Extreme Networks, Inc., and Avaya (News - Alert), today announced that the Township of Middletown, New Jersey, with the help of Avaya Platinum Business Partner Empire Technologies, has deployed converged network and IP telephony solutions.

 

The deployment of these solutions has allowed the Township to “increase consistency of communications, response times and productivity by more than 50 percent,” according to company officials.

 

Located in Monmouth County, Middletown has a population of about 67,000. The implementation of IP telephony from Avaya enabled Middletown to upgrade its network to support its requirements for data, VoIP and related unified communications.

 

Prior to deployment, Township had to support video surveillance, VoIP for phones and traditional applications and its IT staff spent time at the Avaya interoperability lab.

 

Township officials said that after seeing Extreme Networks (News - Alert) and Avaya converged solutions in action along with working with it, and also realizing the depth of integration for a complete converged network solution, they selected Avaya and Extreme Networks solutions.

 

Avaya provided Middletown with an advanced IP telephony solution featuring an Avaya S8500 Media Server with Avaya Communication Manager, the company's IP telephony platform. The S8500 Media Server is designed for a distributed enterprise over an IP infrastructure.

 

In addition, Middletown's network also includes an Avaya G650 Media Gateway (News - Alert). Avaya officials said that Middletown is using Avaya Site Administrator software, which is part of Avaya's suite of network administration tools, and the Extreme Network EPICenter network management application, to monitor and manage its converged network.

 

While Extreme Networks provided Middletown with a converged network solution based on its BlackDiamond 8800 modular switch and Summit edge switches.

 

“After learning more about what the Township wanted to accomplish, we thought an Extreme data solution was the perfect answer and the Middletown Township team agreed,” said Cordell (News - Alert) Toson, president and CEO at Empire Technologies.

 

Extreme Networks officials said that with converged network solution, Middletown can specify bandwidth priority, and minimum and maximum bandwidth per traffic group, which enables the creation of policies that “guarantee network availability” for voice traffic even during times of network congestion.

 

Todd Costello, IT manager for the Township of Middletown, said that in building a new convergence infrastructure and supporting communications applications, the primary concerns were seamless integration, performance and having a strong relationship and understanding with the vendors. “With Avaya, Extreme Networks and Empire Technologies, we satisfied this need,” he added.

 

“Middletown represents a terrific example of how Extreme Networks and Avaya provide a network foundation and feature-rich communication solutions that positively impact the daily operations for our government customers,” said Paul Hooper, chief marketing officer at Extreme Networks.

 

“To serve our customers and enable them to reap the benefits of IP telephony – such as improved customer service – it’s important that we integrate with and support product lines from vendors such as Extreme Networks,” said Richard O'Hara, director for strategic alliances at Avaya.