Should I be paying attention
to Avaya Aura?
By David Glasgow, Sales Director
In 2009 we saw the launch of Avaya Aura – a unified, real-time communications platform built on what Avaya claim to be a revolutionary, enterprise-wide SIP based architecture.
Is Aura really the next new thing and should you be taking a look at what it can offer your organisation? The answer to both of these questions is a resounding yes – Avaya Aura does offer some significant advancements and with incentives on offer to upgrade to Aura by the end of the year, now is the time to take a look at what Aura offers.
So here are the headline capabilities that are provided with Aura:
Let us start with the main two core components and the foundation stones of Aura’s SIP based architecture:
Avaya Aura Session Manager
The new SIP based session manager of Avaya Aura increases both scalability and control. In simple terms, the session manager links users, their profile and their communication session together. It ties each user to a profile that governs what applications they have access to, what they can and can’t do and their personal profile settings. It enables a user to sign-on from any location connected to the corporate network and for them to be instantly presented with the applications and services they require to do their job.
Session Manager sits above all of the communication components allowing your infrastructure to be made up of new and old technology, cross-vendor products and mixed media. Session Manager takes care of the information flow between these components utilising SIP as the session initiation protocol and removing the need for expensive integration.
Avaya Aura Presence Services
Avaya Aura breaks new ground by integrating rich presence capabilities across the entire set of communication applications – from voice calls and instant messaging to customer service and business processes.
Aura does this by working across other presence-based applications including Microsoft Office Communication Servicer, IBM Lotus Sametime, etc. It utilises open SIP, SIMPLE and XMPP standards to maintain presence visibility across a wide of communications and business applications.
Combine the new functionality of both Session Manager and Presence Services and then add the new SIP architecture of Avaya Aura and this enables business to capitalise on some major new capabilities.
Enterprise-wide, On-demand Unified Communications
Aura enables you to deploy unified communication applications at an enterprise-level rather than rolling these out system by system. Applications are made available to users based on their login and profile rather than what switch they are connected to.
Aggregated, Enterprise-wide Presence
With Aura the capability of presence is also elevated from the system level to the enterprise level. With integration across telephone platforms (including non-Avaya) and into the leading desktop applications from IBM and Microsoft, the capability of Presence becomes broader (i.e. any location) and deeper (i.e. into more applications).
True Multi-Vendor Interoperability
Avaya Aura provides flexible SIP routing across Cisco, Nortel and many other vendors’ PBX platforms. This enables for organisations to protect their investment in existing telephony by overlaying new and exciting applications in a seamless and cost effective manner.
True Enterprise-wide Dial Plans
With enhanced interoperability and true enterprise routing, Avaya Aura is able to provide true enterprise-wide dial plans. Aura users have full control over how calls use their corporate network, share external services and where calls ‘hop off’ the corporate network and on to a local PSTN.
Avaya Aura plays a significant part in integrating the two worlds of Avaya and Nortel and helps any organisation with a legacy or mixed communication environment to make a major leap forward without having to change what they have in place.
If you would like to learn more about Avaya Aura or find out about the incentives available to upgrade to Aura, please feel free to contact the IP Integration team on 0118 918 4600 or contact me directly at dave.glasgow@ipintegration.com