Support for selected Ribbon SBC 1000 and 2000 to end in 2022


Analysis

March 7, 2022

What’s happening?

Ribbon has set an end of support date for selected models and SKU's for two Session Border Controller (SBC) ranges. They have announced that some of the older SBC 1000, SBC 2000, UX 1000, and UX 2000 SKU’s will no longer be supported by Ribbon from December 30th, 2022.

 

What does that mean?

Every supplier handles their product lifecycles a little differently; some might phase out different levels of support over time, or offer extended support subscriptions, while others might opt for a hard cut-off date. In general, once hardware has gone “end of life”, suppliers will stop issuing bug fixes and security patches, stop providing spare parts, and decline to take any technical support calls. It is therefore best practice to replace any hardware that is no longer supported, especially when it is as critical to maintaining a secure network as an SBC is.

In this case, Ribbon have announced that after December 30th, 2022, they will stop accepting calls to level one support, and will deny any requests for RMA services for those models affected. For more details about Ribbon’s end of life procedures, you can read their product lifecycle policy or get in touch with them.

 

What do you need to do?

If you still have any of the affected Ribbon SBCs in your estate, it is now time to consider how best to replace them. You have a few options:

  • Replace them with a newer Ribbon SBC model, or on-premises SBC that you own and manage
  • Use a managed SBC service where a third-party supplier owns and/or manages a new on-premises SBC
  • Migrate to a cloud-based virtual SBC (aka Hosted SBC).

The virtual SBC option is fast becoming the most popular choice as more businesses move services into the cloud. It performs all the same functions as an on-premises SBC, but without the capex expenditure on hardware , and are typically offered as a cloud-hosted managed service on a subscription basis.

 

What are the benefits of a virtual SBC?

Virtual SBCs present a range of attractive benefits over traditional on-premises, customer owned SBCs that have to be deployed, configured, and managed in-house, including:

  • Simplifying operations: Save time and effort by removing the hassle of deploying, managing, updating, and replacing your SBCs yourself
  • Reducing hardware spend: Add the flexibility to scale your estate up and down with no capex, as there is no upfront purchasing necessary
  • Redundancy: Ensuring that services stayed up previously meant doubling up on your hardware purchases, whereas now it is up to the service provider to ensure high availability and uptime
  • Predictable costs: pay a regular subscription fee, instead of dealing with unexpected outages that mean you have to pay to replace SBCs at short notice

 

How can we help?

Pure IP’s secure, resilient enterprise voice services are provided over a backbone of virtual SBCs, removing the burden of managing on-premises SBCs within your communications environment while providing all the above benefits.

Additionally, in those circumstances where our centralized solution may not be an option, we can also offer an SBC Managed Service. Delivered remotely, this service can help you with any, or all, of the stages from the initial supply, configuration and deployment of an SBC, through to its ongoing management. The SBC Managed Service is frequently used to extend the geographic reach of your voice services for countries where PSTN replacement is not currently available.

To find out more, please get in touch >

Alessandra Skarlatos

Alessandra joined Pure IP as the Content and Communications Manager in early 2020, after 5 years within the cinema technology sector.

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