Original post on Cloud Computing
Telco cloud is a next-generation network architecture that brings together Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), and cloud-native voice, data, video, messaging, and collaboration applications over a distributed cloud computing network.
Since the network and the computing resources are distributed across regional sites and, in some cases, multiple clouds, to make this work, advanced automation, and orchestration are table stakes.
Telco cloud supports innovation and integration, including embedded “experiences.” For example, it enables a customer to reach a contact center agent with one click on the web. It represents a much more economical infrastructure compared to complex, hardware-based, expensive, and dated legacy “wired” networks by invoking virtualized and programmable network infrastructure that takes advantage of automation and artificial intelligence.
It has forever changed the way organizations communicate and collaborate internally and externally.
Technically speaking, a telco cloud focuses on the creation of a common virtualized infrastructure to manage network functions required to initiate a VoIP session, set up a Zoom or Teams conference, or pass sessions from one channel to another. Each function is disaggregated from the hardware, and sessions can run over public, private, or hybrid clouds.
One of the greatest challenges organizations have always faced is ensuring availability and quality, and addressing that in the context of telco cloud demands new software solutions that ensure quality; even as millions more employees are working from home, contact centers are rapidly moving to a distributed workforce, and end-user demands are ever increasing.
ConnX, an innovative multiservice communication platform integrator and managed service provider, and Nectar Services Corp., which delivers actionable insights for the cloud collaboration and contact center markets, this week announced the availability of an advanced edge experience assurance solution designed to ensure every voice and collaboration interaction is excellent on every endpoint and every step of the way.
ConnX has been managing large enterprise networks in the retail, manufacturing, healthcare, government, and financial services sectors for nearly three decades, and its popular ConnX Virtual Edge (CVE) has been in place and serving Fortune 500 companies as real-time communications and collaboration shifted to the cloud.
Nectar’s software solutions – delivered as a service in the cloud, on-premises, or in a hybrid model – are embedded into the ConnX AI Active Assurance offering. Nectar brings to the collaboration dynamic geospatial dashboards which provide location-based views of usage and user experience metrics that enable IT support and managed services teams to drill down on individual users, locations, and sessions to troubleshoot issues quickly.
These user-based dashboards give ConnX managed services support teams full context into an individual user’s devices, client versions, and network connections with correlated insights and a real-time health assessment (powered by Nectar’s proprietary User Health Index) for fast troubleshooting. ConnX integrates Nectar’s solution into a broader partner ecosystem that simplifies the client experience and helps resolve issues with greater efficiency.
“ConnX has been working with Nectar for over ten years, collaborating with them through the rapid evolution from traditional infrastructure to cloud networking solutions,” said Jeff Li, Senior Director, Risk, Governance, Partners, and Projects at ConnX. “By bringing together two talented engineering teams around a common vision – to bring the highest quality real-time communications services to enterprise customers and contact center and CX providers at a level they’ve never seen before – we are dramatically improving how the ‘borderless enterprise’ can deliver consistently excellent interactions with their customers and partners. The pandemic caused us to work harder and faster than ever as the evolution to the cloud became a revolution, and together our offering addresses the hardest challenges.”
“Working with ConnX, we’ve been able to bring enterprises more visibility into private, public, and hybrid cloud UCaaS services,” said Steph Shaw, Strategic Alliance Manager, Nectar. “Our combination of strengths, including our great teams and common vision, make it possible to bring enterprises and departments insights their teams need. We are proud to enhance ConnX’s AI Active Assurance premium offerings and support their next-level AI SD-WAN capabilities.”
Nectar was founded on the idea that voice and video are a unique workload within IT, and over the years, it has proven its value in day-to-day telephony operations within many of the world’s largest organizations.
By instrumenting devices used for daily internal and external communications with additional software, the two companies have gone way beyond intelligent routing for quality and resiliency, advancing into software that validates and makes instantly visible controls associated with the management of every session.
The future is applying analytics to generate BI insights that have a direct impact on business outcomes, whether companies wish to grow revenues by improving customer experience or to improve profitability.
“We are very proud of our collective solution and grateful for the partnerships we have been blessed with as we have always been able to succeed when we can truly help leaders across the entire organization to drive increasingly positive business outcomes,” Li said.