In this edition of our regular news round-up, we look at announcements around networking partnerships, software-defined WAN (SD-WAN), APIs and integration, video collaboration, contact center, and headsets.
Oracle, Aryaka Team on SD-WAN Access
Oracle held its annual customer and partner event, OpenWorld, this week in San Francisco, sharing a bevy of announcements around its cloud infrastructure and applications portfolio. Among the news is a partnership between SD-WAN provider Aryaka and Oracle that results in expanded cloud offerings.
Specifically, Aryaka announced that it will offer dedicated and private access to the Oracle Cloud through Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect. The aim is to provide joint customers to access their Oracle enterprise resource planning, customer experience, and other applications over SD-WAN links.
"IT leaders are in the midst of a major migration to the cloud," said Chandramouli Radhakrishnan, VP of product management at Aryaka, in a prepared statement. "Flexibility is becoming a key requirement for any network."
Versa, Microsoft Team on Connectivity
In other SD-WAN news, cloud networking and security provider Versa Networks announced that it has partnered with Microsoft to deliver automated software-defined orchestration of secure connectivity from branch offices to cloud-based Microsoft Azure Virtual WAN.
Customers can benefit by gaining optimized connectivity to its business applications that reside in Microsoft Azure, Versa said. Additionally, it enables branch-to-branch and branch-to-Azure secure connectivity with SD-WAN intelligent traffic steering across Microsoft's global backbone of more than 130 edge sites throughout the world.
"The goal is to enable global and regionalized connectivity from branch to cloud that is automated and across a high-speed fabric, enabling customers to create a global virtual WAN using Microsoft's backbone and Versa SD-WAN," said Prasetha Warrier, principal product manager, Azure Networking, in a prepared statement.
The integrated solution allows users to deploy secure connectivity via Versa's on-premises security, while also incorporating cloud security -- all managed from a unified portal.
InFocus Releases Mondopad Line
InFocus, a provider of collaboration presentation solutions, last week announced a line of Mondopad collaborative display solutions. The line comprises 12 models designed to meet the needs of a wide variety of office environments and meeting spaces, the company said.
The line includes three main device types: Mondopad Core, Mondopad Launch, and Mondopad Ultra -- each available in 55-inch, 65-inch, 75-inch, and 86-inch models.
All 12 Mondopad models are available today in the U.S.
Vonage Ramps Up Social Messaging
Cloud communications provider Vonage this week announced the integration of its Business Inbox feature with Facebook Messenger, which is available in the Vonage Business Cloud (VBC) unified communications service. This allows customers to reply to messages sent in Facebook Messenger through the Vonage service applications, the company said. In a customer support scenario, agents would get a unified inbox for optimized response to customer interactions.
Additionally, enterprises can integrate social messaging into Vonage's workstream collaboration capabilities for a "richer" omnichannel customer experience.
Providing businesses the ability to connect with their customers in real time via their preferred communication channels, should help enhance customer engagement and drive better business outcomes, said Ron Maayan, VP of product for Vonage, in a prepared statement.
This integration is built on Vonage's Nexmo Messages API, which the company announced a couple weeks ago (see more here.) This signifies Vonage's increased focus on social media as a critical component to offering a comprehensive cloud communications service, a company representative said.
Jabra Grows Its Engage Headsets Line
Jabra this week launched the Engage 50, a professional digital corded headset, shown below, aimed at improving call quality in contact centers with noise cancellation technology and analytics capabilities. In addition to stereo sound and super wideband, the Engage 50 features a three-microphone system that works to filter out background noise and breathing sounds, the company said.
With the Engage 50, the user gets live on-screen guidance via the Jabra Direct software, with prompts to adjust the microphone boom arm to a more ideal position, for example. Jabra Express software provides an overview of contact center data for individuals or groups, enabling the business to pick up on key trends like certain time periods when the noise level is at a high point.
Additionally, the headset features a multi-color status light on both sides, aimed at reducing interruptions during important calls.
The Engage 50 marks the expansion of the Engage line, which Jabra launched in April (see more here).
