Edgewater Networks, Inc. Joins Newly Launched UCIF to Advance Unified Communications Interoperability

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Edgewater Networks, Inc. today announced its Adopter Level of membership in the recently formed Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF), a non-profit alliance of worldwide technology leaders working together to fully realize the potential of unified communications (UC). The UCIF is dedicated to enabling standards-based, cross-vendor interoperability of UC hardware and software across enterprises, service providers and consumer clouds and is designed to enable global businesses to be more productive.

“We are very pleased to be involved with the important work being done by the UCIF”

Recognizing that seamless interoperability based on open standards is one of the key requirements to drive UC further into today’s enterprises, UCIF members will collaborate to overcome existing interoperability barriers to widespread UC adoption and deliver a reliable and rich UC experience, with the goal of propelling worldwide enterprise UC adoption. Founding members of the UCIF include HP, Juniper Networks, Logitech / LifeSize Communications, Microsoft and Polycom.

“We are very pleased to be involved with the important work being done by the UCIF,” said David G Norman, Chief Executive Officer of Edgewater Networks. “Our products have always operated in a heterogenous environment and we realize that the investments we make in interoperability are critical to our customers realizing the maximum value of their unified communications systems.”

“Interoperability is not only critical to customer success for deploying unified communications but intrinsic to the delivery of legacy, current and next-generation UC tools, services and infrastructure from multiple vendors. Until now, efforts to achieve interoperability have appeared ad-hoc, which has given customers little assurance that their existing and planned investments are protected and will deliver the value promised,” said Jonathan Edwards, research analyst, Unified Communications, IDC. “I’m delighted to see Edgewater Networks take a leading role by joining the UCIF. Together, these companies will help drive industry wide adoption of open standards and develop programs that put accountability on the vendors and provide peace of mind and investment protection for end customers – something that will surely accelerate adoption of UC technologies.”

The UCIF will work with existing industry standards, identifying and filling the gaps between current protocols and interoperability issues that have stalled broad adoption and deployment of valuable communications methods. UCIF membership is open to hardware and software solution providers, service providers and network operators. For more information or to join the UCIF, visit www.ucif.org.

About the Unified Communications Interoperability Forum

The Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF) is a non-profit alliance of worldwide communications technology leaders working together to realize the potential of unified communications (UC) by increasing efficiency, decreasing implementation costs and improving the interoperability experience for UC customers. The UCIF’s vision is to enable interoperability of standards-based UC hardware and software across enterprises, service providers, and consumer clouds, as a means of generating incremental business opportunity for all stakeholders in the ecosystem and of increasing the business use of UC technologies and services. The UCIF creates and tests interoperability profiles, implementation guidelines and best practices for interoperability between UC products and existing communications and business applications. Visit www.ucif.org to learn more.

About Edgewater Networks, Inc. - Converged Networking. Simplified.

Edgewater Networks develops networking and security products that ensure the secure and reliable delivery of IP based voice and video for service providers and enterprises. EdgeMarc Network Services Gateways provide a VoIP aware NAT/Firewall, with Active Line Testing, survivability and QoS. EdgeConnect PoE switches simplify administration and QoS, the EdgeView Reports Server provides visibility into VoIP network performance and the EdgeView VoIP Support System eases the setup, monitoring and management of VoIP endpoints.

Edgewater Networks’ award-winning solution simplifies setup and management of converged networking applications and provides proven operational savings from the remote office to the core of the network.

For more information about Edgewater Networks, Inc. please visit the company’s website at www.edgewaternetworks.com or contact Dave Martin at 408.351.7209.