitalize on the growing interest in VDI by expanding its already broad support for Citrix VMware and Microsoft VDI environments to include optimization for Citrix ICA over SSL encrypted links, as well as a new client drive mapping feature that enables the acceleration of content accessed directly from thin clients including thumb drives.

• Over the last several quarters, Riverbed has pulled away from its major competitors, now commanding just over half of the market and twice the share of its next closest competitor. With such strong momentum at its back, and its continued aggressive push to deliver consistent feature expansion based on customer requirements, Riverbed is well positioned to increase its dominance.

Competitive WeaknessesCompetitive Concerns

• Riverbed was due to deliver UDP acceleration and application visibility on the Steelhead appliances in H1 2011. The late delivery of those capabilities could cause it to lose time-to-market advantages and raise the ire of customers counting on that functionality earlier.

• Cisco has carved out a strong position in optimizing performance for VDI and video with the 4.4 release of its WAAS software, which includes context-aware data redundancy elimination features focused specifically on VDI and video traffic (see Cisco Looks to VDI and Video to Gain Advantage in WAN Optimization Market, October 7, 2011). It received good initial validation from third-party reviewers. Its renewed push in VDI traffic optimization will give Riverbed a run for its money.

• Despite the addition of new security features in RiOS 7.0, Riverbed does not deliver the same level of security that rival Blue Coat can offer by virtue of its existing WAN security business. Blue Coat recently integrated key Web security in its MACH 5 appliances that exploits the company’s new cloud-based Web security service, eliminating the need to backhaul Web traffic to a central location from remote locations.

Response & Recommendations

• If Cisco’s context-aware DRE (data redundancy elimination) does in fact improve the user experience, especially compared to Riverbed’s VDI and video optimization, Cisco should hire third-party testers to validate that advantage. Cisco is hanging its WAN optimization hat on that innovation, and it should be prepared to demonstrate its superiority (if that exists) over the market leader.

• Once Blue Coat develops a customer base for its new Web security services integration with its MACH 5 WAN optimization appliances, it should highlight the benefits in customer case studies, looking for ways to quantify the benefits of that integration and publicizing those metrics. That integration gives Blue Coat good differentiation as well as a good cloud story, something which Riverbed does not yet have.

• Cisco needs to quash rumors that it will abandon its WAAS appliance line in favor of integrated router features/blades if it is to continue to compete successfully against Riverbed. If Cisco is committed to being a top-tier competitor in the WAN optimization market, it needs to demonstrate that commitment clearly. One of the ways to do that is to maintain better feature parity with market leader Riverbed.

• A little paranoia can be a good thing, if it motivates an organization to be vigilant for shifts in market dynamics. Riverbed has done a great job of focusing on customer requirements, but its success could blind it to subtle changes in market demands. Competitive pricing and responsiveness to partners and prospects should not be sacrificed as Riverbed continues to pull away from its nearest competitors.

Buyer Actions

• It is only a matter of time before latency-sensitive VDI pervades the enterprise network, and video has already achieved mainstream status as a tool for a variety of enterprise activities. Network operators should verse themselves on how those applications behave across the network, what their requirements are in terms of latency, and what options exist to better support them across far-flung enterprises.

• Existing Riverbed customers should be heartened by the wide range of new features Riverbed has included in the latest RiOS release (7.0). Its ‘something for everyone’ update reflects the diversity in Riverbed’s broad customer base and demonstrates the vendor’s commitment to its customers.

• Prospects looking to add WAN optimization to their networks, especially to support new latency-sensitive applications traffic such as VDI and video, should evaluate the different approaches to accelerating those newer traffic types. Each competitor brings unique techniques to the battle, along with differentiated feature sets.

Analytical Perspective

Borrowing a page from rival Cisco, Riverbed is doing a good job of integrating acquired technologies into its Steelhead appliances, thereby increasing the value of the products. Just as Cisco has integrated a variety of network services into its switches and routers, so too is Riverbed integrating acquired technologies such as its Cascade Shark packet capture and network performance management as well as Skipware satellite communications optimization into RiOS 7.0. At the same time, RiOS 7.0 addresses a wide range of customer requirements that reflect the diversity of its customer base, enabling Riverbed to broaden the appeal of its Steelhead appliances. New UDP optimization now enables Riverbed to optimize bulk file transfers used in replication or disaster recovery applications as well as some VDI implementations, such as VMware’s PCoIP protocol for VMware View. At the same time, all major WAN optimization providers recognize the new opportunities for expanding the addressable market with the enterprise adoption of video as a tool for a variety of purposes, including training, employee communications, marketing, and more. Chief rivals Cisco and Blue Coat have recently expanded their video optimization techniques. Blue Coat, in particular, added stream-splitting for Adobe Flash just one month earlier; it had already delivered the ability to cache Microsoft Silverlight content locally, although it does not claim to provide stream-splitting or application layer multicasting for Silverlight yet. 

All this comes at a time when Riverbed is distancing itself from its major rivals. By some estimates, Riverbed owns just over 50% of the WAN optimization market, which is about twice that of its next major rival, Cisco Systems. That is up from about 34% of the market just two years ago. Common wisdom suggests that WAN optimization is a three-horse race between Riverbed, Cisco, and Blue Coat, despite the healthy number of smaller rivals still competing in the market. Of course, as the clear market leader, Riverbed has a very large bull’s eye on its back, and competitors will be keen to take advantage of any missteps it makes. At the same time, nervous investors will keep the pure-play focused to some extent on the short term, although Riverbed has demonstrated good long-term vision in its acquisitions and partnerships.

Solución de Colaboración de Avaya gana el premio de la revista PC World En Español en la categoría de mejor software para solución de movilidad

• Avaya Flare® Experience y Avaya Aura® Collaboration Server fueron elegidas como las soluciones líderes para la comunicación y la colaboración en tiempo real

BASKING RIDGE, Nueva Jersey – Avaya anunció hoy que PC World En Español, líder en la región como fuente de noticias especializada en tecnologías de la información, distinguió a Avaya Flare®  Experience y Avaya Aura® Collaboration Server con el premio al mejor software para solución de movilidad. Este premio es un reconocimiento al liderazgo demostrado al ofrecer una plataforma de comunicaciones con sólidas herramientas de colaboración que permite aumentar la productividad de las empresas. 

Avaya Flare Experience es un software de colaboración que aprovecha al máximo la plataforma de comunicaciones basada en SIP Avaya Aura para brindar comunicaciones optimizadas multi-sesión y multi-modales en tiempo real desde el escritorio. Con este software, los usuarios se comunican y colaboran sin importar el tipo de red que utilicen o cómo accedan a ella.

Avaya Aura Collaboration Server brinda los elementos básicos de Avaya Aura® en un único servidor. Permite que empresas con una infraestructura existente, ya sea de Avaya como de otros proveedores, evalúen las novedosas terminales y aplicaciones SIP de Avaya sin la necesidad de actualizar la totalidad de su red de comunicaciones.

OpenFlow: Distributed Network Nirvana or Academic Science Project

• OpenFlow will move from the academic to the commercial in the next 24 months
• Vendors’ perception of OpenFlow will determine whether they resist or embrace the technology

From its beginnings at Stanford as a research project to becoming a technology movement that has start-ups building businesses around it, OpenFlow has emerged as a topic of discussion in many networking circles today. OpenFlow is essentially the proposal to add a hook into an existing network device that enables control and forwarding actions to be centrally managed off-device and then implemented identically across all devices in the network. Whether this control includes table replication, routing actions, security policies, or even access control list (ACL) population, all are possible with the OpenFlow architecture. Consider that a device could merely execute packet handling directions versus actually having to determine which decision to make. This, in turn, could radically reduce the processing requirements on the device itself, in addition to enabling a consistent policy application across a very large number of devices (theoretically, tens to hundreds of thousands), which would vastly simplify management. OpenFlow also offers the operator the ability to integrate intelligence into the network without relying on the network device’s operating system or even application awareness that can then execute and apply QoS and security policies. While some vendors offer devices that possess this ability today on a select portion of their portfolio, there are exceptionally few environments that are 100% standardized on a single vendor’s latest generation of products.

LifeSize Adds Mobile HD Streaming To Video Center Play

By Chad Berndtson, CRN
feb. 15, 2011    2:22 PM EST

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LifeSize Communications on Tuesday added HD video content streaming for mobile devices to its flagship video management appliance, the latest step for the video company's expansion beyond its well-known video endpoints and into the broader infrastructurearena.

Specifically, the LifeSize Video Center will now be enabled for mobile streaming, meaning users can access live and on-demand HD video content from PCs, but also Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) iPhones, iPads and iPods connected to Wi-Fi or cellular networks. The one-way streams, such as from corporate or classroom presentations, are accessed via Web browser without any additional softwareneeded, according to LifeSize.

In addition, the Video Center now includes automatic adaptive streaming, meaning that users can stream an HD recording from a LifeSize 220 Series video endpoint at up to four different bitrates -- preserving the quality of video on mobile devices or even in instances of choppy bandwidth.

Users can also access and store video content using their existing network attached storage (NAS), and the LifeSize Video Center'sAPI is enhanced to let developers build Video Center content into third-party systems.

LifeSize first debuted the Video Center in April 2010 -- an appliance that processes HD video where it's created and offers advanced management of video content for network administrators and users to stream, record, auto-publish and store video, audio and data content.

The new enhancements will all be part of LifeSize Video Center Version 1.2, which will be available for download in March. Video Center is currently listed at $29,999 MSRP.

Cost savings and ease-of-use are two of LifeSize's most important value propositions to VARs and customers, said Rafi Anuar, product manager -- especially as a compelling alternative to video channel heavyweights like Cisco (NSDQ:CSCO) and Polycom.

"These are built from scratch, in house: both the endpoint side of the portfolio, and the infrastructure side of the portfolio, which includes Video Center and our bridge products," Anuar told CRN.

"When we set out to do Video Center, we looked at how existing solutions were architected," he added. "We use the LifeSize 200 series to transcode the video before it ever leaves the endpoint -- all that heavy transcoding work is being done right on the endpoint."

Video Center can offer up to 20 concurrent HD recordings, and 50 in standard definition. It can also enable up to 1,000 live video streams and up to 350 simultaneous on-demand streams, all in 720p30 HD video.

LifeSize, which was acquired by Logitech in 2009, has about 15,000 customers in 100 countries, according to its executives.

Its channel program, which LifeSize retooled about a year ago, numbers about 1,500 VARs, and OEM and integration partnerships with the likes of Avaya and Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT).

HP Networking Unified Communications Platforms Face Less Than Certain Future

Competitive Positives

• The VCX Unified Communications Platforms remain on offer within the HP Networking portfolio.
Customers can still purchase them; channels can still actively sell them.
• HP has committed to releasing at least one additional software update – VCX 9.8 which will be available later this year.
• HP has a wide range of relationships with developers of telephony systems and software.
These can be leveraged to help transition VCX customers to other products when and if the need arises.

Competitive Concerns

• HP has not the committed marketing and sales resources vital to raising awareness of VCX in the market.
• Without a significant amount of marketing and sales resources dedicated to VCX the product is highly likely
 to fail in the extremely competitive UC market.
• For much of 2010 HP worked to integrate VCX into its portfolio of networking products, giving customers
and channel partners every indication that it was committed to the product.
• Without VCX HP will have no unified communications products in its portfolio,
a weakness compared with Cisco, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent and Siemens Enterprise, all of which deliver an end-to-end portfolio
 of voice and data products.

Event Summary

January 27, 2011 – HP Networking has placed its VCX Unified Communications Platforms into maintenance mode. The company will continue supporting the products but ongoing development of them has by and large ceased.

Analytical SummaryPerspective

• Very negative on HP placing into maintenance-only mode the UC systems and software that came with its acquisition of 3Com. Since its acquisition of 3Com HP added the VCX line of PBXs and ancillary communications software to portfolio of networking systems, narrowing its market focus to the SMB rather than to both SMBs and enterprises as the products were positioned under 3Com. HP stopped short of actually discontinuing the VCX line of communications solutions. But with HP not committing to its long-term development or dedicating marketing resources that would raise its visibility in the UC market, HP will very likely create a downward spiral from which the VCX will be unable to survive as a viable UC offering.

Vendor Importance

• High to HP, because without VCX as a viable product HP will not be able to execute on the portion of its UC strategy which, for the past few months, has been to sell its own branded telephony systems to SMBs. Though HP could simplify technology partner relationships with Avaya and others made complicated by a UC product line under the HP Networking brand, it would leave HP without a telephony platform of its own. As a result HP would not be able to offer an end-to-end line of voice and data solutions as Cisco, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent and Siemens Enterprise can deliver.

Market Impact

• High to HP customers and resellers with investments in VCX systems and software because it is looking like the VCX’s days are numbered. If the product slips from maintenance-only to end-of-sale, VCX customers and resellers will gradually need to seek other options for the business communications solutions they respectively buy and sell. Low to HP’s competitors in the UC market because VCX does not have much visibility not does it often appear on RFPs.