7/27/2010 -- Thanks to its push into Unified Communications (UC), Cisco Systems Inc. is a strong player in the still-gestating session border controller (SBC) market segment. SBC uptake increased by 53 percent last year -- at a time when sales in other technology segments were tanking -- and experts project similarly robust growth through 2014. The upshot, according to market watcher Infonetics Research, is that enterprises are switching en masses from PBX to SBC.

That has Cisco and other SBC contenders sitting pretty.

"The enterprise session border controller market grew more than 50 percent in 2009 over 2008, in stark contrast to the 22 percent decline in the PBX market," said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise voice and data at Infonetics Research, in a prepared release.

Machowinski and Infonetics cite a trio of reasons why SBC sales bucked an otherwise downward trend in the IT spending-scape.

"The enterprise SBC segment bucked the negative spending environment due to...[the] adoption of SIP trunking services, which are growing at a fast clip, trunking centralization projects undertaken by large companies and the need to interconnect incompatible VoIP gear, a side effect of strong M&A activity," said Machowinski. "SBCs are the next generation of border elements, and as such will see strong growth over the coming years."

Cisco and rival Acme Packet are currently tied for SBC market bragging rights, according to Infonetics.

Between them, they're battling for control of an SBC segment that's projected to grow at a 44 percent annual clip over the next five years.

The North American region is the biggest consumer of SBC products and services, Infonetics reports, chiefly because it is home to the largest companies.

Large enterprise organizations (as distinct to small- and medium-sized shops) are considered ideal candidates for SIP trunking, the researcher indicates.
--By Stephen Swoyer