Toshiba Brings Video to Meeting and UC Survivability to IPedge IP Business Telephone System

Toshiba's IPedge UC solution is targeted at the SMB market with models that accommodate eight users up to 1,000 users per server. The solution is particularly strong in the under-100 user market with the majority of systems sold in the 10 to 50 user range. The recently announced upgrade of IPedge to Release 1.2 adds a number of capabilities.

Among the new features is the addition of video into Toshiba's Meeting audio conferencing and Web collaboration application. In addition, Toshiba has also upgraded its smallest IPedge system, (up to 40 users), to include the Meeting application built into the system server as had been the case in the other IPedge models - EM (up to 1,000 users), IPedge EC (up to 200 users).

IP survivability has been built into the Call Manager UC application and the Enterprise Manager system management application database. This is a failover capability. In multi-site deployments, when a server fails, these applications, and all of the IP phones and softphone clients are automatically connected to a secondary server and then reconnect back to the primary server when it becomes active again. What IP Survivability does not do is enable users to continue placing and receiving voice calls in a remote branch during a WAN failure.

Survivability is most ideal for customers with multiple locations. The user would slightly over-provision each of their systems to carry extra load in the event that one of the sites needs to piggyback on them. A single location or centralized architecture requires built-in redundancy through a hot standby situated either on or off-site in order to achieve survivability.

What This Means to You

For Customers: IPedge sells well in several verticals including healthcare - assisted living facilities, small hospitals and medical clinics, Local government, education and retail. The System competes primarily against NEC, Mitel and Avaya UC solutions, though the other UC vendors are also seen on occasion.

IPedge is a competitive UC solution that accommodates multiple UC applications on a single Linux server, including call processing, UM, A/V/W conferencing, native SIP line and SIP trunk support, mobility, survivability, networking with other IPedge and/or Strata CIX systems and centralized administration. In addition, Call Manager comes equipped with a built-in VoIP softphone option, which users can activate on their PC at any time.

What's missing, however, is BYOD support. There is no mobile client supporting UC mobility for Apple iOS or Android. This is catch-up work in progress.

For Partners: Toshiba's go-to-market strategy centers around sales and installation through its indirect channel. Even in its national accounts program, where a direct selling relationship is established between Toshiba and the customer, the partner who brokered the initial relationship continues to receive commission on all new sales. And the local installing dealer collects pro services fees.

Net-net then, any new release is a benefit to the channel in terms of the pro services opportunities it engenders and the potential new sales opportunities it opens up. In this particular case Toshiba has integrated survivability into its IPedge Call Manager UC application and its Enterprise Manager system management application database at the behest of both customers and partners.