Avaya CEO: Networks Need to be More Resilient
CEO Kevin Kennedy details how the Olympic flame helped to forge Avaya's new Nortel-powered direction.
LAS VEGAS -- Avaya CEO Kevin Kennedy is not an Olympic athlete, but he does have an Olympic network. Avaya was the primary network provider for the recent 2010 Vancouver Olympics and it was an experience that Kennedy said proves the power of Avaya's network.
During a keynote here at the Interop conference Kennedy said Avaya is now building networks that are fit for a purpose, even when that purpose is as unique as powering the Olympics.
Kennedy said that the Avaya network delivered the Olympics with 100 percent availability over the course of the 17-day event.
A core part of Avaya's networking gear for the Olympics came by way of Avaya's acquisition of Nortel Networks' enterprise division for $900 million. Avaya initially outlined its plans for Nortel integration in January.
Even though Avaya had great success with its Olympic network, Kennedy said that Avaya still needs to do more. He noted that a new networking architecture is needed that meets the changing demands of network traffic.
Based on Avaya's experiences delivering the 2010 Winter Olympics, Kennedy said his company learned a number of things which they've distilled down to four key items to deliver a fit for purpose network.
Specifically: Networks needs to be more resilient, they need to perform better for scale, they need to have lower total cost of ownership and they need to use less energy.
At Interop, Avaya is rolling out a number of new enterprise networking products it said are designed to meet the needs of next generation networks. Among the new products is the Ethernet Routing Switch 8800 (ERS) which is a campus core and data center switch with up to 200 10GbE ports. The ERS is an expansion of a portfolio that Nortel has had in the market for several years.
Avaya is also expanding its SIP (define) capabilities with the new Advanced gateway 230 which provides SIP gateway and WAN routing capabilities.
"We made a commitment to the industry that after acquiring Nortel we would continue their products," Kennedy said. "Now we've got a roadmap and new products."
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.
