Verizon Recognized for Technological Achievements and Innovation in Use of Open Source and Middleware Solutions

NEW YORK, May 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon has won in the Superior Alternatives category of the 2011 Red Hat and JBoss Innovation Awards competition. The award, announced during the Red Hat Summit and JBoss World on May 6 in Boston, recognizes Verizon for "the most successful migration from proprietary solutions to open source alternatives."

Specifically, Verizon won the award for the company's implementation of a new standards-based business process-management system for the company's Integrated Management Platform for Advanced Communications Technologies automated platform, which monitors, troubleshoots and resolves network service interruptions.

This new BPM, built on the open source JBoss SOA (service oriented architecture) Platform, improved performance and added new processes to IMPACT that improved prevention of system interruptions. The JBoss SOA Platform, which includes JBoss Business Process Management and the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform, provided the flexibility and scalability that the IMPACT platform demanded.

"This complex project required high levels of assured system availability and customized functionality to meet IMPACT's specific business and technical requirements," said Joshua Morris, executive director of information technology at Verizon. "The JBoss application provided those capabilities in a highly available environment critical to our network operations. As a result of this new solution, our network operations staff can focus on higher-value activities that translate into better customer service."

Because the new application had to be implemented quickly and precisely within the complexities of IMPACT, Verizon also engaged Red Hat's Amentra for help with design and implementation from the development stage through quality assurance and production.

"Innovation is at the very heart of the technology industry, and this year's Red Hat and JBoss Innovation Award honorees are truly taking innovation to the next level," said Craig Muzilla, vice president and general manager of Red Hat's middleware business. "Verizon offers a fantastic example of how our customers are using JBoss technology not only for their mission-critical applications, but also to improve their business performance. Congratulations to Verizon, and all of this year's winners, on the well-deserved recognition."

Brian Delany, lead systems consultant for information technology at Verizon, accepted the award on behalf of the company. As a category winner, Verizon automatically was a finalist for the 2011 JBoss Innovator of the Year Award and the Red Hat Innovator of the Year.

Verizon's patented IMPACT platform relies on a systematic automated management system to monitor network management alarms and events in real time. It uses a three-phase approach to determine the root cause of those events, investigating across the customer's managed network, third-party services and Verizon's own network services. The system provides consolidated fault detection and enhanced network management capabilities.

Conceptualized in 1999, IMPACT is believed to have been the first end-to-end business process automation implementation for network and service fault management.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with more than 104 million total connections nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers seamless business solutions to customers around the world.  A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 196,000 and last year generated consolidated revenues of $106.6 billion.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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SOURCE Verizon