• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Qovia Broadens Appliance Offerings for VoIP Monitoring and Management System

Posted on: Monday, 4 October 2004, 06:00 CDT

Announces New Appliances to Address Full Spectrum of Enterprise VoIP Market

Qovia, Inc., the technology and marketshare leader in enterprise voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) monitoring and management, today announced that it will offer new management appliances to complement its VoIP management software. The new appliances will enable Qovia customers to match their specific implementation of Qovia's VoIP Monitoring and Management (VMMS) software to the hardware appliance that best fits their needs. New hardware appliances include the Qovia(TM) 3000 network probe and the Qovia(TM) 5000 management appliance.

The Qovia 3000 is a low-cost network probe designed to capture data and performance information from the VoIP network. The Qovia 5000 will provide aggregation and management capability and will typically be deployed in higher traffic areas of the network or near the IP PBX. These two new Qovia appliances will fill the role currently met by the Qovia(TM) Ion, which served as both a management appliance and probe. The company also plans to release a larger-scale gigabit ethernet appliance in the near future, which will provide hardware suitable for very large VoIP implementations with high processing and high-availability needs.

"The only way to truly manage a VoIP system is to have real-time information at your fingertips," said Richard Tworek, CEO of Qovia. "To keep a voice network running at peak performance means more than just monitoring for call quality. There are also issues of reliability, emergency response, operations management and security--all of which can only be addressed with the right mix of software and appliances. Qovia is architected to take a systems approach to VoIP management."

"There are two key myths in VoIP," said Irwin Lazar, senior analyst with the Burton Group. "One is that adding voice to a data network simply requires turning on quality of service (QoS). The other is that voice quality can be managed using current network management tools. Successful implementation of voice requires real-time monitoring and management of the entire voice path, as well as the ability to troubleshoot specific voice sessions to determine root causes of performance issues. To manage a VoIP network, you need tools that are optimized to meet the specific needs of voice."

Qovia's VoIP appliances were custom-designed for Qovia by ADI Engineering of Charlottesville, Va. ADI Engineering, Inc. is a leading provider of reference platforms, platform derivatives and complete custom product solutions for OEM's based on Intel(R) network processors. The Qovia 3000 and Qovia 5000 are based on the Intel(R) IXP425 network processor. The company's gigabit ethernet product is planned around future Intel network processors.

"Qovia's customers depend on them to ensure that their VoIP systems are as reliable, clear and easy to operate as traditional phone systems," said Terry West, network processor marketing director, Infrastructure Processor Division, Intel Corporation. "The Intel IXP42X product line of network processors is targeted at high performance, cost effective VoIP applications and is an excellent solution for Qovia's new VoIP management appliances."

Qovia offers the only VoIP monitoring and management tools designed-from-the-ground-up for VoIP. Qovia VMMS enables network administrators running any type of VoIP equipment to monitor and manage the VoIP network in true real-time. Qovia's software monitors the network, detecting issues before they affect call quality and reliability; alerts the IT team when issues do occur; and acts as virtual hands to allow remote management of VoIP network elements. Qovia VMMS is also unique in that it looks beyond just QoS and call quality monitoring, focusing on network reliability, emergency and E911 services, operational support and security.

Software Modules for Qovia VMMS Customization; Qovia(TM) Central

Qovia's appliances come preloaded with Qovia software modules, which provide the core monitoring and management functionality of Qovia VMMS. Qovia's full line of software modules fit the needs of virtually any VoIP implementation. There are 13 modules currently available, including the T1 Monitor, the Active Packet Test Module, the Core Resources Module and others. New modules are always under development.

Qovia(TM) Central allows network managers to view and remotely control a virtually unlimited number of Qovia appliances from a central Network Operations Center within the enterprise or across a managed service provider's network. Qovia Central displays a hierarchy view of all devices under management and a simple red/yellow/green color coding to allow for instant view status checks of the operational network health. An intuitive point-and-click interface allows the network manager to quickly access any device that needs attention. Qovia Central runs on a Windows workstation.

Product Features

All Qovia appliances come preloaded with the Qovia software modules appropriate for a given network monitoring and management task. Qovia currently has more than a dozen software modules that support VoIP equipment from vendors Cisco, Nortel, 3Com and others. Product features of the Qovia 3000 appliance include:

-- The ability to connect to key VoIP equipment to gather real-time performance data;

-- Two serial ports and two Ethernet ports;

-- Power over Ethernet;

-- Support for active packet test, quality monitoring and network discovery;

-- Architecture based on the Intel(R) IXP 425 processor.

The Qovia 5000 appliance features include:

-- Capability for both operations management tasks and real-time performance monitoring;

-- Two serial ports, two Ethernet ports;

-- Ability to accept port expander for a total of 18 serial ports;

-- Architecture based on the Intel(R) IXP 425 Processor;

-- PC Card expansion slot (PCMCIA);

-- Hard drive for backups and collection of data, backup and recovery;

-- UPS Support, universal terminal, call statistics and alarms.

Pricing and Availability

The Qovia 3000 and Qovia 5000 are sold as part of the Qovia VMMS implementation and are priced based on preloaded software and functionality. A typical Qovia VMMS implementation costs about 10 to 20 percent of the cost of a VoIP phone system. Qovia software modules, Qovia Central and Qovia's appliances will begin shipping this quarter and will be available through Qovia and its dealer partners.

Qovia Growth Continues

Built on the strength of its technology and customers, Qovia has seen tremendous growth in the last year, more than doubling the size of its workforce. The company recently announced an office expansion that includes vastly increased research and development space.

Today, Qovia supports VoIP implementations from Cisco, Nortel, NEC and 3Com and has an Avaya product on its product roadmap.

About Qovia, Inc.

Qovia's Voice over IP Telephony monitoring and management technologies and products offer reliability, emergency services, quality, operations and security for enterprise VoIP phone systems. The Qovia(TM) VoIP Monitoring and Management System (VMMS), consists of a series of software tools that significantly ease management, monitoring and maintenance of Internet phone systems, protect data assets and increase the productivity of IT investments. Major OEM manufacturers are also offering VoIP monitoring and management tools that are "Powered by Qovia." Qovia was founded in June 2002 and has received $16.1M in venture funding from Canaan Partners, Nokia Venture Partners; Anthem Capital; and the State of Maryland. The company has earned several key industry awards, including Internet Telephony Magazine 'Product of the Year'; a Maryland Tech Council 'IT Product of the Year'; and Best of Show from among 450 companies exhibiting at the Federal Office Systems Exposition (FOSE). Qovia's products fill a key void in VoIP. www.qovia.com

More News in this Category