TMCnet recently asked some of the leading lights in the industry for their thoughts about 2011 and what’s in store for the year ahead.

Here’s what Andy Ory, co-founder, CEO and president at Acme Packet (News - Alert), had to say.

What was your company’s greatest achievement in 2011?

Ory: 2011 was a year where we gained market share in all the major segments of our business, where we continued to add both enterprise and service provider customers, where we established exciting partnerships with industry leaders, and one where we introduced innovative new solutions that build on our powerful Net-Net family of products. Most importantly, though, 2011 was a year where Acme Packet was able to drive an even greater understanding, interest, and adoption of session delivery network solutions in the marketplace – something that both our customers and partners will benefit from.

What are your business’s goals for 2012?

Ory: We’re looking to continue build out session delivery networks with our customers and help them realize the powerful benefits that such solutions can provide. In the enterprise space, we’ll be working to help customers take advantage of SIP trunking services and unified communications – dramatically lowering costs, increasing productivity, and enhancing business agility as a result. In the service provider space, we’ll continue our efforts in enabling the end-to-end adoption of IP communications in both mobile and fixed line arenas. We will also continue to refine, simplify and augment connectivity between the enterprise and the service provider in both cloud-based and premises-based deployments that drive end-to-end IP communication usage.

How would you describe your outlook for business and the economy at large heading into 2012?

Ory: As we stated in our earnings call in October, we have seen and expect to continue to see robust growth in three leading indicators: residential VoIP subscribers; enterprise communications and SIP trunking; and IP-enabled mobile networking. When we speak with our customers, it's clear that the demand for session delivery network solutions is growing and funding is being elevated on spending priority lists globally. According to industry analyst expectations, next year should see the service provider SBC market to grow by 20 percent to 25 percent and the enterprise SBC market to grow by 40 percent to 45 percent.

If there’s one thing you’d like to see happen related to business in the year ahead, what is that one thing?

Ory: We – like many of our customers and partners – would like to see the federal government start a real dialog around sunsetting the public switched telephone network and help drive the establishment of an all-IP interconnection model. It took less than 5 years for the majority of television broadcasting to transition from analog to digital once the government took action. There’s no reason why it couldn’t happen in a similar way in the case of an accelerated TDM to IP transition. As a result, end-to-end IP communications will become the norm and enable much more than just voice services. 

If 2011 was the year of cloud and/or the year of the tablet, 2012 will be the year of...

Ory: session delivery networks for the enterprise. The adoption of SIP trunking continues at a torrid pace, as enterprises continue to realize the cost and productivity benefits from end-to-end IP communications. In 2012, we see this trend becoming even broader, with enterprises looking to leverage their investments in service delivery networks to enhance customer experience and drive new business opportunities.

To find out more about Acme Packet, visit the company at ITEXPO East 2012. To be held Jan. 31- Feb. 3 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, Fla.,  ITEXPO (News - Alert) is the world’s premier IP communications event. Steve Collins, VP of Marketing at Acme Packet, is speaking during “E-SBCs: Handling Users, Applications and Enterprise Networks (DOUBLE SESSION).” For more information on ITEXPO registration, click here.

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