Despite the economic pressures many IT companies witnessed in 2009, those lucky enough to provide services that offered cost savings walked away unscathed. It was those concerns about the economy and the growing adoption of SIP trunking services that helped make 2009 a “very good year” for Ingate Systems.

 

According to Steven Johnson, Ingate Systems’ (News - Alert) president, whose company develops firewall technology and products that allow SIP communications for enterprises and control and security at the network edge, 2010 is going to be an even stronger year.

 

“The value of SIP trunking has been proven, especially given its growth in a depressed economy,” Johnson told TMCnet in an interview, printed in full below. “Now that things are starting to turn around, decision-makers are still keenly aware of the need to make smart investments. Our prediction for 2010 is that it will be the year SIP trunking experiences exponential, rapid growth.”

 

Our exchange follows.

 

Steve Johnson (News - Alert) (pictured below): 2009 was a very good year for Ingate. Ingate has seen a continued growth in sales driven in large part by the growth in SIP trunking adoption. And we were very successful with our Ingate SIP Trunk Seminars at the ITEXPO (News - Alert) shows, meeting new customers, VARs, partners, etc.   

TMCnet: What have been some of the company’s key announcements this year?

SJ: We had several. Most recently, we announced the IX78 E-SBC from sister company Intertex (News - Alert) Data AB. The IX78 E-SBC is a security edge device designed specifically to enable and accelerate SIP trunk deployments by service providers, who typically handle mass installations. 

We also teamed up with Dialogic to develop an interoperable SIP trunking solution that enables secure SIP trunks for legacy PBX (News - Alert) and contact center environments.

 

Ingate earned the first optional VoIP module firewall certification from ICSA Labs. We are very proud of this achievement, as this add-on certification assures users that the Ingate product (our Firewall 1500) meets ICSA Labs’ strict requirements for successfully supporting VoIP traffic, while blocking VoIP security threats and properly mitigating them.

 

We also announced a SIP trunk deployment with Kool Smiles, a nationwide dental network. The result was a 40 percent reduction in Kool Smiles’ communications costs with the complete installation, including a new IP-PBX, phones, network upgrades and the Ingate solution, paying for itself in twelve months. This is a powerful demonstration of how SIP trunks can have a significant impact on a company’s bottom line, and in a short period of time.

 
TMCnet: What were some of the biggest things that impacted the industry? At the beginning of the year, the economy was in a recession. How did it impact your business?

SJ: Concerns about the economy continued to drive a lot of decision-making. For Ingate, that heightened the value proposition of SIP trunking, which represents an investment that reduces costs and also positions the customer well for using SIP-based communications in the future. Also, for service providers, SIP trunks are an opportunity to build business and generate more revenue – at a relatively low cost. That’s one of the reasons why we launched the IX78 E-SBC, to meet this growing demand of service providers eager to leverage SIP trunking.  

 
TMCnet: There are now signs that the economy is recovering. What are your predictions for 2010?

 

SJ: We believe the value of SIP trunking has been proven, especially given its growth in a depressed economy. Now that things are starting to turn around, decision-makers are still keenly aware of the need to make smart investments. Our prediction for 2010 is that it will be the year SIP trunking experiences exponential, rapid growth. And not only among “traditional” constituencies (end-users and now service providers), but cable companies and others.
 
TMCnet: What are you looking forward to help Ingate business in 2010?

SJ: Ingate is well positioned to continue significant growth in 2010. For one thing our SIP Trunk Seminars have become a key resource for educational information about SIP trunks. They have grown so much we’re now expanding the program into the SIP Trunk Summit, still a free opportunity for all ITEXPO attendees, but this time around we’re devoting several tracks to case studies. We’re also pulling in even more thought-leadership from the SIP Forum and others, and placing a greater emphasis on how SIP trunking positions customers to leverage global SIP communications moving forward.

 

Additionally, Ingate boasts some of the very best development minds out there. And as our customers have ideas of what kinds of solutions they need now to be successful and remain competitive, we enjoy working with them as partners to come up with new solutions that meet these needs. I think that’s why Ingate is such a strong company, our commitment to customers and to our customers’ success.