Avaya IP Office Increases Security for Cloud-based Deployments, Enhances User Experience

Unique, built-in encryption supports over-the-top public and hybrid cloud deployments to help reduce the growing number of cyberattacks aimed at small and midsized businesses

Santa Clara, Calif. - August 30, 2016 — Avaya today announced the latest version of its market-leading unified communications solution for small and midsize businesses. Avaya IP Office release 10 adds a number benefits for businesses in terms of security, resiliency and end-user experience, as well as for the channel partners who serve them.

Among several enhancements, the latest version of the Avaya IP Office Platform™ increases security and resiliency. Now, built-in signaling and media encryption for endpoints and UC clients helps preserve privacy and data integrity — critical in any deployment, but especially in those delivered through pure or hybrid cloud services. This unique feature in Avaya IP Office is provided at no extra cost or added complexity, unlike many other over-the-top, pure cloud UC vendor offerings available today that only provide encryption as an optional line item - if at all.

This increase in security is especially significant to the midmarket: According to a 2015 global survey report^[1], the number of attacks reported by midsize companies increased 64% between 2013 and 2014, from 2,581 to 4,227. The increase in attacks on this segment comes partly due to cybercriminals turning to midsize businesses in hopes of easy access.

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Beyond other pure cloud deployments, the latest version of IP Office takes a unique approach to resilience, providing system failover cloud to cloud, cloud to premises, premises to cloud and premises to premises.  Whatever the approach, the system stays active and users maintain connectivity throughout the outage.

Richer User Experience
To meet the rising expectations of end-users for a richer, more streamlined experience, the Avaya IP Office Platform introduces the H175 video phone, with a 7” hi-definition touchscreen display that is suitable for the personal, executive desk or a small conference room. In addition, IP Office R10 opens a number of APIs to make it easier for developers to create WebRTC based clients to simplify configuration and deployment for partners. Finally, virtual meeting functions have been streamlined and strengthened with WebRTC audio and richer collaboration capabilities.

Smarter Contact Centers for Midsize Companies
For midsize companies with contact centers, Avaya announced in June a new workforce optimization solution that provides midsize companies with the operational intelligence needed to enhance contact center performance and drive a high-quality customer experience. Highly affordable, simple to deploy and intuitive to use, Avaya Workforce Optimization Select enables a wide range of insights into the customer experience, allowing midsize businesses to create the most value through every customer interaction.

The Avaya IP Office Platform is available through authorized channel partners in three deployment options: premises-based, hybrid or pure cloud solution. With more than half a million systems shipped globally, Avaya IP Office is one of the most widely sold unified communications solutions for small and midsize businesses available in the market today.

Quotes:

“The challenge of keeping up with growing, ever-changing cybersecurity threats is daunting  - especially for small and midsize businesses with budget and resource constraints. It’s these very constraints that increase the inclination to choose cloud-based services; however,  it’s also not a given fact that security is or will be provided by their cloud vendor. That’s why we believe security should be built into the solution as opposed to bolted on. It’s essential, and a core component of our Avaya IP Office Platform.”
Gary E. Barnett, SVP and GM, Avaya Engagement Solutions

“With interest in cloud solutions further accelerating among our small and mid-size enterprise customers, Carousel can now offer our Powered by Avaya IP Office-as-a-service or as an on-premise solution. With Release 10, our customers will benefit from faster, more streamlined deployments and the built-in encryption, which provides a significant differentiator over other OTT cloud solutions.”
Jim Marsh, Chief Revenue Officer, Carousel Industries

“SMBs are increasingly interested in cloud solutions, but are at different stages of adoption: some are all in, some prefer on premise, some are in between. Avaya offers a choice with the same code base and performance regardless of deployment approach. And just as important, security capabilities are baked in, not just optional.  Avaya’s message of security, flexibility, and performance will resonate with SMBs.
Ray Boggs, vice president SMB research, IDC

About Avaya
Avaya is a leading provider of solutions that enable customer and team engagement across multiple channels and devices for better customer experience, increased productivity and enhanced financial performance. Its world-class contact center and unified communications —technologies and services are available in a wide variety of flexible on-premises and cloud deployment options that seamlessly integrate with non-Avaya applications. The Avaya Breeze enables third parties to create and customize business applications for competitive advantage.  The Avaya fabric-based networking solutions help simplify and accelerate the deployment of business critical applications and services.  For more information please visit www.avaya.com.

Certain statements contained in this press release may be forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "should" or "will" or other similar terminology.  We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While we believe these are reasonable, such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These and other important factors may cause our actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to Avaya's filings with the SEC that are available at www.sec.gov. Avaya disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

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^[1] https://www.pwc.com/us/en/private-company-services/publications/assets/pwc-gyb-cybersecurity.pdf