LSI to Form Multi-Service Business Gateway Alliance

LSI Corp. announced an initiative to form a multi-service business gateway (MSBG) alliance and the availability of a reference platform to enable rapid development of MSBG solutions. The formation of the alliance represents an industry-wide effort among founding members that include service, system and components providers. The primary mission of the new alliance is to accelerate the development of MSBG systems and complete solutions for service providers.

"Managed business services represent a key growth opportunity for service providers," said Ibrahim Gedeon, chief technology officer, Telus. "The MSBG alliance and reference platform can help accelerate the delivery of managed services to business customers and will play an important role in defining next-generation solutions."

MSBG solutions can replace PBX, media gateways, Internet access devices, firewalls and routers with a single, cost-effective multi-service platform. Using MSBG technology, service providers will be able to offer small and medium business (SMB) customers access to enterprise-grade managed services and provide enterprise customers with access to corporate-level voice, video and data services at remote branch office (RBO) locations.

"Customer demand for multiple services consolidated into fewer devices at the Internet gateway is growing," said Abner Germanow, director of Enterprise Networking Research at IDC. "Reducing hardware footprint is a big first win and IDC expects new value to emerge from functions that operate more effectively together when paired on a common platform."

MSBG solutions deliver integrated services including secure, unified communication, high-speed connectivity and mobility by consolidating routers, gateways and access devices. As a result, service providers who deploy MSBG platforms will be better equipped to deliver new applications and managed services to SMB and RBO locations.

"LSI and other MSBG alliance members are creating the open technology platform to deliver high-performance solutions for the emerging hosted business services market," said Tony Pereira, business leader, Business Communications Portfolio, Nortel. "Nortel is excited about leading with our Business Services Gateway into this segment."

Charlie Kawwas, vice president of segment marketing, Networking and Storage Products Group, LSI, said, "Early on, LSI recognized the potential of the MSBG market, but also realized that a reference platform and solution delivery alliance were necessary for the market to flourish. Through the combined efforts of MSBG alliance members, service providers will now have the technology required to deliver new managed business services at a much faster pace."