VoiceCon: IP Telephony Survives WAN Outages

ORLANDO, Florida, March 22, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Ferrari electronic AG, a manufacturer of professional communications solutions and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, today presented the OfficeMaster Survivable Branch Appliance (SBA) at the VoiceCon event, being held from March 22 through 25 in Orlando. It is one of the first solutions to support the planned Microsoft Communications Server "14" and ensures that phones keep operating in branch offices even if the wide area network (WAN) fails. Until now, many companies have preferred to separate their IT and their telecommunications to prevent telephony being affected should the network go down. The OfficeMaster SBA switches over to ISDN if the IP connection to headquarters is interrupted, thus retaining all telephony functions.

"The combination of Microsoft Communications Server '14' and OfficeMaster SBA extends and enriches this new world of communication," said Yancey Smith, director of Communications Server Product Management at Microsoft Corp. "Office Master SBA complements the features and functionality in Communications Server '14', ensuring phones continue operating at the same level of security and quality in branch offices during wide area network (WAN) failures."

Ferrari electronic is one of five manufacturers throughout the world who offer a Survivable Branch Appliance for Communications Server "14". The solution will be available for selected companies from April 2010 within the framework of the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program (TAP) and Rapid Deployment Program (RDP). Based on the same hardware components, the OfficeMaster Hybrid Gate UC for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 will be available concurrently. After performing a software update, this hybrid gateway can also be used as a Survivable Branch Appliance when Communications Server "14" is generally available.

Product highlights

OfficeMaster SBA is based on high-quality industry grade server hardware (HP ProLiant) that runs Windows Server 2008 Release 2 together with Microsoft survivable branch appliance software. Other features include:

    - Inbound faxing for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft
      Exchange Server 2010 (qualified by Microsoft)
    - Test tool for PSTN connection that supports inbound and outbound test
      calls independently of SBA software components
    - Integrated self-contained PCIe gateway board that is seen by the
      hosting server machine as a standard network interface card; all
      gateway functions are completely offloaded from host CPU
    - 6 digital interfaces: 4 BRI and 2 PRI with flexible licensing-on-demand
    - 4 analog ports on separate low-profile card
    - Easy first-time setup and disaster recovery

Johann Deutinger, CTO at Ferrari electronic, comments: "OfficeMaster Survivable Branch Appliance is a product that supports all important unified communications applications. It not only integrates the telephony fallback solution but can also act as a Unified Messaging Controller for Fax and SMS in combination with Exchange Server."

All critical information inside the gateway can be monitored using SCOM or similar tools. A fully-featured fax solution that also supports outbound faxing and interfacing to external platforms such as ERP, CRM or Microsoft SharePoint is available as an option. It can be installed directly on the appliance or on a separate server, including virtual platforms.

At VoiceCon exhibition representatives from Ferrari electronic will be available at booth 537.

Notes to editors

A Rear View of OfficeMaster Survivable Branch Appliance is available at http://pz.vibrio.de/k/Ferrari%20electronic/b/produkte/OfficeMaster_SBA_rear.j pg.

(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field. Remove the space if one exists.)

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective registered owners.

About Ferrari electronic AG

With 20,000 customers and more than 2.5 million users, Ferrari electronic has been a reliable supplier of professional unified communications solutions for over 20 years. The OfficeMaster range of products integrates fax, SMS, voicemail and CTI (computer telephony integration) into all established e-mail and ERP systems. Microsoft Exchange Server is the main communication environment, but other messaging systems and platforms like SAP and Dynamics NAV are also supported. The portfolio is rounded off with a range of Microsoft-certified UC media gateways. All OfficeMaster products also integrate into VoIP environments.

The company is based in Teltow, near Berlin, and is represented by sales partners in Central Europe, United States/Canada (novus - http://www.novusllc.com) and the Asia-Pacific region. Ferrari electronic has been an incorporated stock company since 1998 and its list of customers includes many well-known Fortune 500 enterprises.

    Press contact:

    Ferrari electronic AG
    Annett Schilling
    Ruhlsdorfer Strasse 138
    D-14513 Teltow
    Germany
    Phone: +49-3328 455-916
    Fax: +49-3328-455-316
    [email protected]
    http://www.ferrari-electronic.com

    vibrio. Kommunikationsmanagement Dr. Kausch GmbH
    Freddy Staudt
    Edisonpark Haus C, Ohmstr. 4
    D-85716 Unterschleissheim
    Germany
    Phone: +49-89-321-51-618
    Fax: +49-89-321-51-77
    [email protected]
    http://www.vibrio.de

SOURCE Ferrari electronic AG