ShoreTel 14.2 Helps Companies Deploy Communications System Virtually

ShoreTel (News - Alert) recently launched ShoreTel 14.2, saying that it enables companies of all sizes to deploy a ShoreTel communications system in a virtual environment.

In addition to extending the benefit of “greater flexibility” to customers, this newest offering comes with the ability to mix and match hardware-based and virtual appliances in a single network. Company officials said that all this can be managed through a single Web-based management interface. 

“My customers are ready to deploy virtualization technologies, and with ShoreTel 14.2, they have the ability to mix and match hardware-based and virtual appliances on a single network,” said Jeremy Vignaux, vice president of technology at Harbor Networks.

“This brings greater flexibility along with reduced hardware and operational costs because virtual appliances support higher phone and SIP trunk capacities,” Vignaux said, adding that terminating SIP trunks on virtual appliances is a lot simpler while also increasing the capacity of the virtual machines.

One of the key advantages of ShoreTel 14.2 is that it allows customers to pick the unified communication (UC) deployment model that’s ideal for their business and suits their infrastructure needs, including virtual, physical or any combination of both.

It’s understood that the requirements of communication systems are not uniform across all the companies. Meanwhile, there is a marked shift in the way UC is deployed in companies of all sizes. According to market reports, this is because of increasing adoption of virtualization technology.

Company officials said that as per the needs of the customers and the use, virtualization technology can deliver a number of benefits to them.

“The time is now to take advantage of virtualization for unified communications -- the infrastructure is in place, the market is ready, the channel is knowledgeable, and customers are clamoring to virtualize their PBX and entire communications platform,” said Pej Roshan (News - Alert), vice president of product management at ShoreTel.

Roshan believes that virtualization complements the company’s distributed architecture and allows customers to benefit from virtualization features and ShoreTel's inherent N+1 redundancy to deliver high availability at the lowest cost.

“In addition, virtualization sets the foundation for customers to consume VoIP services via on-premises, hybrid, and cloud deployment models."