Exploring the Amazon and AudioCodes Collaboration

AudioCodes, one of the market leaders in the production of state-of-the-art communication solutions for companies around the world, recently announced their partnership with Amazon

Rob Scott

AudioCodes, one of the market leaders in the production of state-of-the-art communication solutions for companies around the world, recently announced their partnership with Amazon. AudioCodes is well known for designing and manufacturing advanced VoIP and converged VoIP and data networking solutions in locations across the globe.

Recently, AudioCodes announced that it would be assisting Amazon as they expand their UCaaS offering with the arrival of Amazon Chime Voice Connector. The Voice Connector service provides companies with opportunities to access secure calls from contact centres and on-premise phone systems. AudioCodes's Mediant suite of SBCs (Session Border Controllers), will operate with Amazon Chime Voice Connector in the cloud, virtualised, and appliance formats.

I caught up with Nimrode Borovsky, the VP of Global Marketing and Head of UC Business for AudioCodes, to find out more about the latest collaboration.

Tell us about the Amazon and AudioCodes Collaboration

[caption id="attachment_21937" align="alignright" width="200"] Nimrode Borovsky[/caption]

I asked Nimrode to tell me about his thoughts on the new arrival of the Amazon Voice Connector Service, and what AudioCodes is going to be doing to support the growth of this new offering. He told me that everyone knows about Amazon's massive reach when it comes to customers and the business market. Nimrode also noted that it is well known that Amazon is fighting the “cloud war” with other giants like Google, Microsoft, and more. "The heart of this war centres around stickiness - it's all about looking for ways to get people to stay with your cloud for as long as possible."

According to Borovsky, Amazon believes that giving more value to their customers is the best way to keep clients close. Because of this, Amazon is allowing companies to sign-up with a global contract for all of their services. "We're taking our expertise in the Session Border Controller Market and helping people to make the most of this new Amazon Chime Voice Connector experience."

What Do AudioCodes Offer for Amazon Users?

Nimrode noted that AudioCodes is getting involved from a "software-defined voice model" level.

"We're seeing customers right now saying that they like Microsoft Teams for collaboration, but they might want to use Zoom for conferencing, and Amazon pay-as-you-go Connect for times when they need to expand their contact centre for seasonal changes"

All of these different tools for communication in the same company leads to complications. People start operating in silos, and the more environments there are to manage around the world, the more the silos continue to grow. "People today want to start flattening things out by software defining their voice network. This creates a new middle layer that connects everything, bringing user management and tools into the same environment."

According to Nimrode, Amazon is playing its part in this software-defined voice layer environment by creating a Connector that can link with any voice solution a customer wants to use, whether it's Microsoft Teams, Cisco, Avaya, or something else. At the same time, the Mediant SBCs from AudioCodes provides a highly scalable selection of products for robust security, comprehensive SIP interoperability, superior voice quality, and more.

What's the Benefit of Creating a Software Defined Layer?

According to AudioCodes and Nimrode, the value of the new software-defined layer isn't just worth looking at to reduce the appearance of silos in the business - it's also essential for increased agility in the modern workforce. It allows companies to embrace the tools and services that they want to use without having to take on more communication complexity.

"The layer also provides a more secure environment too. Companies moving into a zero-trust framework can place a software-defined security layer over their entire organisation, where they can align their network horizontally, and keep everything under control. People are starting to see how logical this software-defined layer is, and they're using it on a communication level too. That's where the Amazon Chime Voice Connector comes in."

Through Amazon's Voice Connector solution, and the SBC offerings from AudioCodes, companies can access a consistent layer of security and voice support for their entire communication technology stack, regardless of which new applications they might decide to embrace. The AudioCodes Mediant range of SBCs will allow organisations to reliably link to the Amazon Chime Voice Connector Service.

What Do You Think about Amazon's UC Path?

Finally, I asked Nimrode to provide his thoughts on Amazon's path into the UC environment. Chime is a UCaaS experience delivered by Amazon, and the Voice Connector is part of that overall experience. With Chime Voice Connector, Amazon is giving their customers more freedom to use the tools they want, combined with high-level voice.

"When Amazon announced Chime in 2017, it was originally positioned as an online meeting service, and today if you visit the Chime webpage, you will see the proposition also include chat and business calling. This demonstrates the bundling of value into this cloud offering, such that it is addresses the full needs of a business. This demonstrates the constant rise of comprehensive UCaaS offerings."

Amazon has a vast cloud environment to offer, and incredible background in the field, which means that it could present a very competitive offering in the marketplace. Now that companies are going "all-in" with their AWS strategies and moving into the cloud; they're looking for even more things that they might be able to do with Amazon. What's more, Amazon also provides the hybrid opportunity that's difficult to find elsewhere.

"We're giving people the SBCs they're looking for where needed, so we can be the connector to the UCaaS offering of their choice, bringing different environments together around the world and giving businesses more agility."