VIOLA PLAYS VOIP ASSURANCE TUNE

Viola Networks will unveil a new software solution next week at VoiceCon 2003 that can ensure successful implementation of a voice-over-IP network for any kind of company at any phase of deployment.

The privately held company's NetAlly VoIP platform is targeted at enterprises, equipment manufacturers, systems integrators and service providers that are setting up new VoIP networks or optimizing existing ones. The broad customer approach is the key to unlocking a huge business opportunity — about 85% of current router-based networks are not ready for voice deployment, according to Gartner Group research.

“There was a prevalent problem where equipment makers had seen VoIP equipment fail in their networks, but it wasn't because of the equipment,” said John Rooney, president of Viola Networks. “You have to perform an assessment of the network before you deploy to know the available bandwidth and the level of concurrent calls the network can support without interfering with data services.”

Thus far, companies deploying VoIP haven't had a simple software-based way to perform that assessment. Instead, they have used hardware solutions ill-designed for the job that had to be physically carted to test sites, or home-brewed assurance tests that didn't always produce accurate results, said Brion Feinberg, vice president of product management at Viola.

The NetAlly VoIP software solution provides automated centralized assessment and troubleshooting for identifying — and fixing — problems. The platform generates assessment reports that can be shared between companies or employees at different ends of an organization.

Manufacturers can use the software during their pre-deployment work to make sure their equipment is not blamed for any deployment glitches later on. Enterprises also could use it before deployment to ensure that network facilities are ready for VoIP, and enterprises or their service providers could continue to use the software as they expand the VoIP network.

As a particular target, Viola is wooing the four major VoIP system vendors — Avaya, Nortel Networks, Siemens and Alcatel — which are responsible for many large-scale enterprise and carrier sales, Rooney said.

Rooney said that Viola, a 3-year-old company that was previously named Omagon and is based in New Jersey, developed NetAlly VoIP after customers of its other line of network performance tools told the company they needed help perfecting their VoIP deployments.