OTTAWA, Ontario, March 8, 2017 — GENBAND™, a leading provider of real time communications solutions, today announced that it has joined Canada’s CENGN, (Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks). This independent and internationally recognized interoperability center enables companies to test and validate new and emerging SDN, NFV and IoT technologies before moving them to production.
“Network evolution is one of our strategic pillars and an area in which we continually invest,” said Paul Miller, Chief Technology Officer, GENBAND Networks. “We take our position as industry leaders and customer enablers seriously. Our membership in CENGN will help us expand on that leadership and engage in ongoing dialogue with the rest of the ecosystem.”
Communications Service Providers (CSPs) are turning to Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) to drive efficiencies, improve service agility and fundamentally change the way they do business. GENBAND’s NFV solutions enable CSPs to realize cost efficiencies and increase service velocity.
“We look forward to working with GENBAND, and know they’ll be a great addition to our membership,” says Ritch Dusome, CENGN President and CEO. “Our members are key to accomplishing our objectives. Based on GENBAND’s global leadership and NGN expertise, we are confident that they will provide significant value to the ecosystem and help support the acceleration, development, and introduction of new SDN and NFV products and services.”
CENGN is funded by the Networks of Centre of Excellence (NCE) through the CECR program. CECR works to bridge the gap between innovation and commercialization, helping with the advancement of research, and to facilitate commercialization within the ICT sector. Through this funding and the contributions received from members, CENGN is able to provide a unique environment to commercialize advanced products, applications and services for its partners as well as small to medium enterprises.
“Ottawa continues to grow as a tech hub and we’re thrilled to be a part of it,” added Sacha Gera, Senior Vice President, Cloud Products, GENBAND. “Joining CENGN gives us the opportunity to discover the talent emerging in the Canadian ICT sector while offering additional avenues for us to contribute to the growth and sustainability of the communications industry as a whole.”
CENGN’s vision is to ensure Canada is a global leader in the commercialization of technologies that will underpin the next generation of converged global communications networks. The organization is structured to support the innovation continuum from idea to commercialization. A large part of CENGN’s success comes from its strong student placement program. CENGN ensures the continued growth of the ICT sector through placing approximately 40 students per year in roles that offer fundamental experience and training in next generation networks.
About GENBAND
GENBAND is a global leader in real-time communications software solutions for service providers, enterprises, independent software vendors, systems integrators and developers in over 80 countries. Kandy, its award-winning, disruptive real-time communications software development platform, is built from the company’s global telecommunications network and security technologies. The platform enables these companies to easily embed a full suite of voice, video, chat, screen-sharing and collaboration capabilities into their existing business, web and mobile applications. The company’s Network Modernization, Unified Communications, Mobility and Embedded Communications solutions enable its customers to quickly capitalize on growing market segments and introduce differentiating products, applications and services. GENBAND’s market-leading solutions, which are deployable in the network, on premise or through the cloud, help its customers connect people to each other and address the growing demands of today’s consumers and businesses for real-time communications wherever they happen to be. GENBAND’s award-winning Marketing Advantage Program offers partners free resources, training and campaigns to fuel their success in implementing GENBAND powered services. To learn more visit genband.com.
About CENGN – Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks
Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN), is a consortium of industry, academic and research leaders dedicated to accelerating the commercialization of next generation communications solutions. CENGN’s internationally recognized testing centre employs interoperability between multiple software and hardware products, providing a unique environment to commercialize advanced products, applications, and services. Our fully operational data centre is running a production OpenStack environment with multiple connections to a real-world WAN including a dark fibre connection that enables connectivity speeds of more than 100Gbps. CENGN services include; Proof of Concept (PoC) validation and hosting, interoperability/performance/ certification testing, technical training (SDN, NFV, IPv6, ODL, OpenStack), Innovation for Hire and Commercialization Acceleration. CENGN members include: CISCO, EWA Canada, EXFO, Fujitsu, GENBAND, Invest Ottawa, Juniper Networks, Nokia, Rogers, TELUS, Viavi, Wind River, and Zayo.
