Avaya Buys Into P2P VoIP

Avaya is jumping into the P2P Voice over IP market with the acquisition of Nimcat Networks. Under the publicly disclosed terms of the deal, announced today, Avaya will be paying approximately $40 million for the privately held Ottawa, Canada-based company.

Nimcat Networks has created a patented technology that provides its users with traditional PBX functionality but without the need for actually building out a PBX.

Nimcat has called this technology a Peer-Telephony-eXchange (PTX) solution and sells it under the nimX moniker. A nimX-powered device automatically discovers other units on the network, creating a virtual exchange.

"Market research from last summer indicates that customers are interested in this technology and were excited that Avaya was considering it," Saied Seghatoleslami, vice president of the product management, communication appliances division at Avaya, told internetnews.com.

The plan is for Avaya to incorporate Nimcat's software into Avaya's IP telephony solutions over the next 12 months. It is unclear, however, whether the Nimcat or nimX brand will continue to exist, though Avaya has pledged to support Nimcat's existing customers.

"There will be a number of different products that will be built on this technology, and they will be branded and positioned to communicate the value that they represent to the targeted customers," Seghatoleslami said.

P2P in its various implementations has traditionally been associated with a variety of security concerns, which is an area where Avaya will focus some attention.

"One of the places AV will add value is bringing in our enterprise security expertise to the solution," Seghatoleslami explained. "We fully expect to harden the technology to meet the needs of all enterprises."