ShoreTel UC developments empower enterprises

Announcements in areas of virtualization, VoIP, Wi-Fi

VoIP, unified messaging, products and services

ShoreTel is in the news again with two separate announcements: It has extended virtualization support to the enterprise contact center and it has partnered with Ruckus Wireless to deliver a "Mobile Unified Communications Starter Kit" targeting SMBs.

The Mobile Unified Communications Starter Kit delivers UC and wireless networking capabilities, including the Ruckus ZoneFlex Smart Wi-Fi system as part of the bundle to extend ShoreTel's VoIP reach beyond the wired environment, thus enabling customer access to the enterprise IP voice system with smartphones, tablets and Voice over Wi-Fi phones.

For IT, enterprise wireless to be more gnarly in next decade

The ShoreTel/Ruckus bundle includes the ShoreTel Mobility Router 2000 appliance, a Ruckus ZoneDirector 1100, Ruckus Premium Partner Support, Ruckus ZoneFlex 7363 802.11N Access Points, and Ruckus ZonePlanner Software.

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ShoreTel is in the news again with two separate announcements: It has extended virtualization support to the enterprise contact center and it has partnered with Ruckus Wireless to deliver a "Mobile Unified Communications Starter Kit" targeting SMBs.

The Mobile Unified Communications Starter Kit delivers UC and wireless networking capabilities, including the Ruckus ZoneFlex Smart Wi-Fi system as part of the bundle to extend ShoreTel's VoIP reach beyond the wired environment, thus enabling customer access to the enterprise IP voice system with smartphones, tablets and Voice over Wi-Fi phones.

For IT, enterprise wireless to be more gnarly in next decade

The ShoreTel/Ruckus bundle includes the ShoreTel Mobility Router 2000 appliance, a Ruckus ZoneDirector 1100, Ruckus Premium Partner Support, Ruckus ZoneFlex 7363 802.11N Access Points, and Ruckus ZonePlanner Software.

Commenting in a statement, Denis Maynard, vice president of worldwide sales for Ruckus Wireless said, "With the growth of mobile devices and consumerization of IT, there is now huge demand by enterprises for the use of diverse smartphones using advanced Wi-Fi and VoIP technology. ShoreTel and Ruckus now give organizations a complete turnkey system that takes advantage of the best VoIP and Wi-Fi technologies."

In other ShoreTel news, the company has announced VMware certification for its Enterprise Contact Center (ECC) solution. The company already supports ShoreTel software in a virtual environment, reporting that 1,000 customers in 26 countries have already deployed virtual systems.

Commenting in a statement on the extension of ShoreTel's virtual capabilities, Parag Patel, VP for Alliances at VMware said, "Virtualization gives IT departments the ability to increase their visibility and control of their resources, all while driving a richer and expanded role for automation and management. Empowering customers to minimize their IT operational expenses by reducing both planned and unplanned downtime is a vision we are proud to share with ShoreTel."

Read more about voip & convergence in Network World's VoIP & Convergence section.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.