Juniper and Polycom partner on low-cost telepresence

Teleconferencing giant Polycom has joined forces with networking firm Juniper Networks in a partnership designed to offer more cost-effective and reliable telepresence and videoconferencing services.

The alliance, which is set to launch officially in mid-2010, will combine Juniper's Junos Space network application platform, the MX Series 3D Universal Edge Routers, and SRX Series Services Gateways with Polycom's telepresence systems.

The Polycom systems include its Distributed Media Application, which centralises call control and provides further failover redundancy.

The combined solution, which will be delivered as a managed service, will allow telepresence and videoconferencing traffic to run over the same networking equipment as other applications, offering better value for money.

The managed service could also offer improved return on investment, and provide enterprise-wide productivity and collaboration benefits, said the firms.

"The exploding interest in visual communication has created an urgent need for a more reliable and cost-effective model for delivering assured quality video services," said Gerri Elliott, executive vice president for strategic alliances at Juniper.

"Leveraging Junos Space, Juniper and Polycom are creating a unique solution that will enable carriers to maximise the value of their existing networks to deliver scalable, high quality video services."