Overview
We are a leading provider of network solutions to telecommunications, wireless and cable service providers and enterprises across industry verticals. With over 1,000 customers around the globe, including some of the largest telecommunications service providers and enterprises in the world, we enable service providers and enterprises to modernize their communications networks and provide secure RTC solutions to their customers and employees. By securing and enabling reliable and scalable IP networks, we help service providers and enterprises adopt the next generation of software-based virtualized and cloud communications technologies to drive new, incremental revenue while protecting their existing revenue streams. Our solutions provide a secure way for our customers to connect and leverage multivendor, multiprotocol communications systems and applications across their networks and the cloud, around the world and in a rapidly changing ecosystem of IP-enabled devices such as smartphones and tablets. In addition, our solutions secure the evolution to cloud-based delivery of UC solutions - both for service providers transforming to a cloud-based network and for enterprises using cloud-based UC. We go to market through both direct sales and indirect channels globally, leveraging the assistance of resellers, and we provide ongoing support to our customers through a global services team with experience in design, deployment and maintenance of some of the world's largest IP networks.
We recently completed our Merger with GENBAND in October 2017. As a result of the Merger, we believe we are better positioned to enable network transformations to IP and to cloud-based networks for service providers and enterprise customers worldwide, with a broader and deeper sales footprint, increased ability to invest in growth, more efficient and effective research and development, and a comprehensive RTC product offering.
Industry Background
Traditional TDM-based voice and data solutions are being supplanted by alternative IP-based networks. Given this shift, today’s telecommunications service providers and enterprises are faced with two separate but related challenges: how to upgrade their aging and costly communications infrastructure, and how to implement new and innovative software, IP and cloud-based communications capabilities. Service providers in particular must address these challenges while at the same time responding to competition in the form of new web-scale communication providers such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon.
To address these challenges, service providers and enterprises are modernizing their communications networks, network functions and communications applications from legacy environments to new environments using IP, NFV and the cloud to take advantage of the many benefits that these technologies offer with an end goal of providing better and more productive communications experiences to their customers and employees.
Telecommunications Service Providers: Network Modernization
One of the most significant capital costs for telecommunications service providers has been and continues to be their infrastructure. In order to leverage past capital investments and deliver existing and new services, service providers must consolidate their infrastructure from the costly, legacy infrastructures such as the PSTN and the PLMN into the more efficient and flexible IP- and software-based network models, which are capable of driving revenue growth. Migrating from the PSTN to IP reduces real estate, power and operating costs. IP networks allow the consolidation of voice, video and data within a single IP-based networking infrastructure over broadband and wireless access and enables new communications services, such as SIP Trunking and HUCs. Similarly, modernizing mobile networks to the IMS-based 4G LTE and VoLTE networks enables mobile service providers to offer better and more efficient mobile communications experiences to end users. As consumers and businesses continue to demand more engaging and productive communications experiences, we believe network modernization is and will continue to be essential to service providers’ ability to compete effectively in the market for telecommunications services.
Modernization of Networks to IP
Communication trends have been shifting for the past several years. What was once an industry built on voice communications from central office switches and PBXs on the enterprise premise is now being replaced by the use of social networks, OTT service providers, mobile applications, and hosted service providers. Consumers are increasingly turning to OTT applications
(like WhatsApp, Apple’s Facetime, Messaging or Amazon’s Alexa). This shift has created an enhanced experience for consumers and has heightened expectations for future products and services.
Businesses, large and small, are re-architecting business processes and undergoing a digital transformation, building their own virtualized solutions in the cloud or moving their IT applications entirely to public cloud applications, and adding RTC and collaboration to their customer service solutions. These new solutions improve customer service and create an e-commerce experience that blends online applications with the in-store environment, creating a seamless experience for customers. Network modernization to IP-based systems enables service providers to add modern communications service offers that blend traditional voice messaging capabilities with contemporary features such as video messaging, visual voicemail, mobile messaging and email integration, and an accelerated time-to-market for differentiated messaging services.
Secure Real-time Communications
For most telecommunications service providers, the move to IP-based RTC presumes a strategic, phased migration. This evolution exposes service providers to new security threats, as the “walled” protection offered by their voice network infrastructures no longer exists with SIP and data-based networks. With SIP-based systems, RTC applications such as voice, video and messaging become data applications, and without appropriate security measures in place, these networks are left open to security breaches and hacks. Additionally, the move to SIP has seen an increase in fraud in service provider networks in the form of robo-dialing and toll fraud schemes.
Given these threats, there is a need for sophisticated security solutions to protect networks during the network transformation process. Service providers have relied on SBCs, which are deployed within networks that are designed to provide robust security, as well as simplify interoperability, routing and other functions as a protection measure. By their nature, SBCs are application-aware and therefore can use data and sophisticated analytics to detect and thwart security breaches. We believe securing networks against threats is most effective when secure software solutions are deployed within networks and integrated into existing RTC investments.
Network Function Virtualization
In addition to shifting from legacy to secure IP networks, service providers are increasingly moving toward NFV in order to be able to offer new services quickly to their customers, reduce costs and compete with Web-Scale companies. NFV offers a new way to design, deploy and manage networking services by decoupling network functions from proprietary hardware appliances so they can run in software. This transformation enables better use of network infrastructure, creates agility, delivers rapid and elastic scaling, and enables faster time to market. VNFs can be deployed on generic computing platforms, hosted in private and public clouds, located in data centers, or within other network elements, and on end user premises.
Cloud and “as a Service” Models
As communications applications are deployed in the cloud, service providers gain the ability to offer a new class of business models commonly referred to “as a Service” solutions. These solutions include:
CPaaS: CPaaS is a cloud-based platform that enables developers to add RTC features such as voice, data, video, and messaging in their own applications without needing to build backend infrastructure and interfaces. CPaaS provides software developers the flexibility to “drag and drop” these features into their native applications or within web sites, through simple APIs and SDKs. With CPaaS, enterprises can quickly build applications that tie RTC and their social channels to their business workflows. This technology has not only moved real time communications off carrier networks, but also has greatly simplified the development and deployment of RTC capabilities.
UCaaS: Deploying UC within the “cloud” helps businesses provide flexibility and scalability for core business tasks. UCaaS features include enterprise messaging, presence technology, online meetings, team collaboration, telephony and video conferencing in lieu of traditional voice solutions, such as PBXs or carrier based Centrex. With CPaaS, enterprises can quickly build applications that tie RTC and their social channels to their business workflows.
STaaS: SIP trunking enables service providers to bundle voice and data over a single converged IP pipe and brings connectivity to the enterprise, creating a more economical offering than can be achieved with separate voice and data connections. STaaS delivers IP telephone to customers equipped with IP-PBX and UC facilities. With STaaS, customers have the flexibility to turn up or down and manage their own SIP trunks without the need for additional hardware on-premises or in the network.
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Enterprises: Network Modernization and Digital Transformation
Today’s businesses, both enterprises and SMBs, are undergoing not only a network modernization but also a digital business transformation. The focus is shifting from person-to-person communications to contextual collaboration and omni-channel customer experiences. Within this context, businesses need a secure, scalable and innovative alternative to proprietary PBX and UC products. As part of their digital transformation, businesses have adopted the cloud, open interfaces, mobile, Big Data, and analytics. Seeing the advantages and cost savings from the cloud, businesses are migrating their communications solutions to this same environment, thereby enabling connections between business processes, communications, and collaboration.
Enterprises undergoing network modernization are focused on moving from TDM-based PBXs to SIP trunking and new UC and collaboration systems while ensuring interoperability during the transformation process. In addition, enterprises in certain industries will often be subject to specific requirements or standards before a network transformation is completed. For example, governments may require JITC certification for secure deployments, and healthcare providers may need to achieve HIPAA certification.
When modernizing a network, the ability to interwork modern applications such as Microsoft’s Skype for Business, with legacy analog endpoints on premises, becomes essential. SBCs play an integral role in providing interworking and survivability options. As discussed above, SBCs play a crucial role in securing the network modernization process, which is a top priority for any business.
Successful enterprises today are focused on innovating their core product offerings and building a strategic advantage to reach and empower their customers. As technologies evolve and new mobile applications and connected devices proliferate, enterprises must adapt and innovate their communications solutions to create a “connected” experience anywhere, anytime, on any device. As part of this process, businesses are increasingly deploying “as a Service” offerings from the cloud (from either a service provider or a web-scale provider). UCaaS and CPaaS create a single communications platform that changes the way enterprises interact with customers and meet their expectations. CPaaS enables enterprises to quickly build applications that tie real time communications and their social channels to their business processes while UCaaS delivers the underlying UC infrastructure to ensure end users have the features and functionality required to enable reliable and scalable end-to-end communications.
Our Solutions, Products and Services
Ribbon Solutions
Ribbon provides secure RTC software, hardware and cloud-native solutions for service providers and enterprises. Ribbon's communications solutions are widely deployed at over 1,000 customers globally, provide high scale, reliability and performance, and are deployable from the public, private and hybrid cloud, in-network or on the enterprise premise. As of December 31, 2017, our solutions for service providers and enterprises included the following:
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Ribbon service provider solutions help fixed and mobile operators, cable providers or MSOs, ISPs and interconnect service providers modernize their networks, quickly capitalize on growing market segments and introduce differentiating products, applications and services for their business and consumer customers. Ribbon's service provider network modernization solutions include fixed network transformation, mobile network evolution (mobility), secure network interconnects, network functions virtualization, cloud communications as a Service and communications security solutions, enabling secure and innovative business and consumer communications services offerings. Ribbon solutions help service providers connect people to each other wherever they happen to be, addressing the growing demands of today’s consumers and businesses for secure RTC.
Ribbon's enterprise solutions allow enterprises to securely connect to SIP trunks and modernize their communications networks. Modernization solutions range from legacy Nortel PBX evolution, securing UC and contact centers, migrating to Microsoft Skype for Business and Teams, providing session management, security and cloud communications solutions to enable highly productive communications experiences for employees and customers using the web, mobile and fixed endpoints. Ribbon provides communications solutions for the federal government vertical and has Joint Interoperability Test Command (JTIC) certified solutions. Ribbon also provides RTC solutions to other industry verticals, including higher education, finance and healthcare. Ribbon has significant experience and expertise in securing SIP communications with a portfolio of SBCs, and has deployed thousands of SBCs across different industry verticals. Our Microsoft Skype for Business and Teams solutions secure those communications environments and assist in the migration of enterprise customers to those environments.
Ribbon Products