Are physical Appliances still a choice?
January 29, 2025

Are physical Appliances still a choice?

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller

Software Version

OmniSwitch 9900

Overall Satisfaction with Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch

I used to be part of an organization responsible for the quoting and deployment of Alcatel-Lucent Omniswitches on customer networks. Mainly focused on dedicated Hw appliances connected to either a SIP Trunk or PRI/BRI/Analog lines.

Manufacturing environments or areas where ntw connectivity was not so strong were strongly looking for solutions like this one as it gave them the agility to avoid being controlled on whether the data connection was working.

Pros

  • Local Branch out
  • Segregation between data and PSTN traffic
  • DECTs and in warehouses mobility solutions

Cons

  • Being provided in Cloud environments
  • Out of the VPN connection and service usage
  • limited reach when using DECT antennas.
  • Cloud platforms have a quicker rollout of new functionalities rather than a dedicated appliance
  • high initial OPEX which may require financing solutions vs Cloud platforms is most of times a no brainer in favour of Cloud
  • Fewer companies support Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch, thus it may be difficult to manage and support it on the medium to long term
Like said before - I think there are better solutions in the market to solve the challenge rather than a physical appliance. Functionalities are there and capabilities are available, but, in my experience, they lack the inherent capacity a cloud solutions provides. Lacking on the capacity to have the flexibility and dynamic growth Cloud platforms enable.
Wouldn't recommend Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch against ano of the plaforms above due to the lack of evolving capability I believe the Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch has.

Do you think Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch delivers good value for the price?

No

Are you happy with Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch's feature set?

Yes

Did Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch live up to sales and marketing promises?

No

Did implementation of Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch again?

No

I think there are more agile and capable solutions in the market which don't rely on hw appliances or the need to have physical devices on premises. Cloud voice and UC solutions have developed (Teams with the SIP proxy for example) to enable more legacy ways of making calls into their environment.

Using analog gtws together with the cloud platforms allows the same use cases, without the need for OPEX which setting up a platform like this require.

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