Everybody loves a winner

With an ever-growing number of VoIP solutions and a cornucopia of online critics examining them daily, this techie segment is seeing new awards and accolades every week of the year. Geez, to keep up, you need a scorecard. Below is one writer’s attempt to provide such; a look at some recent award-winners in VoIP solutions land.

The last shall be first…

Cistera Networks, Inc. announced just today that Technology Marketing Corporation's Communications Solutions division has named the Cistera Convergence Server a recipient of a 2006 Product of the Year Award. No big deal, perhaps, as TMC gives out quite a few “Product of the Year” awards every year. Cistera can take particular pride, however, in being named the preeminent Enterprise Application Platform for IP Communications by the prestigious publication.

It’s a twister!

Speaking of TMC, the publishers also looked kindly upon SysMaster Corporation, a provider of IPTV, wireless, and VoIP solutions for telecoms and service providers. SysMaster bagged a “Product of the Year” award for its powerfully-named Tornado M10 Digital Media Center, which enables IPTV and VoIP telephony.

Follow the Leader(ship)

The best and the first was Sipera Systems recently, with the provider of security solutions for VoIP, mobile and multimedia communications announced as a recipient in the first IMS Leadership Awards. The particular winning VoIP solution was the Sipera IPCS 520, a comprehensive, real-time security system that protects IP multimedia subsystem and unlicensed mobile access networks.

Kentucky fried VoIP

A long-standing problem in VoIP solutions has been the addressing of emergency 911 call needs. The University of Louisville found a nice solution to the problem, enough to bag its Office of Information Technology a “Technology Innovation Award” at the Kentucky Digital Summit. When a 911 call is placed from the uni, the call goes to the Louisville Metro emergency response system. The 911 system simultaneously provides University of Louisville’s Department of Public Safety with the exact building, room and desk location of the campus VoIP phone used to make the call.

Sic ‘em, boy!

Grrr… technology public relations agency PR@vantage last month received Bulldog Reporter’s Gold Award for Media Relations Excellence for their “Breaking World Records Without Breaking the Bank” campaign. PR@vantage, with offices nationwide in San Francisco, New York and Orlando, and partnering with a broad range of technology clients in VoIP, consumer electronics, security, wireless technology, broadband, optical networking, security, and venture capital was acknowledged for spearheading Blue Sky Network’s media blitz supporting Steve Fossett’s attempt to break the record for the longest, non-stop solo flight.

Comverse converges on prize

Comverse Technology, Inc., a business VoIP services, rounded up the International Engineering Consortium and Convergence World magazine’s Best VoIP Product or Service award for its Converged IPCentrex solution. The Comverse Converged IPCentrex is an IMS-compliant flexible solution that can be used by fixed, integrated, mobile, MVNO incumbent and alternative service providers to provide fixed-mobile voice, video and data business offerings in bundled packages.

This may be a ‘Trend

Datatrend Technologies, Inc. got a nice win, taking home no less lofty a title than "Best IBM System x Solution" from the annual IBM PartnerWorld Beacon Awards competition. The Beacons recognize IBM Business Partners for “ingenuity, innovation, customer satisfaction and outstanding achievements in providing on-demand business solutions.” Datatrend Technologies teamed with VoIP solutions provider BroadSoft, Inc. to develop a turnkey infrastructure appliance using Linux on IBM BladeCenter. Judges remarked that "through excellent collaboration with IBM and business partners, Datatrend Technologies brings outstanding innovation to the NGN space to deliver real client value."

Quite an achievement

Tekelec, a developer of high-performance network applications for next-generation fixed, mobile and packet networks, announced that it won the 2007 Billing World & OSS Today Excellence Award for "Achievement in Innovation." Tekelec received this award for its efforts in developing a transition strategy to the Internet Protocol multimedia subsystem. The Billing World and OSS Today Excellence Awards are presented annually by TeleStrategies, and recognize overall excellence in the billing and OSS segment of the telecommunications industry.

Speaking of innovation…

Speaking of innovation, IBM announced the six winners of its third annual IT Innovation Awards at COMMON, the System i user group conference. The awards specifically showcased the achievements of clients who use IBM's "all-in-one" System i business computing platform to deliver IT innovation. The 2007 award winners were Bank of America Foreign Items Systems, The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Walt Disney World Co., FedEx Ground, Gateway Technical College and AngustheiTChap.com.

Take this Hammer

Empirix bagged a nice accolade when its IMS testing solution, Hammer got a First Annual IMS Leadership Award from TMC. Empirix was recognized for its demonstrated thought leadership in IMS quality assurance, and for the role Hammer for IMS has played in enabling the successful adoption of the IMS architecture.

Double down

Not only were they in Las Vega$, but the folks from ShoreGroup, Inc. had the double fortune to be recognized by Cisco Systems during its annual Partner Summit held in Sin City as "Top Commercial Voice Partner Award for the Eastern US.” That’s the equivalent of a 21 at the blackjack table.

Cisco also likes…

Westcon Group, Inc., a specialty distributor in networking, security, mobility and convergence, whose Comstor Middle East business unit won Cisco's Distribution Partner of the Year award. This award follows the successful launch of the new business operation in Dubai, which was announced in December 2006.

…and one more

Namely, Node4, who snagged Cisco’s Innovation Award of the year for the UK and Ireland. Node4 took the prize for hostTALK, a hosted VoIP solution built on Cisco’s CallManager.

Mu for your money

Product of the year? In the security test and measurement industry, according to Frost & Sullivan, it’s Mu Security’s Mu-4000 security analyzer platform. The Mu-4000 measures software and hardware for vulnerabilities. According to Frost & Sullivan, Mu Security’s offering “demonstrates innovation as an emerging product and technology with wide-ranging acceptance from both end users and product developers.”

A Primal All-Star

Primal Solutions, a provider of IP transaction management platforms was named a California Innovation Corridor all-star for 2007. "This award recognizes Primal Solutions' thought leadership in providing true end-to-end IP transaction management via our SOA-based IP Correlytics platform," explained Joseph Simrell, Chairman and CEO of Primal Solutions.

Cygnal from up north

Cygnal Technologies, billed as “Canada's premier provider of network communication solutions,” was named Nortel's “Canadian Convergence Business Partner of the Year” for the third consecutive year. Cygnal achieved the prestigious industry award through its voice, data networking and business VoIP solutions for enterprises, including securing over $7 million dollars of Nortel revenue for 2006.

Interesting!

Now, just when it’s beginning to seem like anybody can get a “best” in front of a category and then a prize, Iotum and JAJAH got a more distinctive nod recently: Both were named to VoIPNews list of "25 Most Interesting VoIP Startups" for 2007. Even more interesting is these two firms’ recent decision to enter into a strategic alliance and get to work on BlackBerry applications.

Two-time winner

Acme Packet, Wile E. Coyote’s choice of session border control solutions, was the proud winner of a pair of Massachusetts Network Communications Council awards at its annual awards ceremony held in April. Acme Packet was named “Public Company of the Year” and was bestowed with “Fastest Growth in Massachusetts for 2006.”