Metaswitch buys AppTrigger in yet another middleware app deal

Metaswitch today said it acquired service broker vendor AppTrigger in a deal that starts to fulfill the promise of new Metaswitch CEO Kevin DeNuccio to aggressively grow its business.

The deal is also significant for being the latest in the line of acquisitions of smallish vendors of so-called “service broker” platforms by larger vendors – following up Oracle’s acquisition of Convergin and Amdoc’s purchase of JNetx. Service broker platforms – which have also be known as service capabilities interaction managers (SCIMs) or app controllers in some quarters – sit between legacy IN and TDN networks and new more IP-based networks and allow providers to build services that span both of those worlds.

For Metaswitch, it plans to both sell AppTrigger’s service broker platform as a standalone platform as well as embed it as an integral part of its own VoIP/IMS platforms. As a standalone piece of software, the AppTrigger Ignite platform has had its greatest success in wireless networks, and largely outside the U.S. That complements Metaswitch’s experience with wireline and VoIP networks nicely, as well as Metaswitch’s large U.S. presence, said AppTrigger senior vice president for global sales and marketing Patrick Fitzgerald.

The appeal of service brokers for carriers is that it allows them to “better utilize their resource infrastructure and achieve Capex savings,” said Joe McGravey, Current Analysis analyst, describing the deal.

For Metaswitch, the deal is about extending its “strong set of core network infrastructure and application products, said Andy Randall, VP of Marketing, Carrier Systems Division, Metaswitch. “Service brokers by definition allow carriers to more easily deploy services that span a variety of network architectures, [covering up differences in areas such as] signaling and legacy IN applications.”

For the larger market, the deal represents a further “maturing of the concept of the service broker,” said AppTrigger’s Fitzgerald. “The service provides we talk to are all saying that the service broker is becoming a strategic element in the carrier network; it’s a key piece of the puzzle in defining network migration strategies.”

One of the consistent questions around service brokers is how do they fit into next generation IMS-style architectures. Like many things with IMS, service brokers fill in a key capability that is necessary but not necessarily formally defined in the IMS specifications, said Metaswitch’s Randall. “It’s crucial to enabling IMS in the real world, orchestrating between different application servers and the core network. The idea of the service broker recognizes legacy apps and IN apps and the need for a conversion layer between the legacy network and SIP in the core.”

Metaswitch has about 500 employees today; AppTrigger, based in Dallas, adds about 30 more. Metaswitch will maintain the AppTrigger facility in Dallas, Randall said. Beyond that, terms of the deal were not disclosed.