NextPlane Announces Support for Isode M-Link to Deliver Secure Federation

NextPlane Enables Isode M-Link to Seamlessly Federate with SIP-based UC Platforms.

NextPlane, Inc., the market leader in cloud-based federation services for unified communications (UC), and Isode, Ltd. developers of highly secure, high-performance messaging and directory server software, today announced support for Isode's M-Link instant messaging (IM) platform on the NextPlane Federation Cloud service. Isode's M-Link customers now can federate with Microsoft Lync 2010, OCS 2007 R2 and OCS 2007 R1, and IBM Sametime 8.5.x using the NextPlane federation service.

With new federation support for Isode's M-Link XMPP presence and IM server, M-Link IM customer can now exchange presence, exchange instant messages with colleagues on OCS, Lync and Sametime, and initiate and invite those colleagues into multi-user chats and group chat sessions. Isode M-Link is noted for providing secure messaging in highly secure environments, including military and government enterprises, and is approved for use by the United States Defense Information Systems Agency. With support for the NextPlane Federation Cloud service, those customers can now collaborate in real time with partners on a wide range of corporate and commercial entities that are on SIP-based UC platforms. And by using NextPlane as a central federation exchange, M-Link customers can expand their reach without sacrificing security with NextPlane’s patent-pending TLS over XMPP encryption for federated communications.

“Our mission is to interconnect the widest range of commercial UC platforms, creating a central exchange so UC users can be connected into real-time business communities without having to add hardware and software to their UC infrastructure,” said Nick Sears, Vice President, EMEA for NextPlane.  “With proven compatibility with NextPlane, Isode M-Link customers now can securely collaborate with other government departments, suppliers, and other organizations through NextPlane’s growing collaboration exchange.”

“Support for NextPlane’s Federation Cloud Service gives M-Link customers secure access to a larger federated community, making it easier for our government and military customers to communicate with other departments, plus vendors and partners in the private sector, “said Will Sheward, Vice President of Marketing for Isode, Ltd. “With tightening budgets and increased demands on government agencies to increase efficiency, federation with other UC platforms to form real-time, collaborative communities is more important than ever to streamline communications and operations.”

The NextPlane Federation Cloud service accelerates building federated business communities by eliminating the need to set up and maintain separate federation to multiple partners. NextPlane Federation Cloud service subscribers enjoy unprecedented control over which types of traffic (IM, presence, voice, video, and file transfer) are allowed or denied across any of their federated partners. Finally, using NextPlane’s unique analytics and reporting tools, companies are gaining valuable insight into how collaboration with their federated partner community is boosting their productivity.

To demonstrate the value of the NextPlane Federation Cloud to build collaborative business communities, NextPlane is offering a 30-day trial to qualifying organizations.

About NextPlane, Inc.

NextPlane offers the NextPlane Federation Could service for unified communications (UC) platforms, seamlessly federating Microsoft Lync, OCS R2, OCS and LCS, Cisco Jabber XCP, CUPS and Webex Connect, IBM Sametime, Google Apps, Jive OpenFire, Isode M-Link and eJabberd. Using the NextPlane Federation Cloud service, organizations can connect users from different companies regardless of underlying UC platforms - with shared presence, instant messaging, multi-user chat, voice and video - as if they are on the same UC platform.