THE FUTURE AS SEEN THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

The feature server, a standard component for delivering call-routing features in voice-over-IP environments, is getting a Web 2.0 makeover thanks to vendor Sylantro Systems.

Web services' application programming interface (API) integration is just one of the new features in the latest version of Sylantro's Synergy application feature server, released last week. The new release, version 4.2, comes in three flavors, all delivered via the same core platform. The solutions include feature server functionality targeting hosted VoIP, including a new Web attendant service; mobile communications focusing on supporting IP multimedia subsystem and fixed/mobile convergence; and so-called “Voice 2.0” capabilities highlighted by applications integrating traditional voice service with Web services.

The updated Sylantro feature server arrives as carrier VoIP deployments move away from focusing on cost savings to delivering innovative new services. Enterprise customers in particular have begun to realize that phones using session initiation protocol (SIP) are best viewed as Web-enabled devices that include built-in telephony capabilities.

To that end, Sylantro's new Voice 2.0 edition is highlighted by Sylantro's Synapps 2.0 Web services APIs, as well as integration with enterprise collaboration environments such as Microsoft's Live Communication Server and IBM's Lotus Sametime. Web services integration also is a major component of Sylantro's new Synapps Central developer portal, where carriers can find and integrate with third-party SIP applications.

Today, Sylantro competes with other hosted VoIP and feature server vendors, including Broadsoft, Netcentrex and Tekelec. Making a bet on Web/voice integration is one way the vendor aims to stand out from the crowd, said Marco Limena, president and CEO of Sylantro.

“Voice 2.0 is where we diverge from our competitors,” he said. “Where we really differentiate ourselves is with a focus on integrating voice into Web applications. With Synapse's Web interfaces, we really open the core features of the network to the Web.”

Comparing the explosive development of the Web to the less dynamic evolution of telephony voice services is educational. Web growth was spurred by two key concepts: open protocols/APIs and an environment that encouraged — and venture capitalists funded — innovative new business models.

By contrast, Limena said, the voice telephony market has been held back in those exact same areas: a lack of open telephony APIs, especially in proprietary PBX environments, and business models still indebted to old-style, monopolistic thinking.

By making it inconsequential, for instance, to rapidly deliver sophisticated Tier 1 calling features to an easy-to-build Web widget running on a user's desktop, Limena said, Sylantro, with its feature server, is hoping to change the equation by making it easier for carriers to marry core telephony features to the Web via open interfaces.