Alliance To Deliver MSBG Message

also business issues. For instance, In-Stat says that the market will take a slow growth path as vendors run up against a large amount of installed voice and data infrastructure that is in-place and serving customer needs.

Enter the MSBG Alliance. The Alliance is focused on promoting, developing and delivering an industry-wide open systems and reference architecture to kick-start the uptake of MSBGs and put more options into the hands of VARs and service providers. Objectives include creating MSBG technology that addresses hot trends like security, unified communications, video, routing, WANs and mobility. Also, the Alliance aims to develop a portfolio for VARs and service providers that significantly reduces up-front R&D expense and improves time-to-market metrics.

Service providers and VARs certainly see the theoretical benefits. “The multiservice business gateway solution is the next logical step in the evolution in the telecommunications marketplace, and providers today need to deliver both voice and data services to capitalize on new opportunities and remain competitive,” explained Philippe Babin, PLM director at Mediatrix, one of the alliance members. This gives them an all-in-one way to do it.

"Managed business services represent a key growth opportunity for service providers," said Ibrahim Gedeon, CTO at carrier Telus. "The MSBG Alliance and reference platform can help accelerate the delivery of managed services to business customers and will play an important role in defining next-generation solutions."

According LSI’s internal research, the target customer group will soon see the upside as well. LSI predicts the MSBG market to grow at a healthy clip: at 30 percent per year until at least 2011. Meanwhile, attendant revenue is seen as climbing from a nominal $1 billion today to as much as $2.5 billion by 2011.

But what about the problem of the installed base? LSI’s Kepekci has an answer for that. “MSBGs can be deployed throughout the enterprise at all locations, whether at headquarters or in a remote or branch location,” he explained. “And because IP represents the future of the enterprise network (and for that matter, the future of most networks), and is the fundamental underpinning for the deployment of converged networks, MSBGs are designed to operate easily within that environment. They are also designed to be forgiving of legacy installations: Most modern MSBGs allow customers with traditional PBXs and in-place legacy telephony systems to connect, thus ensuring a graceful migration strategy that does not require a forklift upgrade as a way to enter the IP network domain.”

If the MSBG Alliance has anything to do with it, these messages and the technology to back it up should be in the hands of VARs and service providers sooner rather than later.

MSBG Alliance Members

Accton Technology Corp.

Accton Technology leverages software applications and an ASIC for computing and communications vendors. It collaborates with those strategic partners to design, develop and manufacture the resulting products.

Aricent Inc. 

Aricent is offers software services and products that enable communications equipment manufacturers, device manufacturers and service providers to improve time-to-revenue and maximize efficiency.