What it is:
* Avaya's next generation solution--with an easy migration path from existing solutions.
* A re-purposing and extension of technology acquired from Ubiquity in 2007.Why existing customers and prospects will care:
* Massive scalability from Avaya. Largest we've seen outside of a central office switch at 250,000 users and 25,000 locations.
* Cost saving message. This is being heavily played by Avaya--reminds us of the early days of IP Telephony. Enterprise-wide on-net calling, global least-cost routing, call out from the best location, Reduce location-specific trunking.
* Application development capabilities, including compatibility with carrier-based IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) offering interesting possibilities for combining wireless and wireline services.
* New capabilities come with relatively straightforward connectivity with existing TDM and IP systems--both Avaya and non-Avaya--via SIP gateways.
Why not everyone will be impressed:
* While Avaya has pushed Flatten, Consolidate and Extend for years, this is a more credible data center-oriented message for Avaya.
* Competitors have pushed this message for years. Siemens with its HiPath 8000 (now part of OpenScape UC Server) and Nortel with the CS2100 come to mind.
* While Avaya claims their goal is to support a multi-vendor network, we've heard this before (Interaction Center, the former Quintus product, sale into accounts with non-Avaya ACDs has been very minimal). At the end of the day there is always the none-too-subtle message that the long term goal is migration to Avaya solutions. It will be interesting to see if Aura can really help change that mindset within the culture.
What I still don't understand:
* Over two different pre-briefings last week, Avaya attempted to explain why this new architecture is a leapfrog over the competitive solutions that came before it. One of the keys to this seems to be a capability called Application Sequencing that allows applications to be made part of a SIP session via Aura, which has a Session Manager as a core component. I'm hoping that between Kevin Kennedy's keynote and still one more briefing scheduled during the show that I can wrap my head around it.
