Ribbon to Deliver Carrier-Grade Unified Communications as a Service to the IBM Cloud for Financial Services

September 10, 2020

Westford, MA – Ribbon Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: RBBN), a global provider of real time communications software and packet and optical transport solutions to service providers, enterprises, and critical infrastructure sectors, today announced it has joined the IBM Cloud for Financial Services ecosystem and intends to onboard its Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) offering to the platform. The IBM Cloud for Financial Services is designed to help institutions safely migrate their sensitive operations to the cloud and take advantage of cloud-native technologies from IBM’s Independent Software Vendor (ISV) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendor partners.

Ribbon’s Kandy Business Solutions will provide financial institutions with a full suite of cloud-based Unified Communications (UC) services (Cloud PBX, Cloud Collaboration, Cloud Contact Center, SIP Trunks) and clients like chat, video, voice and text, enabling the seamless transition of business communications to the cloud.

“We are excited to expand our relationship with Ribbon Communications by helping to onboard its Kandy Business Solutions to the IBM Cloud for Financial Services,” said Evaristus Mainsah, General Manager, Cloud, Cloud Pak and Edge Ecosystem, IBM. “Ribbon’s offering can help financial institutions transform their business communications with a safe platform. Ribbon’s participation in our ecosystem helps to provide financial services customers with innovative tools and solutions that enable them to move their operations to the cloud.”

“Becoming a UCaaS vendor for the IBM Cloud for Financial Services is just the latest extension of our relationship, which has delivered advanced cloud communications services to world-class organizations,” said Sacha Gera, Senior Vice President for Ribbon’s Kandy. “Our secure, carrier-grade call control and security solutions are already deployed in the networks of some of the largest financial services institutions in the world. Now we can deliver our industry-leading UCaaS capabilities to even more financial institutions via IBM’s industry-first cloud for financial services platform, which significantly simplifies deployment without sacrificing the reliability or security these organizations require.”

The IBM Cloud for Financial Services was designed to help stakeholders of financial services institutions address their regulatory compliance, security and resiliency obligations. This is designed to help financial institutions transact with technology vendors who have met the platform's stringent requirements.

Key Takeaways:

• Ribbon has joined the IBM Cloud for Financial Services ecosystem to provide financial institutions a secure way to leverage its UCaaS offerings.

• The IBM Cloud for Financial Services is an industry-first platform designed to enable financial institutions to securely migrate sensitive operations to the public cloud and transact with technology vendors.

• IBM and Ribbon have a longstanding relationship and previous success in deploying large scale public cloud UCaaS projects in the retail and government sectors.

• Ribbon’s Kandy Business Solutions will deliver IBM financial services customers a full suite of secure, carrier-grade cloud-based UC services.

• Ribbon’s real time communications solutions are already deployed in the networks of some of the largest financial institutions in the world.

Ribbon recently announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell the Kandy Communications business, including Kandy Business Solutions, to American Virtual Cloud Technologies, Inc. (AVCtechnologies). The proposed sale, which is expected to close in the second half of 2020, is subject to receipt of the approval of AVCtechnologies’ stockholders, AVCtechnologies’ completion of an equity offering, consent of the lenders under Ribbon’s credit facility, as well as other customary closing conditions.