[VoiceOps] Acquire MetaSwitch

Jeff Brower jbrower at signalogic.com
Wed Aug 14 18:05:41 EDT 2024 

  Peter-

What I think you're saying is that Microsoft acquired Metaswitch  
because of their cloud native communications technology, and they  
still like that, but are now shedding the physical equipment part of  
the business.

That makes business sense for Microsoft Sr management, but there is  
revenue in non-Azure edge communications and AI, maybe not M$ level of  
multiple billions, but substantial and growing. Retail surveillance,  
robotics in factories, automated vehicles, etc need communications and  
inference specifically not in the cloud -- cheap, instant response,  
100% fail-safe reliable, and private. I find it hard to see Metaswitch  
guys who spent 25+ years building a successful combined hardware +  
software business, who were very good at it and for whom AI is a  
natural fit with their signal processing and HPC background, watching  
it and their customer base disappear. But as you say, maybe they are  
happy with it.

-Jeff

Quoting Peter Rad via VoiceOps <voiceops at voiceops.org>:

> That's not happening.  The Metaswitch employees I know that are left  
> are happy taking marching orders from M$.
>
>   The problem the softswitch industry had was that the pie was  
> stable. It wasn't growing, so you weren't selling new logos. You  
> were just supporting customers - and that isn't a growth business  
> nor is it a profitable business.
>
>   The problem is that of the 900 operators using Metaswitch in the  
> US, most are mom and pop and rural. That doesn't convert to "Going  
> Azure."
>
>   These mom-and-pop's will have to make due with what they have for  
> the next 5 years - and use that 5 years as a runway for an exit  
> strategy.
>
>   The largest Metaswitch white-label provider just went to CXDO, so  
> the writing on the wall that I have been seeing for 2 years, others  
> are now seeing.
>
>   Regards,
>
>   Peter @ RAD-INFO
>   On 8/13/2024 3:54 PM, Jeff Brower via VoiceOps wrote:

  Not sure about Affirmed, but I know some of the original MetaSwitch  
guys, and a few still at Microsoft. They were, and I suspect still  
are, extremely dedicated and capable. My guess is they will find a way  
to spin out /  buy out MetaSwitch in some form it will continue.

-Jeff

Quoting Jawaid Bazyar via VoiceOps <voiceops at voiceops.org>:

> I have a use case. The use case is, be in a position to take  
> customers tomorrow on a 5/9's platform.
>     
>    One alternative is Ribbon: that solution is out of my price  
> range, and, likely out of price range of every rural ILEC I know.
>     
>    A second is Squire, but, I'm not willing to risk it w/o getting  
> my hands on a long-term trial which was requested but not offered.
>     
>    The final alternative is to throw into developing one, likely in  
> two phases. The orchestration and front end of the Elephant Talk  
> project is complete, now just need to settle on a production backend.
>     
>
>      On Tue, Aug 13, 2024 at 3:33 PM Alex Balashov via VoiceOps  
> <voiceops at voiceops.org> wrote:
>
>> I suppose this all raises the question of why on earth you'd want  
>> to acquire a Metaswitch, but you've clearly got an angle.
>>
>> -- Alex
>>
>>> On Aug 13, 2024, at 3:20 PM, Jawaid Bazyar via VoiceOps  
>>> <voiceops at voiceops.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> "Microsoft's end game is for every operator to have a big pipe to  
>>> Azure to access Metaswitch, vSBC, Teams and other components."
>>>
>>> My question is, can you actually run a MetaSwitch CFS in Azure?  
>>> Because to my knowledge, you cannot.
>>>
>>> I would be very interested if I was wrong about this.
>>>
>>> Jawaid
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Aug 13, 2024 at 12:56 PM Peter Rad via VoiceOps  
>>> <voiceops at voiceops.org> wrote:
>>> Besides getting rid of their Max UC softphone (to make MS Teams  
>>> THEE softphone), they did EOL a lot of the Meta product.
>>>
>>> We - RAD-INFO, ECG and Andrew Ward - did a webinar about it in  
>>> May. You can watch the recording here:   
>>> https://info.ecg.co/webinar-recording-broadworks-metaswitch-netsapiens-ribbon
>>>
>>> Microsoft's end game is for every operator to have a big pipe to  
>>> Azure to access Metaswitch, vSBC, Teams and other components.
>>>
>>>
>>> Let me know if there is anything I can do for you.  Thank you.
>>>  
>>> Regards,
>>>  
>>> Peter Radizeski
>>> RAD-INFO INC
>>> Telecom Consultant
>>> Bandwidth * Voice * Cloud * Data Center * Internet * CyberSecurity
>>> (813) 963-5884
>>>  
>>>  
>>>
>>> On 8/13/2024 8:41 AM, Mike Hammett via VoiceOps wrote:
>>>> "Given the MetaSwitch products are no longer sold, and Microsoft  
>>>> is EOLing them, and not taking new support contracts..."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> That's news to me.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----
>>>> Mike Hammett
>>>> Intelligent Computing Solutions
>>>> http://www.ics-il.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Midwest Internet Exchange
>>>> http://www.midwest-ix.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> From: "Jawaid Bazyar via VoiceOps" <voiceops at voiceops.org>
>>>> To: "voiceops" <voiceops at voiceops.org>
>>>> Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2024 7:23:05 AM
>>>> Subject: [VoiceOps] Acquire MetaSwitch
>>>>
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> We are in the market to acquire / take over a MetaSwitch CFS. In  
>>>> particular, we're looking for the virtual edition that runs  
>>>> purely in VMWare.
>>>>
>>>> The components we'd need are:
>>>>      CFS
>>>>      MRS (Media Resource Server)
>>>>      Perimeta
>>>>      SAS (Service Assurance Server)
>>>>      MetaView Server
>>>>
>>>> These are fairly common components.
>>>>
>>>> Given the MetaSwitch products are no longer sold, and Microsoft  
>>>> is EOLing them, and not taking new support contracts, we're not  
>>>> talking about a big cash up front kind of deal, but, instead a  
>>>> revenue share kind of arrangement.
>>>>
>>>> Anyone that has one and is interested, contact me directly off-list.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>>
>>>> Jawaid
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> VoiceOps mailing list
>>>> VoiceOps at voiceops.org
>>>> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/voiceops
>>>>  
>>>
>>> Virus-free.www.avast.com[1] _______________________________________________
>>> VoiceOps mailing list
>>> VoiceOps at voiceops.org
>>> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/voiceops
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> VoiceOps mailing list
>>> VoiceOps at voiceops.org
>>> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/voiceops
>>
>> --
>> Alex Balashov
>> Principal Consultant
>> Evariste Systems LLC
>> Web: https://evaristesys.com
>> Tel: +1-706-510-6800
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> VoiceOps mailing list
>> VoiceOps at voiceops.org
>> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/voiceops



 

  _______________________________________________ VoiceOps mailing  
list  
VoiceOps at voiceops.orghttps://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/voiceops


   [2] 	     Virus-free.www.avast.com[2]



Links:
------
[1] http://Virus-free.www.avast.com
[2]  
https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://puck.nether.net/pipermail/voiceops/attachments/20240814/22597b04/attachment-0001.htm>

More information about the VoiceOps mailing list