CommX Opts For IBM Blade Server For Speed

By Niladri Sekhar Nath

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

In an effort to increase network capacity and continue to offer reliable phone service,  broadband voice communications provider CommX tapped IBM (News - Alert) blade server technology running Linux, increasing network capacity by 10 times.

 

CommX had been using BroadSoft VoIP application software from a Sun Sparc platform running Solaris and made the switch to IBM Bladecenter platform running Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Server 3.

 

“Due to our rapid growth nationwide, CommX was beginning to reach network call capacity, which meant that our clients’ phone service could be disrupted---not an option,” says CommX president Oscar Williams. “Customers rely on our service to complete their own critical daily business transactions, and they take notice very quickly if access to telephone features takes longer than one second.” 

 

IBM claims that the latest IBM Bladecenter systems are so fast that VoIP gateway service carriers to the public switched telephone network had to make changes to accommodate the increased speed coming from CommX.

 

"In addition to the increased speed of our new technology platform, we now have the ability to roll out new conferencing services to our clients by the end of 2006. The new service will allow customers to enjoy real time multimedia interaction,” says Paul Kratz, CommX chief technology officer. "Our previous platform could not have supported this new service.” 

 

 

For more information, visit www.ibm.com

 

Niladri Sekhar Nath is a contributing writer for TMCnet covering telecommunications, service providers and networking