Calabrio, a Minneapolis-based software company, has released a new product called Calabrio One, that’ll help customers to store some part of their data on the cloud instead of saving it all on their on-premise systems. Besides storing, it also comes with advanced analytics to understand customers better.

This customer engagement and analytics software company believes this is the next step forward, as more customers are looking to deploy multichannel support and service options for their end customers. In addition, contact centers have adopted an always-on approach, with operations spread across multiple locations around the world. Also, the growing practice of employing a global workforce necessitates a new kind of support infrastructure.

Due to these evolving requirements, contact centers have undergone a digital transformation as they have to provide omnichannel support, and at the same time, have the flexibility to deploy their own Workforce Optimization (WFO) tools in the cloud. Such a complex requirement needs a hybrid cloud approach to data storage, so that users can get both functionality, and ease of use.

To meet these requirements, Calabrio has come up with a unified workforce optimization software suite, after years of development and millions of dollars in investment. Calabrio One comes with the following features:

• It’s a unified software that handles call recording, analytics, quality assurance, and workforce management.
• It is based on an intuitive web-based architecture that makes it easy to use for everyone.
• It has an interactive dashboard, and provides seamless access to data and reporting.
• The fact that it is a fully integrated suite, is a major attraction for customers, as they prefer it over individual components.
• It helps with faster decisions, as the data collected through this tool can be shared throughout the organization.
• Calabrio One provides a high level of flexibility in deployment and administration.
• This product allows companies to leverage their existing infrastructure in older contact centers, and at the same time, add new contact centers that run in the cloud. This integration is possible with Calabrio One, as it offers a unified interface and consistent user experience.
• Its Active Architecture is designed to ensure that customers have no downtime whatsoever.
• It uses Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute Services (EC2) as this is the largest and most scalable infrastructure available in the market today. As a result, data is sure to be secure and available all the time.
• Calabrio One uses Amazon S3 storage, so users can move their data seamlessly through different storage options.
• To meet the needs of growing digital interactions, this product uses a complex grid computing architecture to process heavy data coming from contact centers.
• It uses something called a Smart Capture technology to provide in-depth insights based on customer data.
• It supports multitenancy by protecting the visibility of each tenant’s data.
• This suite includes many easy-to-use tools that provide a better understanding of customers.

These features are sure to enhance the efficiency and operations of contact centers, so the company expects more customers to make the switch to Calabrio One.

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Dallas-based telecom leader, AT&T, signed a multi-year agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to offer joint services in the areas of cloud networking, IoT, security, and analytics. The terms of the deal was not disclosed, though a press release from AT&T said that this partnership would give its customers access to AWS Cloud in many ways.

This is a significant partnership for both the companies, as it helps one to tap into the strength of the other. Telecom companies like AT&T do not have the cloud infrastructure like that of companies like Amazon and Microsoft, so partnerships are the best way to beef up their offerings. It would take a ton of money and even many years for AT&T to build an infrastructure the size of AWS, and this is why it’s a sensible move to tap into the strength of this cloud service provider.

Earlier, AT&T had signed an agreement with Microsoft to use its Azure platform to securely move customer-centric data between private and public cloud. Also, it entered into an agreement with IBM in 2012 for a similar service.

If you’re wondering why AT&T signed another agreement with AWS, it is to focus on these three specific areas:

• Under this partnership, AT&T’s NetBond customers can establish faster and more secure connections to the AWS Cloud.  NetBond is an MPLS VPN service that connects enterprise applications to public clouds. Over the last year, NetBond has seen a four-fold increase in traffic, and this partnership is expected to provide enhanced customer visibility, security, and automation for these customers.

• Through this partnership, AT&T plans to have a stronger foothold in the IoT market, thereby allowing AT&T devices to send data to the cloud seamlessly. This is also a huge market for AT&T, as many connected devices such as cars and fitness machines come with sensors that collect pertinent information from the users. A reliable network is needed to send this data to the cloud, and AT&T wants to project itself as the leading network service provider to send this data. Already, its network includes 29 million connected devices, and these numbers could go up hugely with cloud integration.

• The final focus area is to improve security on cloud platforms, so the response time for threats is greatly reduced. This is in line with AT&T’s plan to boost its Threat Intellect Platform that was launched this summer. It’s AT&T’s own machine learning system that identifies real-time threats as they occur, and this system can get a big boost with AWS’s cloud security and infrastructure.

These three focus areas could expand to include more areas too in the future, as AT&T is looking to consolidate its cloud business, as a way to make up for the declining growth in its traditional role as a telecom provider.

To implement the terms of this partnership, both companies plan to employ specialists from their respective companies on a joint effort to work on the specified areas.

In all, this is another significant partnership that is sure to augur well not just for the companies, but also for the industry and its customers as a whole.

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Akamai, a leader in Content Delivery Services (CDN) is on an acquisition spree. On October 4, it acquired a California-based startup called Soha Systems for an undisclosed amount. Founded in 2013 by Haseeb Budhani,  Soha Systems provides enterprise secure access for the cloud. Recently, it had raised just under $10 million in venture funding from Andreesen Horowitz and Menlo Ventures, and was considered a successful tech startup. This was an all-cash deal, though the exact amount was not revealed by either companies.

This acquisition comes on the heels of another acquisition that was made last week by Akamai, when it bought a New York-based startup called Concord Systems for another all-cash deal. Earlier, it had also acquired companies like Bloxx and Prolexic respectively.

These acquisitions are expected to give a big boost to the operations of Akamai, as it looks to consolidate its position as the leading provider of content delivery network in the world. Currently, it has one of the largest distributed computing platforms in the world, and this company alone is responsible for 15 to 30 percent of all digital traffic.

Soha systems, an innovator in the sphere of cloud security, was a natural partner for Akamai, as the latter looks to provide more secure enterprise applications in the cloud. Over the last few years, Akamai has been looking to make a foray into cloud enterprise security applications, which acts as a natural complement to its web traffic services. In fact, providing employees with secure access to enterprise applications is a core component of web access, especially with the enterprise trend of moving more applications to the cloud. In this sense, Soha systems’ security service is expected to be the perfect product for Akamai’s expansion plans.

Also, there have been many rumors that Akamai is preparing to itself to be a potential acquisition target for Microsoft or Google, as they look to take on competition from Amazon’s AWS.  Since Soha Systems offers secure access delivered as a service, this acquisition is likely to boost its chances of getting acquired by one of the big companies in the near future.

Further, this acquisition can help Akamai to tap into a new business segment – cloud security. Today, more companies are looking to move their applications to the cloud for better performance, and in such a scenario, security becomes absolutely vital. IT teams today, are grappling with providing security, access, and performance, without compromising one for the other. Akamai’s strategy can go a long way in providing security across a range of different devices, and this way, it can help its enterprise customers to make the most of key trends driving the cloud and mobile services.

This deal is expected to give Soha Systems a boost too, besides the cash deal for founders. Soha’s cloud security is likely to be a high-value component of Akamai’s massive global platform, thereby giving it more visibility on a global stage. The existing operations of Soha Systems along with its employees and clients would not be affected, according to a press release from Akamai.

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In another strategic alliance deal, Egnyte, an enterprise file-sharing and collaboration provider,  has partnered with Microsoft to make Azure cloud platform the preferred storage choice for its customers. However, a company statement says that if a customer already has a license with a different cloud provider such as Hewlett-Packard, Amazon, IBM, or Google Cloud, Egnyte will  still honor these licenses.

With this deal, users can open any Egnyte file directly on Microsoft Office Online for viewing and editing, and the changes are automatically saved back to Egnyte. Also, users can remotely edit and access Egnyte files from any native Office Mobile app.  With this option, Egnyte  plans to offer end-to-end integration services for its corporate customers to help them tackle a growing mix of documents, apps, images, and other data that are stored in employees’ personal devices.

Currently, younger employees prefer to bring their own devices for work, and tend to use the apps they feel most comfortable with. Though this flexibility is good for employees, it makes life harder for IT managers, as they have to stay on top of security and integration aspects for these different devices. Though some companies prefer to block users from bringing their own devices, it’s not seen as a viable option. Instead, many companies are turning to file synchronization and sharing providers like Egnyte, Dropbox, and Box to address this problem.

In fact, a research by Gartner shows that corporate customers tend to turn to companies that specialize in file synchronization and sharing, rather than using content management and storage tools offered by larger providers like Microsoft and Google. However, the downside with choosing smaller companies is that they focus only on a niche area, and this means, clients still have to turn to larger vendors for integrations.

To overcome this downside, many file sharing and cloud storage companies are collaborating with cloud vendors to offer a comprehensive service. Already, Dropbox has partnered with Hewlett-Packard, and Box teamed up with IBM to offer cloud storage services. Hence, it’s no surprise that Egnyte also chose this path, to stay on top of competition.

Also, Microsoft was a natural partner for Egnyte, as the two companies have been tapping into each other’s capabilities for more than a year now. In mid-2015, Egnyte and Microsoft entered into an agreement under which, business users can seamlessly access and manage all of their Windows files over a network. This partnership was a big success for both the companies, especially Egnyte, as it helped to expand the latter’s customer base.

Since then, both the companies have developed many integrations such as Azure Key Vault, Azure AD, Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft Sharepoint Online, and these tools have been beneficial for both the companies to reach out to a wider customer base and to take on competition in their respective segments. More importantly, users have gained immensely from these collaborations, thereby making the above agreements a win-win situation for everyone involved.

This new agreement too is expected to give Egnyte a big boost, both on the apps and IT infrastructure markets as Azure has become an important platform for enterprise integrations today.

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