Overview
Cloud-based video collaboration platforms are turning up
across the spectrum of communications providers these days, and for good
reason. Ease of use has improved, the quality of experience is now
enterprise-grade, and cloud economics are making these offerings very
attractive. All of this represents a big step forward from legacy, room-based
systems, and now the power of video is accessible to everyone across an
organization.
One of the keys to making video valuable as a collaboration
tool is the ability to support ad hoc meetings. There will always be a need for
formal, scheduled conferences, but today’s workplace is highly fluid, and what
enterprises are really striving for is to provide applications that employees
can use on their own, from any location, at any time and with any type of
endpoint.
The cloud makes all this possible, and I’ve had a chance to
review one of the latest entries, namely Univago
from Yorktel. Pronounced Uni-vahgo, their cloud-based
collaboration service was launched
last October, and is one of many offerings Yorktel has developed as a
managed services provider for the enterprise market.
User experience
My comments about the user experience will be brief since I
don’t have intensive needs for platforms like this. That said, the user portal
is intuitive, and the screens aren’t overly cluttered with options that tend to
cut down the real estate that’s actually used for video. Overall, I’d say
Univago has succeeded in making the process of collaborating fairly easy, right
from starting a meeting, inviting people and then managing the session.
All the features you’d expect are there in terms of control
functions -mute/unmute, show self view, full screen mode, etc. - selecting
audio/video devices, content sharing, screen sharing, chat, etc. I particularly
liked the feature for selecting bandwidth – not just to optimize the quality of
experience, but also to help conserve power consumption. While Univago is very
much built as a self-service platform, IT is accountable for the costs, so this
is a subtle way to encourage end users to help keep that in check.
In terms of capacity, it’s worth noting that Univago can
support HD meetings up to 30 people, and for a cloud-based service, this should
suffice for most needs. I should also add that Univago can be customized,
meaning that enterprises can use these meeting rooms as branding opportunities
to show customers how tech-savvy they are. The same applies to service
providers as well, so they could offer Univago on a branded basis to enterprise
customers to differentiate themselves from competing carriers.
Joining a conference is quite easy, with three options that
cover all the basic scenarios – via a browser, a phone or an endpoint. For
browser access, Univago is optimized for Chrome, while other browsers may need
a plug-in for initial use, and some certain features, such as desktop sharing
are not yet supported. When calling in via mobile phone, Univago supports iOs
and Android, and both require the Pexip Infinity Connect Desktop Client, which
can be downloaded for free from their respective app stores.
These are fairly straightforward, but it’s the third option
that enterprises will especially like. The “Endpoint” option allows
participants to enter a Univago meeting room from existing video systems,
either legacy or IP-based. While enterprises will already have some mix of such
endpoints, in most cases, they’ll be able to use what they have to join Univago-hosted
meetings. More importantly with Univago, they’ll be able to interoperate with
each other – more on that later. Currently, Univago supports video endpoints
and applications from Polycom, Cisco, Microsoft Lync 2010 and 2013, Lync Online
via Office 365, Skype for Business, as well as the dominant video protocols,
H.323 and SIP.
Another nice feature is the ability for users to have up to three
separate rooms – URooms – so they can have saved settings and groups for
regular meeting sessions. This makes it easy in cases where employees have
back-to-back meetings with different groups or teams. Once these meetings are
scheduled in the calendar, going from one to another just requires a few mouse
clicks. Nothing needs to be customized or downloaded, allowing each meeting to
start on time.
Notable points of
difference
With so many hosted and WebRTC-based video conferencing/collaboration
solutions out there, it’s hard to tell them apart. For everyday needs, they all
perform similarly and have a comparable set of features. To be fair, the lines
are getting blurry when focusing just on video conferencing for meetings, and
then needing to compare that against full-fledged UC and/or collaboration
platforms that incorporate video into their offerings. That’s a broader
discussion for another time, and I’ll conclude by noting three aspects of
Univago that stand out for me.
1. Flexible deployment options
Second would be a private network scenario – namely MPLS –
where the enterprise connects directly with the Univago cloud, bypassing the
Internet entirely. Off-net users would still need to connect via the public
Internet, so the attraction of this option may depend on where most employees
will be working from. This option will be more expensive, but it scales better
than the public Internet and IT has more control over QoS.
Third is a bit of a twist, in what Yorktel calls the “hybrid
deployment”, where a Univago conference node resides onsite, behind the
enterprise’s firewall. Off-net users still need to connect via the public
Internet, but for everyone else – on-net users - this provides the most secure
environment with highest quality experience possible. What makes this
attractive is the ability for Univago to deliver a consistent experience for
meeting participants from wherever they’re calling in.
For the enterprise, there’s a big benefit in that all the
public Internet traffic is routed directly to another Univago node, hosted in
Yorktel’s cloud. In fact, they have three data centers, one each in North
America, EMEA and Asia, and each one hosts a Univago node. Wherever this
traffic originates from, it is routed to the closest of these data centers, at
which point, it establishes a direct connection with the Univago node on the
customer’s location.
In short, this federated approach allows public Internet
traffic to be vetted by Univago, only allowing authenticated participants past
the enterprise firewall and into the meeting. Not only does this help keep
customer bandwidth consumption down, and mitigates IT security risks, but with
this distributed architecture, Univago can intelligently route calls, saving
precious milliseconds in latency that can degrade a video session. There’s also
a cost savings element for enterprises when participants use telephony for the
audio portion of a conference. Since the nodes are regionalized, local toll
free numbers can be used in place of a centralized system where all the calls
dial in to the same number.
To date, this option is still in trials with some enterprise
customers, so it’s not yet commercially deployed. However, I’m told interest
has been keen, as it addresses some key challenges faced by distributed
enterprises for supporting video with both onsite and offsite participants.
For enterprises struggling to do this, along with having a
strong desire for a video solution that’s accessible to everyone, their virtual
gateway will be a selling point. Another factor to consider here is that
Univago is a full service partner. That means they’re more than just a
conference bridge up in the cloud. If enterprises need support to get these
elements working together, this is where Univago – and Yorktel – adds value
that pure play cloud offerings cannot provide.
3. Virtual receptionist
3. Virtual receptionist
This is another feature that ensures only authenticated
participants calling in off-net can join a Univago session hosted on the
customer’s private network. Much like with audio conferencing, callers are
prompted via IVR to enter their ID using DTMF tones to pass the “gatekeeper”
and enter the meeting.
Since these calls will be Web-based, an IP address can be
used as well, which only bona fide participants will have. Aside from making
the process of joining a meeting more seamless, it keeps the spam out, which
also helps optimize bandwidth consumption. It’s also worth noting that this
feature represents another branding opportunity for enterprises, whereby
callers can have a direct association with the company at every step of the way
during their meeting experience.
Conclusion
All of the above comes with the offering – not separate,
costly add-ons - so enterprises have a comprehensive solution in Univago, with
a great deal of flexibility for deployment. There’s far more here than what
purpose-built cloud video services offer, and compared to premise-based
systems, Univago gives customers greater choice and control.
In essence, Univago is a PaaS offering that’s built for what
enterprises need today when it comes to making video meetings and collaboration
as easy to use a making a phone call. For enterprises looking for a
vendor-agnostic partner, and don’t have the resources to manage a collaboration
solution in-house, PaaS for cloud-based video is a viable approach. I’d keep
watch on Univago, as their success will be a good indicator of the PaaS model
as a driver to accelerate the use of video for collaboration.
Unlike most cloud-based services that are pure play video
providers, I should add that Univago is one of several offerings from Yorktel,
and being new, it’s almost like a startup venture inside the company. So, kudos
to Yorktel for innovating around long-standing problems which enterprises
really need to get solved. Collaboration is too strategic now, and with
enterprises so decentralized, video simply has to work better, and that’s why
Yorktel has come up with Univago.
Finally, from the buyer’s side, it’s worth noting that Univago
can be purchased as a standalone offering – making it directly competitive with
pure play video providers – but also in tandem with other Yorktel services. This
would make sense where enterprises are looking for a full-service MSP to handle
all their communications needs.
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