Siemens Introduces OpenScape Session Border Controller at Reduced Costs

Siemens Enterprise Communications (SEN) has released the OpenScape Session Border Controller (SBC), delivering secure Voice over IP (VoIP) and cost savings to OpenScape Voice customers. It's architected for SIP trunking termination from a variety of service providers and designed to address security and interoperability issues that SIP-based VoIP traffic encounters. With it, teleworker and contact center home agent deployments are simple and cost-effective, while connectivity is secure.

OpenScape SBC is designed with a low implementation cost and deployed on industry-standard servers to provide a high investment return. It terminates SIP sessions outside of the enterprise voice network, keeping traffic within authorized sources to protect the voice network while keeping communication fluid.

It's a scalable solution, supporting up to 4,000 sessions per server at once, and is available with local or geographical redundancy options. OpenScape SBC works with the OpenScape Voice solution, providing an end-to-end, SIP-based telephony portfolio that's scalable for enterprises of all sizes and easily manageable.

“The Siemens OpenScape Session Border Controller is an invaluable addition to the OpenScape technology suite," says Russell Bennett of UCStrategies. "While the benefits of wide area network communications are compelling, with all of the well-publicized threats emanating from the Internet, enterprises are understandably fearful of exposing their corporate network to external attack.  With the OpenScape Session Border Controller, they can not only gain the benefits of SIP Trunking, they can also provide remote access to teleworkers and branch offices while maintaining network integrity.”

UCStrategies UC Expert Stephen Leaden adds, “SEN is bidding their own E-SBCs (enterprise) for a client right now. The driver here is not to trust the carrier-based SBCs and safeguard your own enterprise. There are definitely opinions in this early-adopter stage of the market and many, including Gartner Group, think it is a good idea to err on the side of caution and add functionality at the enterprise level.  To quote Gartner: ‘E-SBCs focus on SIP protection, including SIP-based anomaly detection and SIP-based signatures, while also supporting the ability for organizations to prioritize traffic and route sessions, all of which can complement the service provider's SBC.’”

Leaden goes on to include, "Most SBC's are 3rd party offered or private labeled in the market (Audiocodes and Acme Packet being two of the leading providers) – it is refreshing to see a native SBC provided by a manufacturer like Siemens (and Cisco as another). I think we are going to see more of the E-SBCs as SIP trunking evolves.”

For more information, visit www.siemens-enterprise.com.