VoiceCon Orlando 2009

Acme Packet Goes Down-market with the Net-Net 3800 SBC

| Apr 1, 2009 | IP Services Infrastructure | Show Update

| Analyst: Jeff Ogle

Current Perspective: Moderate/Positive Vendor Importance: Moderate/High Market Impact: Moderate/High

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Event Summary

March 30, 2009 -- Acme Packet announced the introduction of the Net-Net 3800, a low-end session border controller (SBC) designed for small enterprise sites, contact centers, and service providers needing up to 500 simultaneous VoIP/unified communications sessions. The new platform is designed to reduce the entry-level pricing by as much as 50% while still providing all the same SBC functions and features found in Acme mid and high-end SBCs. The Net-Net 3800 has passed the SIP-based certification provided by Avaya as part of its unified communications.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Slightly positive on Acme Packet’s introduction of the Net-Net 3800 SBC, because like their carrier and service provider counterparts, enterprise customers and Tier 3 carriers need SBC solutions in a form factor and platform that is right-sized for their environment. The 1U-high Net-Net 3800 supports up to 500 VoIP sessions and offers the same extensive signaling, interworking, and security for the SIP/H.323 trunking and the Internet border to remote offices as its larger sister products. Acme’s Net-Net EMS provides the network management FCAPS function and interface to northbound OSS/BSS using standard protocols of SOAP/XML, SNMP, and syslog.

• Vendor Importance: Moderate to high to Acme Packet, because as the market leader for standalone SBCs, Acme must offer a full range of product platforms, right-sized for the various market segments, not just optimized for the larger carrier applications. Acme is a small public company offering a single product line and positioned as a best-of-breed supplier. This move toward the lower end of the carrier and enterprise market should open up new opportunities for Acme.

• Market Impact: Moderate to high on the SBC market, because SBCs are morphing to take on more functionality such as security, and the need and applications for SBCs in the enterprise space, Tier 3 carriers, and call centers are beginning to emerge. Having a low-end purpose-built platform that provides all the functionality of its larger high-end platform at a much reduced cost will help Acme to capture this emerging market opportunity and create new opportunities within the carrier and service provider market. The secret is to accomplish this without jeopardizing sales of its other higher-end platforms.

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Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

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