New software release for the Polycom UC Intelligent Core

Polycom, a global leader in unified communications (UC), today at InfoComm 2011 announced the new Polycom UC Intelligent Core software release. This new release features industry-leading enhancements to help customers deploy more devices than ever before; more easily connect any device, standard, or network; provide best-in-class experience; and reduce costs.

“The UC Intelligent Core technology is the heart of unified communications and a key component of our UC Everywhere vision, and is continuing to change the industry by delivering unparalleled scalability and interoperability,” said Sudhakar Ramakrishna, Polycom chief development officer. “We are accelerating the adoption of video collaboration and driving down costs by making the process easier for everyone from the end user to the IT administrator.”

Offering more than five times the scalability of competing UC solutions¹, the new release enables the UC Intelligent Core solution to deliver carrier-grade scalability supporting up to 75,000 devices helping large corporations and service providers handle the multiplier effect of new UC devices, from mobile devices to room-based telepresence solutions. Intelligent load-balancing and redundant auto-failover ensures 100 percent failover protection and makes UC as reliable and available as other mission-critical communications such as voice or data. 

The UC Intelligent Core platform harnesses the cloud to establish “universal bridging,” an industry first that allows users to connect regardless of protocol standard, device, network, or location helping to reduce costs and increase productivity. The universal bridge will support a vast range of protocols including H.323, TIP, SIP, POTS/ISDN, and RTV, and is ideal for users looking to seamlessly and easily connect multiple organizations. The enhanced UC Intelligent Core solution delivers unprecedented security, scale, reach, access, and availability with lower total cost of ownership than ever before.

The UC Intelligent Core platform is the only solution with guaranteed class of service through dynamic Priority Based Communications to ensure a quality experience that maximizes productivity and speeds ROI. The UC Intelligent Core technology also helps drive the broader adoption of video by natively integrating with everyday workflow tools such as Microsoft Lync and IBM SameTime. The native integration allows customers to seamlessly connect two separate communication platforms, such as Lync and video telepresence. End users organically adopt UC solutions because they are easy to use and provide access to all of the workflow tools they need.

By simplifying the use cases for integrated, multi-vendor deployments, the new UC Intelligent Core software offers the broadest available selection of UC solutions to support a wide range of environments, applications, and budgets. Polycom’s efficient use of bandwidth (reducing bandwidth requirements by 50 percent) through the H.264 High Profile technology, combined with enhanced quality of experience developments, drives video conferencing use and reduces costs across organizations.

The UC Intelligent Core infrastructure simplifies the administration of UC. Native integration with Active Directory drastically shortens set-up by eliminating complex reconfiguration helping to slash expenses and cut deployment from weeks to minutes. The solution also features advanced firewall traversal technology that provides broad B2B communication access through a single port, which eliminates the need to open multiple ports in the corporate firewall while ensuring secure access between locations, organizations, and the cloud. 

Unlike any other solution in the marketplace, the UC Intelligent Core platform:

Provides maximum access through cloud-based delivery of real-time and on-demand video content and streaming with Polycom’s Accordent solutions that natively integrate with Microsoft Lync and SharePoint

Expands interoperability and standards-based support for UC solutions and third-party devices including support for Microsoft Outlook 2010 and Windows 7, as well as enhancements to support for Avaya Aura networks and Cisco CUCM networks

Provides load balancing for up to 192 bridges, a unique offering from Polycom unmatched by the competition

Polycom UC Intelligent Core technology is a key innovation platform for enabling service providers to drive visual business-to-business communications, and telepresence interoperability for multi-site, multi-vendor video calls. Polycom and 14 leading global service providers recently announced the Open Visual Communications Consortium, the first public and open video exchange of its kind, to enable new levels of interoperability for telepresence and video conferencing between organizations worldwide.