SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Edgewater Networks today announced the availability of the EdgeProtect Series Enterprise Session Border Controllers. Ideal for enterprises of all sizes, the EdgeProtect family of products easily and securely connects remote employees to headquarters based Unified Communications (UC) systems.
"Extending Unified Communications systems to remote offices poses significant challenges for enterprises, including navigating firewalls, ensuring security for UC traffic and implementing tools for the real-time diagnosis of network issues," said Richard Ptak, co-founder and managing partner at Ptak, Noel & Associates. "Edgewater Networks has developed a simple, straightforward solution for addressing the complexities of UC deployments, allowing enterprises to gain the full potential of their UC investment."
EdgeProtect Solution
EdgeProtect Enterprise Session Border Controllers addresses the top challenges associated with connecting remote employees and locations to centrally based UC systems and IP PBXs. As firewalls and NAT servers often prevent reliable IP-based voice and video communications, securing this real-time traffic in transit between locations can be difficult to implement and troubleshooting network impairments that negatively affect call quality is challenging. The EdgeProtect solution uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) to simplify connectivity and provide confidentiality, authentication and encryption for all IP-based voice, video and data connections. It also integrates passive call quality monitoring to isolate network impairments to local or wide area network segments.
Deployed at a headquarters location, the EdgeProtect system terminates multiple TLS connections from remote locations using Edgewater Networks EdgeMarc Enterprise Session Border Controllers. This powerful combination provides simplified secure connectivity between branch offices and headquarters locations that is fully interoperable with existing network infrastructure including firewalls, routers and switches.
EdgeProtect Product Family
- The EdgeProtect 5300LF2 platform provides 1 x 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet WAN, 1 x 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet LAN and 1 x 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet secure out-of-band management port. The 5300LF2 supports up to 300 concurrent TLS connections, 300 concurrent VoIP calls or 25 Mbps of video traffic.
- The EdgeProtect 4550 platform provides 1 x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet WAN and 4 x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet managed LAN switch. The 4550 supports up to 10 concurrent TLS connections, 10 concurrent VoIP calls or 1 Mbps of video traffic.
- The EdgeProtect 4552 platform provides 1 x T1/E1 WAN interface, 1 x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet WAN and 4 x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet managed LAN switch. The 4552 can be used to terminate T1 access links directly and supports up to 10 concurrent TLS connections, 10 concurrent VoIP calls or 1 Mbps of video traffic.
Key EdgeProtect software features for all models include TLS encryption, support for PKI or self-signed certificates, UDP based transport to minimize the negative effect of network impairments on call quality, passive call quality monitoring, QoS support for traffic prioritization and packet inspection and filtering for tunnel based traffic.
Simplified Connectivity That Works With Existing Security Infrastructure
One of the common challenges associated with connecting remote locations and employees to headquarters based UC systems is the modification required to the corporate firewall to support new connections. Editing security policy is complex and exhaustive testing must be performed by enterprise IT after a new policy is created to ensure that corporate assets are still adequately protected. The EdgeProtect solution can be deployed at headquarters locations in a secure configuration that requires no modification to existing firewall policies. This simplifies installation and eliminates inadvertent, potential exposure caused by modified firewall policies.
Optimized For IP-based Voice And Video
The EdgeProtect solution has been specifically designed to meet the demands of today’s IP-based UC systems. Priority voice and video traffic will be forwarded in the secure TLS tunnels before lower priority data. In addition, the system uses secure UDP transport to minimize the negative affects of packet loss on voice and video call quality.
Simplified Maintenance
The EdgeProtect solution performs passive VoIP call quality monitoring to provide IT network operators with visibility into call quality performance. Working in conjunction with Edgewater Networks’ EdgeView VoIP Support Tool, network operators can quickly isolate network impairments that negatively affect end-user call quality to their own local area network or wide area network connections. EdgeView can also be used to send real-time alerts to IT network operators when call quality is measured below a configurable threshold.
Broad Interoperability
The EdgeProtect solution is fully interoperable with any IP-based UC system including solutions from Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco Systems, IBM, Interactive Intelligence, Microsoft, Mitel, NEC, ShoreTel, HP Networking, Siemens, Digium and Aastra. As securing voice and video devices can be complicated due to inconsistent encryption support and certificate management issues across components, the EdgeProtect solution provides comprehensive security for all IP phones, PC soft clients and server systems including those that do not natively support encryption services.
“Unified Communications holds the promise of increased productivity and reduced costs but only if implemented easily and reliably,” said David G. Norman, Chief Executive Office of Edgewater Networks, Inc. “The EdgeProtect solution enables enterprise organizations to save money and create a competitive advantage by providing simplified, secure access to their UC systems.”
Pricing
U.S. list pricing for the family of EdgeProtect Enterprise Session Border Controller products ranges from $2,495 to $19,995 depending on configuration.
Edgewater’s Comprehensive Solution
EdgeProtect and EdgeMarc Enterprise Session Border Controllers are a part of a comprehensive solution that includes EdgeConnect managed Ethernet switches, the EdgeView VoIP Support System and EdgeView Reports. EdgeProtect and EdgeMarc Enterprise Session Border Controllers connect, protect, optimize and monitor IP-based communications including SIP trunking, Hosted PBX and Enterprise video. EdgeConnect switches are ideal for converged voice, video and data networks and the EdgeView VoIP Support system is used to troubleshoot network impairments that negatively affect VoIP quality. EdgeView Reports provides network operators with valuable performance information needed to properly maintain today’s converged networks.
The Edgewater Networks solution provides broad interoperability with industry leading providers of voice and video equipment. The company’s industry-wide Plug & Dial interoperability program includes a SIP trunking certification lab with over 20 PBX models and state-of-the-art automation tools.
About Edgewater Networks, Inc. – Your gateway to IP-based communications.
Edgewater Networks, Inc. is a leading provider of Enterprise Session Border Controllers that connect, protect, optimize and monitor IP-based communications. Edgewater’s solution ensures the secure and reliable delivery of converged voice, video and data services while providing the policy management and enforcement needed for today’s collaborative communications and applications. EdgeMarc and EdgeProtect Enterprise Session Border Controllers provide a VoIP and video aware NAT/Firewall, protocol harmonization for interoperability of VoIP and video devices, active VoIP line testing, call quality monitoring, survivability and QoS. EdgeProtect Enterprise Session Border Controllers connect remote employees and locations to centrally based UC systems and IP PBXs using strong TLS-based encryption. EdgeConnect Ethernet switches simplify administration and QoS for converged networks. 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.
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