Sonus Charts Product Roadmap Following NET Acquisition

CRN news reports that SIP infrastructure specialist Sonus Networks (News - Alert) is charting an integrated product roadmap following its acquisition of Network Equipment Technologies (NET) for $42 million. Additionally, the company is planning availability for the new products for its burgeoning enterprise channel.

According to Todd Abbott (News - Alert), senior vice president, worldwide sales at Sonus, “the acquisition is also going to set the company up for a full-throttle 2013 after a year spent building its team, program and portfolio.”

Abbott told CRN, "It's the next step in our transformation from a VoIP company focused on telcos to one very much focused on UC and the cloud and reaching that through business partners and a channel program.” He further added, "It became clear that we needed to broaden the product portfolio."

The session border controller (SBC) market has grown recently due to increased customer adoption of the SIP infrastructure. As per the study conducted by Infonetics Research (News - Alert), the SBC market is expected to grow 26 percent year-over-year through 2016. The market watcher has identified Sonus as the fastest-growing SBC vendor, growing at four times the market average in 2011.

Meanwhile, Sonus is extending its reach to enterprise customers. For that, the company recently launched new SBC products. In June, the company launched Sonus Partner Assure program, targeting enterprise-focused VARs and service providers, according to CRN.

At the time of the program launch Sonus had 10 reseller partners. The plan is to add another 20 to 25 by the end of 2012. The company said that NET (News - Alert) resellers active in the program at the time of the acquisition have been designated Sonus Partner Assure Authorized Resellers with the opportunity to qualify as the higher-level Sonus Partner Assure Channel Partners.

Furthermore, Abbott told CRN that his company’s SIP business is growing 60 percent year over year. At the time of the acquisition, NET's business was on pace to grow 40 percent year over year. As a result of NET acquisition, the company has added more than 50 new customers.

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