Announcing the product launch of a Mitel Virtual Mitel Communication Director (Virtual MCD)

Transcription

1 Announcing the product launch of a Mitel Virtual Mitel Communication Director (Virtual MCD) In today's global economy, businesses are - more than ever - looking to reduce capital and operating expenses. When it comes to the IT data centre, there has been, and continues to be, opportunity to reduce business application server sprawl by consolidating applications to fewer servers managed under a consistent, rich management umbrella. Server virtualization and comprehensive management tools such as that provided by VMware enable the data centre to save costs through physical server footprint reduction - power savings, real estate savings, as well as server management automation and data centre process standardization. Virtual infrastructure management tools also readily facilitate high availability for business applications, including maintaining business continuity through disaster recovery. Data centre virtualization continues to be more and more cost effective, and the tools developed by leading virtualization infrastructure and management vendors such as VMware continue to evolve offering improved performance, ease of use, and comprehensive management capabilities. As such, the viability of virtualized data centres is migrating down from the traditional domain of large enterprises to the mid market and even small business. At the same time, the breadth of applications that can be virtualized is increasing. Virtualization is becoming an integral and highly effective part of the fabric of the majority of business Data Centres. Historically, voice communications has been relegated to dedicated equipment residing in a segregated telecoms closet. However, voice communications has evolved and, as part of that evolution, has migrated from proprietary appliances to software solutions on standard commercial servers. Its reach has also extended to integrate with many business applications. Although voice communications maintains exacting performance expectations, it is now fundamentally part of the software application layer in the business data centre. The confluence of the evolution of voice communications and the evolution of the data centre now a virtualized data centre - has presented the opportunity for voice and Unified Communications (UC) to be considered an integral part of that data centre fabric. Mitel has recognized this industry evolution and is the leader in virtualising business communications - now offering its core voice component as a virtualized software application deployed alongside other traditional virtualized business applications in a VMware enabled corporate data centre. Mitel collaborated directly with VMware to allow its UC applications to run in a virtualized environment. Previously, no company had overcome the technological complexity of virtualising real-time voice applications. The Virtual Mitel Communications Director (Virtual MCD) is the industry s first fully virtualized voice communications software application. This is the same MCD software deployed historically on the Mitel 3300 IP Communications Platform (ICP) and offered most recently as a software solution on industry standard servers (MCD-ISS). However, it is now delivered as a virtual appliance for VMware-

2 enabled virtual data centres. It maintains the rich industry-leading voice communications suite that sets Mitel apart, offering consistency in solution set ranging from small businesses up through large enterprises. In addition to the Virtual MCD, Mitel currently offers several applications as VMware Ready Mitel Customer Interaction Solutions, Mitel Unified Communicator (UC) Advanced Server, and Mitel Enterprise Manager. Furthermore, through the course of 2010, Mitel will extend its offering of virtual appliances to encompass all core business communications applications, specifically including Mitel Applications Suite and Mitel Border Gateway (MBG). Virtual MCD is also a differentiated offering from the Mitel Multi-Instance Communications Director. Although both products are virtualized, the MICD leverages highly tuned proprietary technology to virtualise multiple instances of the MCD software on a single dedicated high end server. This packaging services high density, high capacity situations with tight real-time voice communication tolerances such as service provider hosted solutions or large enterprises supporting multiple sites with each site serviced by a single MCD instance on the MICD. On the other hand, the Virtual MCD appliance targets SMB and small-mid enterprise customer deployments where data centre fit and consolidation within an industry standard virtual environment is a priority. Product Overview / Features & Benefits / Description Virtual MCD provides customers with the ability to incorporate their call control capability into their virtualized data centre environment, where traditionally real time applications were never able to be deployed. In doing this, Mitel has removed another barrier for IT administrators who wish to construct homogenous environments to more efficiently manage their hardware platforms and software applications. Customer Benefits The key customer benefits of Virtual MCD are: Reduced capital expenditure. Consolidation of telephony and unified communications as part of a virtual infrastructure enables businesses to further optimize server utilization. Dedicated physical servers (or appliances) are no longer required to provide telephony and unified communication services to employees. Reduced operations and maintenance costs. Consolidation enables reduction in time, effort, and cost associated with server management. As well, integration of telephony within the fabric of VMware virtual infrastructure management enables traditional communication solutions to now be managed cohesively alongside other virtualized business applications, further integrating IT processes. Reduced power consumption. Consolidation of business communications applications enables businesses to take advantage of the inherent power savings of virtual environments enabled by VMware server virtualization reduced servers and VMware Distributed Power Management. Improved Application Availability. In addition to the inherent resiliency capabilities offered by MCD, integration within a VMware managed virtual environment enables the Virtual MCD to partake in the advanced functions offered by VMware vsphere Client and vcenter to manage application availability. Applications are no longer subject to prolonged downtime for server maintenance.

3 Integrated Business Continuity. Consolidating telephony within the management framework of a virtual data centre environment enables the solution to take advantage of integrated disaster recovery management available through VMware virtualization. Management methodologies and best practices are consistently applied across all applications in the data centre, including business communication applications, saving the IT department time and money. Consistent Feature Set and Licensing. The Virtual MCD is the same rich voice communications software suite as that available on the 3300 ICP and the MCD-ISS. It leverages the same software licensing as the traditional MCD. Customer investment is protected when migrating from non-virtual to virtual environments. Seamless Telephony Integration. The Virtual MCD integrates seamlessly in a network of MCD's either 3300 ICP, MCD-ISS or other Virtual MCD appliances. The solution integrates with the same Mitel desk phone portfolio and applications suite. This facilitates a seamless transition and maintains customer continuity with the Mitel business communications experience. Faster System Deployment. The Virtual MCD appliance is simple to install into an existing virtualized data centre, thus making it quicker to increase communications capacity and adjust overall workload in contrast to traditional dedicated specialized appliances or dedicated servers. Virtual MCD Telephony Features The Virtual MCD is the same software stack as that used across all supported platforms including MCD on Industry Standard Servers and on Mitel 3300 Controllers. As a result, all the features and functionality available on those traditional platforms are available in a virtualized deployment with some exceptions the same exceptions that apply to MCD on Industry Standard Servers. The functionality available with the Virtual MCD includes, but is not limited to: Full breadth of IP telephony features Dynamic Extension Clustering - multi-node deployment and management ACD / Contact Centre interoperability Resiliency support via multiple Virtual MCD s or via fail-over to MCD on a 3300 ICP Controller or MCD on an Industry Standard Server SIP service provider interconnect Embedded Systems Management, multi-node management Enterprise Manager Interoperability with all other Mitel applications Mitel Applications Suite, Customer Interaction Solutions, Mitel Unified Communicator (UC) Express, UC Advanced, Mitel Live Business Gateway, etc. Virtual MCD supports up to 1000 active users. Of course, multiple Virtual MCD appliances can be clustered to extend the scale of a typical customer solution, in line with the typical scaling characteristics of clustered MCD solutions. Virtual MCD is introduced at MCD software Release 4.0 Service Pack 2 revision level.

4 VMware vsphere and vcenter Management Features VMware offers a rich set of virtual infrastructure management capabilities as part of its vcenter management suite and plug-in applications. With VMware vcenter, IT Managers can benefit from several key management functions available to them as part of vcenter or as optional add-ons to vcenter: Virtual infrastructure management - Virtual Machine creation and configuration, health monitoring, performance reports, etc. VMware VMotion live migration of Virtual Machines from one physical server to another with zero downtime. VMotion is the foundation technology for several key virtual machine management functions offered through vcenter, including many of those listed in the subsequent bullets. High Availability (HA) automatically detects physical server failure and restarts virtual machines on alternate servers when a server failure occurs. Fault Tolerance (FT) enables zero downtime, zero data loss continuous availability against physical server failures with stateful fail-over protection. Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) automated and notified migration of virtual machines to balance workloads to meet business demands and enable optimal utilization of physical server resources. Distributed Power Management (DPM) consolidates unneeded or lightly used virtual machine workloads onto fewer physical servers, placing unneeded physical servers in standby mode. As workloads increase, servers are brought back on-line and virtual machine workloads appropriately redistributed. Update Manager Server and OS Patching automatically patch / update one or more VMware vsphere hosts (physical servers) as well as select Microsoft Windows and Red Hat Linux Operating Systems in a managed fashion. Virtual Machines are migrated (using VMotion) off of hosts to be patched. VMware VMSafe integrated infrastructure that enables virtual machine-aware security solutions from leading 3 rd party security software vendors to be applied and used within a virtual infrastructure. Site Recovery Manager a plug-in to VMware s vcenter, SRM enables pre-planned disaster recovery management policies to be enacted should a primary data centre or server cluster be put out of service. An entire virtual cluster can be recreated on a backup data centre. Storage replication ensures data continuity. Some restrictions may apply with respect to interoperability and support within the VMware management suite. As Mitel s support of the Virtual MCD across VMware s management suite broadens, further announcements will be made and supporting material such as Engineering Guidelines and product Release Notes will be updated.

5 Customer Network Deployment Configuration Information Figure 1 illustrates a typical customer network deployment with this first release of the Virtual MCD appliance. In this scenario, the virtual infrastructure hosts: One or more instances of Virtual MCD which can be configured as a cluster and with resilient IP telephony fail-over. Appropriate exclusivity policies must be established in the virtual infrastructure to ensure separation of Virtual MCD appliances on unique hosts. If this is an existing Mitel solution deployment, then the pre-existing 3300 ICP can be redeployed as a resilient fail-over controller for the Virtual MCD. Additional Mitel business communication applications that are VMware Ready such as Customer Interactions Solutions, UC Advanced Server, and Enterprise Manager. Other business applications. MAS is deployed on its own dedicated server and houses a complete suite of business communication applications, including messaging as well as audio and web conferencing. (Note: MAS is planned to be optionally available as a virtual appliance in an upcoming release in 2010, enabling its consolidation as part of the virtual infrastructure.) Figure 1 Typical Customer Solution Deployment

6 A Mitel 3300 ICP Media Gateway can be optionally deployed to provide digital / analogue services, including E1 / T1 service provider interconnect for digital services. If this is an existing Mitel solution deployment, then the pre-existing 3300 ICP can be redeployed as a trunking gateway. An MBG is deployed on its own dedicated server in the customer s DMZ to provide secure integration for Teleworker, SIP Trunk Proxy services, and the Application Web Proxy for Mitel applications. (Note: MBG is planned to be optionally available as a virtual appliance in an upcoming release in 2010, enabling its consolidation as part of the virtual infrastructure.) As these virtual appliances for business communications Virtual MCD now, Virtual MAS, Virtual MBG and others in the future - come together over the course of 2010 and as Mitel s support of VM infrastructure management takes shape, broader business continuity capabilities are enabled allowing for replication of business communication applications in secondary data centres, as depicted in Figure 2. Figure 2 - Enabling Business Continuity Business Continuity enabled by VMware virtual infrastructure management coupled with Mitel s application layer resiliency / fail-over for the MCD provide unprecedented availability in conjunction with consistent administration and manageability across the IT Data Centre. The Virtual MCD appliance can be managed from a VMware vsphere Client connected directly to the physical server (host system), or through vcenter. Virtual MCD can be installed, monitored, and

7 powered up / down. It can also be migrated from one host (server) to another host in support of server maintenance or workload balancing. This can be accomplished using the Migrate facility from vcenter, with the Virtual Machine containing Virtual MCD first powered off. For more information, please consult the Virtual MCD Installation Guide. For more information on VMware vsphere, VMware vcenter, and other VMware virtual infrastructure management functions, please refer to the appropriate VMware solution or product documentation. Some restrictions may apply with respect to interoperability and support within the VMware management suite. As Mitel s support of the Virtual MCD across VMware s management suite broadens, further announcements will be made and supporting material such as Engineering Guidelines and product Release Notes will be updated. Minimum Deployment Requirements The Virtual MCD appliance requires the following minimum software and hardware requirements to be met in order to function: VMware vsphere Release 4, with VMware vsphere client (vcenter is optional and not absolutely required to install and manage the Virtual MCD). Intel based servers with a minimum Xeon GHz or better (supporting Intel Nehalem micro-processor architecture), and with hyper-threading enabled. Mitel is currently investigating supportability on AMD processor technology. Further details will be announced as they become available. Virtual infrastructure capable of hosting a virtual machine with a minimum of 4 virtual processors (2 processor cores with hyper-threading enabled), 2GB RAM, 10GB disk space, and 40 mb/s network throughput. This allocation is defined and assigned as part of the Virtual MCD installation process. Further and final information will be published as part of the System Engineering guide to be released at product launch. Software Delivery The Virtual MCD appliance is delivered as a software image using a standard Open Virtualization Format (OVF) for rapid predefined installation into a VMware enabled virtual environment. The OVF image is available for download from Mitel OnLine, alongside other MCD software images. It can be burned onto a DVD or stored on a network connected device and then imported into the virtual infrastructure using either the VMware vsphere Client or vcenter. Virtual MCD installation is completed using the Virtual Machine console as well as the MCD Server Manager Web browser to configure the Mitel Standard Linux (MSL) configuration. Virtual MCD system configuration is subsequently managed using the Embedded System Manager (ESM) on the MCD, accessible via browser. Software updates for the Virtual MCD are delivered via download from Mitel AMC through the

8 regular Mitel Standard Linux blade download mechanism. In certain update situations, it may be necessary to replace the entire virtual appliance. Software Licensing Virtual MCD is licensed through Mitel s Applications Management Centre (AMC). The Virtual MCD must have on-line (internet) access to the AMC. Internet access must be maintained while the application is in active use. Should internet access be lost, the system administrator will receive a visual warning in the Virtual MCD Server Manager indicating that there has been a loss in connectivity. The initial license includes a 12 month right to use the software and comes with the first year of software assurance included in the purchase price. Within that time frame, the installation must be upgraded to the then current release of Mitel s Virtual MCD software. At the time of this writing, this would be the planned Virtual MCD Release 5 (subject to program commitments). Upon upgrade, the software right to use will be extended. Should the software not be upgraded within the 12 month window to the then current release of Virtual MCD, the software will cease to function and telephony functions will terminate. Options and Add-Ons Existing licenses available for standard MCD deployments can be applied to the Virtual MCD base package. There are a few exclusions as to what the Virtual MCD supports and these are in line with the following exceptions associated with the MCD on Industry Standard Servers: Specialized interfaces required to support connections such as digital trunks (T1 / E1), analogue trunks and station lines, and Mitel specific peripherals (ASU's, NSU's etc.), are not supported. The Virtual MCD can, however, connect to other controllers via Mitel IP trunks or SIP trunks that can provide this type of connectivity. EMEM (embedded voice mail) is not supported. Messaging (voice mail, unified messaging, etc.) solutions can be provided via off board products such as Mitel Applications Suite (Mitel NuPoint Unified Messaging (UM)). Although Mitel OPS Manager is supported with this release of the Virtual MCD, it is strongly recommended that multi-node network management be implemented with the newer GDM architecture introduced with MCD Release 4.0. This will facilitate upgrades to Virtual MCD Release 4.1.