Miercom Validates NET's UX2000 for Unified Communications

Network Equipment Technologies, Inc. (NET) has announced that its UX2000 Survivable Branch Appliance (SBA) has been tested and validated by Miercom, a third-party network product testing facility. The UX2000 was developed to work with Microsoft Lync 2010 and other next-gen VoIP and unified communications deployments, and designed specifically for UC, service border controller, and business gateway applications.

The testing has validated the UX2000's performance as a redundant survivable gateway under the Performance Verified program. It showed that NET's appliance can provide resiliency and reliability for branch sites thanks to its availability and interoperability, as well as its ability to integrate easily with Microsoft Lync 2010. It also makes efficient use of bandwidth thanks to its multiple media transcoding feature. It has proven to have reliable survivability and availability at branch sites during power outages without losing the quality of voice or service.

Miercom notes, “The NET UX2000 is capable of providing branch site resiliency and reliability by delivering high availability and interoperability. The UX2000 is easily integrated with Microsoft Lync 2010 for high availability at branch sites. The appliance affords efficient bandwidth usage with its multiple media transcoding feature. Survivability and high availability at branch sites using the NET appliance during outages proved to be reliable without any loss of service while maintaining toll quality voice.

According to several of the UCStrategies UC Experts, this is important for both NET and its customers.

Andy Zmolek, UCStrategies Expert, notes: "Branch survivability features have become increasingly critical for this market segment so this will be a welcome capability for those looking for this feature in a Lync-based solution."

According to UCStrategies Expert David Yedwab, "The Miercom test report of NET’s new UX architecture (and specifically the UX2000) concludes that NET has set a high benchmark for achieving the requirements of a survivable branch voice communications when the WAN connection is lost. The Miercom test demonstrates that local (on-site) calls can be maintained and new calls be completed successfully if sufficient network backup facilities (local PSTN connections) are provided."

Russell Bennett, Principal of UC Insights and UCStrategies Expert adds, “With this first installment of the UX series, NET is re-setting the bar for UC branch office gateways. Targeted at the medium-to-large sized branch (50-1,000 staff), the UX2000 leverages the modularity of the UX architecture to enable the chassis to be ‘right-sized’ for a specific office and to be upgraded later as required. NET has done an excellent job of adding additional value to the integration with Microsoft Lync, especially with the ability for the UX2000 to simultaneously connect to OCS 2007 R2 and Lync, providing infinite flexibility in a phased-migration plan. As may be expected with a 'federally certified' product line, UX2000’s security features exceed the most stringent enterprise security requirements.”

For more information, visit www.miercom.com/NET.