U.K. IP telephony hardware and software vendor Aculab has rolled out Aculab Cloud, which it says is a scalable on-demand platform-as-a-service that brings together software traditionally loaded onto voice boards or available to download onto host processors.

Aculab said the telephony platform reduces management costs, and allows companies to scale in the cloud as needed without additional hardware costs, reducing capex.

Aculab Cloud comes with a set of high level telephony APIs, making it easier for developers to build telephony applications quickly, the company said. Included in the service are features like:

• International inbound PSTN service and outbound PSTN service;
• Play, record;
• TTS, conferencing (for up to 400 parties);
• Transfer, DTMF, CPA, live speaker detection, answer machine detection and many more essential features for building a diverse range of solutions.

Aculab has beta tested the solution with several high-volume customers, running some 3 million minutes (and growing) through the platform in January, it said.

For more:
- see this release

Related articles:
Aculab: Demand increasing as companies integrate IP into existing networks
Faster networks and beyond 'Best Effort'

We've all had a weekend to decompress the news and information we absorbed at IT EXPO last week and I thought I'd round up some of the interesting things I got a chance to hear about and discuss while hanging out in the press room and exploring the show floor.

Bigger data pipes and broadband access are going to drive the more flashy technologies on the VoIP horizon, while also insuring that the bread and butter of VoIP becomes ubiquitous. Like Skype CSO, Christoper Dean said in his keynote, 4G will be the inflection point that will bring Mobile VoIP and perhaps even video calls to consumers on the move, while the 3G pipe is probably holding back innovation on new forms of Mobile communication. On the wired side, a number of things will need to happen to make mass HD voice and video calling penetration a reality. Faster networks that can guarantee the same quality from end-to-end while avoiding the PSTN will be necessary if we really want to see some cool stuff reach mass usage.

With so much more opportunity to switch businesses away from their traditional PSTN calling systems, our industry has been coming up with great ways to insure reliability, allow for the use of older technology while moving to IP, and develop ways to connect traditional calls to SIP as well as connections between different SIP codecs. I spoke with Ingate and Dialogic about how SIP Trunking really has become the catalyst driving a lot of innovation for conversion to IP and their any-to-any solution. Aculab told me about how they were delivering business-critical reliability with their dual-redundant SIP service, a solution that shows we are moving away from the idea of 'best effort' reliability while still delivering all the increased functionality that IP communications have to offer. If the FCC's broadband stimulus dreams come true we will need to continue making the transition easier through things like SIP. And, if we one day do have an all-IP network, we will need to make sure we have a 'beyond best effort' infrastructure in place so that our critical communication systems are always available like we have all grown to expect.

It was nice meeting with so many great companies in our industry, hearing about how they do business and also hearing feedback on FierceVoIP. In the coming months, I am looking forward to bringing you stories on how all their new and innovative offerings are being used to make it easier for companies to upgrade to IP communications and what IP has done to help them do business better. -Mike

Last week, Fierce was onsite in unseasonably cool Miami for IT EXPO East.  Our coverage of the show includes a combination of pictures, news and editorial commentary.

Pictures
Our slideshows document some of the people we meet with at ITEXPO, as well as provide a feel for the exhibit hall floor and the crowds that turned out, in case you didn't make it to the show.

SLIDESHOW:The opening of ITEXPO East 2009, Feb. 2

SLIDESHOW: IT EXPO East 2009, Day 2

News

Digium threw down a marker for other IP PBX phone system vendors with the latest upgrade to Switchvox, adding faxing, IM/chat/presence, and a number of other useful features. Each software release continues to open up Switchvox functionality through APIs.

Microsoft's rollout of Response Point SP2 at ITEXPO showed a good choice by the guys from Redmond and delivered a coup for TMC.  SP2 has added functionality for some URL-style mashups in addition to supporting more service providers via Wizard.

Cbeyond also had an interesting story, combining its IP services network with a very cool mobile workforce application service utilizing location-based services. This SaaS is targeted at field service companies, but the company will be rolling out more business applications as the year goes on. Gotta boost that ARPU number!

Digium adds UC to Switchvox IP PBX
IT EXPO East 2009: Microsoft goes official with Response Point SP2
IT EXPO East 2009: Cbeyond adds mobile workforce management with SaaS offering
IT EXPO East 2009 - News in brief  - Includes news announced by U4EA, Taqua, Aculab, Dialogic, VoIP Logic, and Allworx.

Summary

IT EXPO wasn't a VON-style event, but it's not meant to be and shouldn't try to be. Attendees showed up by and large because they wanted to either do business or learn ways to improve how they do business - not to debate the esoteric ins and outs of FCC policy or ponder the abstract wonders of social media. Think blue-collar, beer-drinking crowd, rather than lawyers sipping fine wines.

ITEXPO East attendance up 15 percent
Making sense of good news

U4EA and Omnia Technologies team up on Remote Agent Application

Omnia Technologies selected U4EA's Fusion 500 multi-service business gateway for its remote agent call center application. The pairing allows Omnia to handle inbound and outbound calls made by remote agents utilizing IP telephony to access remote call center applications.

For more: U4EA and Omnia Technologies team up.   

Taqua supports Voice over WiFi in MobileWorks

The Taqua MobileWorks solution can now support voice services over Wi-Fi networks simultaneously in conjunction with other IP-based or TDM services through the Taqua 7000 Class 5 switching system. MobileWorks allows wireline or wireless service providers to extend existing service offerings to mobile subscribers when utilizing their dual-mode WiFi phone within range of a WiFi network. Mobile subscribers can now download an applet onto their dual-mode phone that will seamlessly connect their calls onto the service provider's network via IP, terminating across Taqua MobileWorks to their network of choice.

For more: Taqua talks about MobileWorks new functionality here.

ApplianX IP Gateway gets supplemental support for SIP, DPNSS, Q.SIG

Aculab has added support for Diversion, Transfer, Message Waiting Indicator and Route Optimization over SIP, Q.SIG and DPNSS to its ApplianX IP gateway.

For more: Aculab's release is here

Dialogic and Digium announce partnership, interoperability certification plans

Dialogic is now an official member of the Digium Partner program and will soon become an Interoperability Partner. These steps are the first in order to certify Dialogic's 1000 and 2000 Media Gateway Series for use by the Asterisk community.

For more: Dialogic's documents partnership plans here. .

VoIP Logic announces financial and corporate milestones

VoIP managed services firm VoIP Logic announced the company now employs 35 people, had an 82 percent increase in annual revenue between 2007 and 2008, and added 40 carrier managed services customers. Also, eight new retail service providers now use the company's Cortex OSS. The company now provides services to more than 160 carriers and service providers worldwide.

Allworx rolls out System 7.0 and new IP Phone

Allworx officially introduced its latest software release for its phone systems and a new IP Phone. Available in Q2 2009, Allworx System Software 7.0 adds class of service definitions, a programmable dial-in plan, call monitoring/call intrusion, and user and handset import/export. There's also an onboard packet sniffer function for diagnosing/troubleshooting. Meanwhile, the new Allworx 9224 IP phone supports up to 96 programmable function keys