Tropo Debuts Connect Platform for Network Services on Clouds

Tropo, a start-up based in Menlo Park, California, rolled out its platform to enable telcos and 3rd party developers to rapidly integrate traditional communications with popular cloud services and enterprise workflows.

Tropo, which worked with Apcera and IBM’s SoftLayer to develop its platform, said these capabilities will put Service Providers at the center of a growing ecosystem of developer tools and cloud services.

Tropo Connect enables web apps and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices to interact with live phone calls and text conversations.  For example, a sales productivity app could respond to a subscriber’s phone calls and extract keywords using advanced speech recognition technology to automatically generate contextual notes in their Customer Relationship Management System (CRM). By allowing web platforms like SalesForce.com to participate in the calling experience, a new market for enhanced services is created, unlocking massive revenue streams for services providers and their partners.

The Tropo Platform is deployed within the networks of several Tier 1 operators, such as AT&;T, China Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, NTT and Vodafone. Trop is now offering this platform as afully managed turnkey infrastructure.

"IBM is excited to be working with Tropo and Apcera to deliver the first In-Call app platform on top of IBM's SoftLayer," said Mac Devine, vice president and CTO, SND and Innovation Services, IBM Cloud Division. “SoftLayer’s full-featured API and sophisticated automation enables real-time media processing with a Telco-grade quality of service.”

“The modern web is built on open programming interfaces (APIs) that communicate with each other seamlessly, giving developers the opportunity to mash up services to create fresh revenue-generating apps for consumers and businesses,” said Derek Collison, CEO of Apcera. “

“Tropo Connect works with legacy networks, and is IMS-ready and certified for next-gen architectures,” said Jose de Castro, founder and CTO at Tropo. “CSPs can start adding value and differentiation to their portfolios today, no matter where they are in their network transformation process, and be ensured that the services are future-proofed going forward.”

http://www.tropo.com

Read More

Tropo Launches on Apcera for Real-Time Telco APIs

Apcera, a start-up backed by Ericsson that offers a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that deploys, orchestrates and governs workloads on premise and in the cloud, announced a partnership with Tropo to provide telcos and developers a platform for building and delivering mission-critical communications apps.  Tropo specializes in real-time telco APIs.  These will now be offered running on Apcera's Continuum policy-driven platform-as-a-service (PaaS).  The planned joint solution will be deployed by a Tier 1 carrier in 2015.

Tropo's APIs allow telcos, developers and enterprises to quickly create and deploy real-time voice, video and messaging apps.

“Apcera is a young, agile company that is leveraging its innovative technology to reinvent the PaaS market, much like Tropo has done in the communications-as-a-service space,” said Jason Goecke, CEO and president of Tropo. “Our solutions are perfect complements to each other, and bringing them together will give our customers a great opportunity to leverage a leading-edge PaaS to speed new cloud-based communications apps to market, while ensuring a high level of security.”

Apcera's Continuum PaaS++ ensures reserved capacity and more fine-grained control over resources, including network and service access.

“Tropo shares our vision for delivering the platform and solutions telcos require to develop new offerings to differentiate themselves in a competitive market,” said Derek Collison, founder and CEO of Apcera. “We look forward to working with Tropo to showcase the ease with which new, high-performance communications apps can be quickly developed and securely deployed with our respective offerings.”

http://www.tropo.com
http://www.apcera.com

• In September 2014, Ericsson announced its acquisition of a majority stake in Apcera, a San Francisco-based start-up developing an IT platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that enables enterprises to securely and transparently control the allocation and consumption of IT resources on premise and in the cloud. Financial terms were not disclosed.  Apcera's Continuum PaaS works across cloud, on premise and hybrid environments. Ericsson said the addition of Apcera's technology enables it to provide cloud automation to run all workloads and use cases, while providing complete control for infrastructure.
  
• Apcera was founded in 2012 with investment from True Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Rakuten, Andreessen Horowitz and Data Collective. The cinoabt was started by former Google and VMware executive Derek Collison with the intent of bridging the divide between developers and ops organizations with an enterprise-class platform that integrates policy and security from the start.

Read More