Vidyo Targets Channel Expansion With Virtualization, White Label Program

Vidyo, which has emerged as a software-centric, channel-friendly videoconferencing challenger to market segment heavyweights Cisco and Polycom, confirmed several key product updates on Monday, including the availability of its virtualized HD videoconferencing platform and a new program for white labeling its video service through channel partners.

Vidyo uses Adaptive Video Layering (AVL) technology to optimize video quality for each participant's environment using only general data networks and the Internet for connectivity. Key to the new VidyoRouter Virtual Edition, which Vidyo first mentioned in November, is the virtualization of the media plane to do for video conferencing what VMware's compute-plane virtualization does for a data center -- that is, leveraging virtualization to scale videoconferencing use in real-time, not based on estimated usage.

Vidyo contends that the biggest difference between VidyoRouter and competitive products that use virtualization is that it's the media plane, not just the control plane, being virtualized. In a previous interview, Vidyo executives told CRN that globally-deployed videoconferencing infrastructure using a Vidyo system would cost as little as 3 percent of what a competitive system would be when total infrastructure and service charges were taken into account.

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The new product is an ideal offering for virtualization-savvy solution providers interested in software-deployed, cloud-ready video conferencing, said Ofer Shapiro, Vidyo's CEO.

"We're not in the box-moving business," Shapiro told CRN. "This is communications systems integration. And when you look at the VMware channel, all of those partners are now potential Vidyo channel partners, too, specializing in virtualization."

The Virtual Edition will be demonstrated at this week's Enterprise Connect conference in Orlando and be generally available later this year, Vidyo said.

Elsewhere, Vidyo is launching a white label program, through which so-called Vidyo Virtual Network Operators (VVNO) will be able to co-brand and resell Vidyo as a service to enterprise customers.

How it works is that VVNOs deliver Vidyo multi-point videoconferencing services at an MSRP of $30 per user per month, with a fee of $0.20 a minute for non-Vidyo conference users joining Vidyo calls. Vidyo services also interoperate with existing H.323 and SIP-based video infrastructure, Shapiro said, meaning easy collaboration between registered Vidyo users, who can then invite five additional guests to a Vidyo conference and also eliminate the need for a legacy MCU to make those conferences possible.

The VVNO program gets at a group of potential services partners Vidyo hasn't much penetrated, Shapiro said.

"For every service partner we have signed up, there are three or four standing on the sidelines," Shapiro said. "Some don't have their own infrastructure so we've decided to address the issue leveraging the fact that we are a software-based platform that can be provisioned and also delivered off the cloud. This is hosted infrastructure for rent."

Vidyo had a breakout year in 2011, Shapiro noted. While he declined to provide specific revenue details, he said Vidyo now has more than 200 reseller partners, 25 service provider partners, 15 awarded patents, 44 patents pending, five OEM partners and more than 50 development partners focused on applications for Vidyo environments. Vidyo has closed more than $97 million in investor funding so far, including a $22.5 million Series D round last September.