AT&T UC Federation is working to overcome a real challenge for enterprises that demand dependable collaboration. Disparate unified communication (UC) systems have made seamless collaboration difficult at best and at times problematic. AT&T is working to tackle these challenges by making it possible for internal and external teams to collaborate freely across supported UC platforms.
“Companies that try to set up UC platforms on their own can face challenges when creating scalable, secure connectivity that meets compliance and support requirements,” said Vishy Gopalakrishnan, AVP Big Data and Advanced Solutions at AT&T Business Solutions. “UC Federation from AT&T provides tools to help overcome this challenge by removing the hassle and allowing business teams to connect easily and over a highly securely platform.”
Avoiding UC Hiccups
Created in AT&T Labs, AT&T UC Federation supports a number of UC platforms, including Microsoft Lync and Jabber. The technology also promises to give organizations the flexibility and security to connect to any supported UC platforms where partners, suppliers and vendors are doing business.
AT&T UC Federation also lets enterprises control which organizations can communicate at the company, group or user level and even allows certain communication methods, like instant messaging, and blocks others, such as online presence. The idea is to let enterprises share as much or as little information as they choose.
AT&T is also promising direct benefits to businesses that are merging or creating joint ventures with other businesses. That’s because the platform gives customers the flexibility to grow and coexist without being limited to a single UC platform. It also helps support collaboration without any hiccups when a company switches to a new communications platform.
Just the Beginning
Some enterprises are already testing the platform. Sonus, a company that offers secure real-time communications, has deployed and tested AT&T UC Federation. The company is in the midst of a full-service rollout.
“With AT&T UC Federation, our team can connect with key contacts on the spot, in less time than an e-mail would take,” said Michael Swade, senior vice president of Worldwide Sales and Marketing, Sonus. “It makes collaboration easy, and it truly functions as if each user is communicating on the same platform. We can IM and check presence all within a secure connection.”
This is just the beginning for the AT&T UC Federation. The company plans to extend the platform beyond IM and presence to include calendar integration as well as video and voice capabilities later in 2015. AT&T also hinted that more UC platforms may also be supported in the future. The company is offering a free 90-day trial for UC Federation for up to 25 users.