Top 5 Insights from Ribbon INSIGHTS

October 28th, 2024

I recently attended and presented at Ribbon INSIGHTS in Prague, the company’s 3-day customer and partner conference. Ribbon has held similar regional events in prior years but has relaunched these under the INSIGHTS moniker as part of an effort to make them more industry-focused vs just a Ribbon portfolio review. The event provided an opportunity to hear the latest from Ribbon and a host of experts, analysts, partners, and customers.

INSIGHTS spans Ribbon’s voice/UC and networking business, two areas that are increasingly coming together in the cloud. I appreciated that Ribbon gave guests plenty of time for networking and discussion, which is the real value of getting together in person.

Here are my 5 takeaways from the sessions and discussions:

Security and Network Resiliency are more important to customers than ever.

The rising cost of network failures is becoming a significant concern, including brand damage, financial losses, and career impacts. Ribbon highlighted the example of a major airline which took five days to recover and lost approximately $500 million as a result of their legacy IT infrastructure.

Multiple presentations emphasized the critical need for inherent resiliency in networks and applications and improved security measures, such as Zero Trust principles and encryption. Security in the network is essential as networks face increasingly frequent and sophisticated attacks. End-to-end observability and orchestration offer increased security and fraud protection.

Voice and Data Network Automation and Advanced Analytics

Automation was a key topic over multiple sessions. Ribbon emphasized the need to significantly reduce manual efforts and their associated human errors. The goal is to deliver faster and more efficient processes while lowering security and downtime risks.

Automation examples include software delivery, configuration and deployment, and health checks. These are crucial components to ensure ongoing security of network infrastructure.

Rich Krizan, Director of Product Management, discussed the challenges of siloed management systems and explained how RAMP (Ribbon Application Management Platform) serves as a foundational part of Ribbon's strategy to reduce network cost and complexity.

Ribbon LEAP (Learning Enabled Automation Platform) was also highlighted. LEAP automates SBC and voice network testing and enables faster software upgrades, reducing the risk of downtime and improving security.

Advanced analytics examples were shown for insights into network performance, user behaviour, and potential issues. Analytics tools can be used to identify patterns and trends, enabling proactive management and early detection of potential problems.

Multi-Vendor in Unified Communications is common

The voice and Unified Communications sessions included lots of discussion of multi-vendor environments, both in terms of migration but also being a reality long term for a lot of organisations. This could be due to multiple UCaaS providers, a mix of UCaaS and on-premises solutions and or a mix of operators. Most of the group had more than one UC solution in play in their organisation.

Multi-vendor strategies provide organizations with the flexibility to choose the best solutions for their use cases. It also allows for competitive pricing and better negotiation power with solution providers.

For cloud migrations, the ability to integrate legacy systems with new technologies, ensuring a smooth transition and continued operation, was key. This included conversation around on-premises hardware requirements for integration.

AI driving increased connectivity

It’s 2024, so of course there was talk about AI and its impact. Sessions covered some of the new and coming AI capabilities in UC solutions and network tooling. In UC, meeting summaries and personal and soon team virtual assistants were examples of AI features driving customer value. Most of the group had used AI tooling for these use cases.

AI is also driving increased bandwidth requirements and innovation in connectivity, with a significant increase in bandwidth for AI-based services and the importance of Data Center Interconnectivity (DCI).

Currently we are seeing a large acceleration of data centre buildouts to support AI services. According to a report by Synergy Research Group, the capacity of hyperscale data centres is expected to double every four years.

The continued importance of Edge Connectivity in a Cloud world

Ribbon’s Gordon Eddy and Matt Hurst presented on Ribbon's cloud and edge product strategy, focusing on enterprise transformation, the need for secure communications, and the integration of existing and legacy solutions.

Lots of customers still require on-premises connectivity for PBX and PSTN and will do so for some time to come.

Ribbon highlighted why they are still investing here. Their new Edge 8000 platform addresses the growing demand for bandwidth, secure connectivity in UC and cloud-based architectures, and legacy architecture migration.

The Edge 8000 series offers flexible deployment options, including support for both IP-only (Edge 8100) and IP & legacy analogue/digital connections (Edge 8300). It also supports SIP High Availability (HA) and Teams Survivable Branch Appliance, providing robust security and reliability for modern communication needs.

They also offer a great managed services opportunity for partners to manage on behalf of customers.