April 26, 2011

Research: SIP Trunking Services Triggers Growth of Enterprise SBCs

By Mini Swamy
TMCnet Contributor

Infonetics Research (News - Alert), an international research and consulting firm, surveyed 109 trunk service purchase-decision makers at medium and large enterprises and gathered information about their deployment plans and other allied factors for SIP trunking services along with reasons for choosing a specific service provider.

The latest Enterprise Session Border Controllers forecast report by Infonetics Research indicated that Enterprise session border controller revenue increased by over 70 percent globally because of an increased adoption of SIP trunking services.

According to Diane Myers, Infonetics' directing analyst for VoIP and IMS, a recent survey of North American Enterprises revealed that more than 43 percent of the respondents claimed to be using SIP trunks in some form without completely displacing PSTN connections. Upgradation of voice infrastructure coincided with a move to SIP trunking, which, in turn, triggered the growth of enterprise SBCs.

Although SIP trunking is being deployed by more businesses because of flexibility, easier management and infrastructure upgrades, it is not as if legacy technologies will see an early exit. In fact, until at least 2013, TI lines will remain the most commonly used trunking service.

Cisco, Avaya, Microsoft and IBM (News - Alert) occupy the top four slots in the installed PBX manufacturers category, clearly demonstrating the growing adoption of UC demonstrating a very competitive landscape for SIP trunking.

The survey showed that the adoption of SIP trunking services grew by over 220 percent worldwide in 2010 and as a key driver for enterprise SBCs enabled the SBC market, especially in North America, to grow five-fold within as many years.

Although there were over 30 vendors in the SBC market, it was dominated by less than 10 vendors with Acme Packet (News - Alert) and Cisco accounting for over 50 percent of worldwide sales in 2010.

Infonetics analyst Diane Myers is co-hosted a free Webinar with AudioCodes, "Things to Consider When Migrating to SIP Trunking," on April 28, 11:00 a.m. Eastern.

Details regarding upcoming and related research can be had from the company's Website.

In related news, according to Diane Myers, Infonetics Research's directing analyst for VoIP and IMS, the shift to IP is reflected in the continued rise of SBCs and the decline in trunk media gateways in 2010. SBCs ended 2010 with a phenomenal revenue increase of 42 percent over 2009 due to increases in IP interconnectivity in fixed and mobile networks, and growth in the number of VoIP subscribers.

Mini Swamy is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Rich Steeves