Network World - Not familiar with the terms "session border controller" or "session delivery network"? Don't worry. Andy Ory, CEO of fast-growing Bedford, Mass.-based Acme Packet, is more than happy to share his passionate vision of how SBCs and SDNs -- and the emerging era of "opt-in communications" -- will change your business and the world.
In this installment of the IDG Enterprise CEO Interview Series, Ory spoke with IDGE Chief Content Officer John Gallant about how Acme Packet is bringing identity, security and control to the wilds of the Internet, and why the world's top carriers -- and a growing number of enterprise IT shops -- are relying on the company to reduce costs and develop a whole new generation of network services.
Your technology is widely used within service providers and, thus, widely used by enterprises, but Acme Packet might not be a company that IT leaders are really familiar with. Explain what a session border controller is, and what you mean by the concept of a session delivery network.
From a very high level -- and I'm going to make it a little simpler than it actually is -- the reason that the telephone system works is that it has a signaling system. A signaling system is like a series of traffic lights. Imagine that we go to New York City and we're sitting in Midtown at three o'clock in the afternoon in a cab. Now, let's say I have a little button, an app on my iPhone. I hit it and it turns off every traffic light in Midtown. What happens? We all grind to a halt. Nothing goes anywhere. If you remove a signaling system, all heck breaks loose, chaos ensues and nothing can go anywhere on the network. Well, we're building a signaling system for the Internet.
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