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2061W | Avaya Pod Fx™ Fundamentals

Hello, and welcome to this Avaya Pod Fx™ Fundamentals course. In this course,

we will discuss the market, the solution, and the various options we have for

implementing the solution.



I have heard quite a lot about the Avaya Pod Fx™ solution as a solution unique to

the industry. Could you explain what is so special about the solution?

Sure, that is exactly what we are going to do in this course. But, to put everything

into perspective, it is good to first have a look at the trends in the market. That way,

you will not just understand the solution, but also what business issues it

addresses, and how it does so. And, of course, we will have a look at what the

competition is offering in this space and how we compare. Would that work for you?

Absolutely, that is what I am looking for!



Both Team Engagement and Customer Engagement are markets that are always

on the move, always in some form of transformation. What are the latest

developments?

Well, the way people, customers, and employees communicate is changing and is

changing rapidly. Organizations need to stay in sync with these changes to

maintain agility and competitiveness.

Cloud, big data, mobile devices and social channels are big factors in how business

is performed and how customers and employees communicate and operate.

Organizations need to ensure they have the technology in place to stay ahead of

these trends. Software-defined networking, scale, security, apps, web, and omni

channel are just a few examples organizations need to be aware of and need to

implement to lead in competitiveness and customer service.

Changes are fast. Ten years ago, customer engagement was voice-based, with

some email interactions; today, 35% of customer contact is non-voice and the

segment is growing fast! And this is the average; some organizations have already

passed the 50% mark some time ago!



You mentioned omni-channel. I am not 100 percent sure I understand what you

mean by that. Can you elaborate?

The fast and unstoppable move towards digital in customer behavior is

accompanied by another major trend: Customers expect quick and efficient service

via any channel. Not so long ago, a caller accepted if an agent asked a lot of

questions and, in case a call had to be transferred, that many questions would be

asked again. Today, a customer contacting an organization expects better. They

don’t want to have to repeat information, and will start turning their backs on

organizations that are expecting them to do so. Customers are less loyal

nowadays, and customer service is one of the most powerful tools to anchor the

relationship. This means the Customer Engagement tools we provide need to be

able to accompany a customer throughout the customer engagement, and

information captured earlier in the contact or in earlier contact should be used

actively to find solutions to problems customers want to have solved. That means

the information should be used to find the best match in the organization to deal

with the specific customer and the customer’s problem, regardless on how the

customer contacts the organization. So we need to do away with any solution that

is silo’d; contacts need to flow seamlessly through the process, maintaining the full

context captured from all available sources. That’s what we mean by Omni-

channel: that tight integration.



But, how do we deliver that in the Avaya Pod Fx™ solution?

The Pod Fx solution incorporates, among many other components, Avaya

Oceana™. This is our next-generation Omni-channel Customer Engagement

solution that maintains context throughout the contact, regardless of which and how

many different channels are being used.

Avaya Oceana™ leverages the incredible power of Avaya Breeze™. Avaya

Breeze™ is a flexible application development platform that provides

unprecedented speed and simplicity in creating customer-driven mobile

applications across video, email, short messaging service, and voice.

This easy-to-implement, low-cost platform helps resolve diverse business issues

such as rapid team formation; it helps in removing gaps between web applications

and core communications infrastructures, and making business processes more

efficient.

With the largest installed base of customers in the industry, this new development

environment from Avaya offers a market opportunity of nearly 80 million users,

without the need for detailed understanding of communications networks,

programming, or protocols.

Avaya Oceana™ can be implemented in conjunction with Avaya Aura® Call Center



Elite to provide context-preserving attributes-based routing in an omni-channel

environment.

Are all these components available in the Avaya Pod Fx™ solution?

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Yes, but there is a lot more. What the Pod Fx does is it takes our Avaya virtualized

applications – whether it is Team Engagement, Customer Engagement or Video or

any combination of these – and then builds all the supporting infrastructure around

it. The idea is to provide everything needed to run Virtualized Communications

within the Data Center – the Compute, Storage, Networking, and Applications –

and deliver it in a pre-integrated, pre-tested ‘plug and play’ solution that

encompasses integrated management and support.

It is a simplified deployment model for any of Avaya’s Team and Customer

Engagement as well as Video solutions. If it’s virtualized – it can be supported on

the Avaya Pod Fx™.

It is a pre-built solution that is delivered racked, stacked, and cabled - you can

wheel it into your Data Center – power it on – connect it to your network and you

are ready to go with a modern Team Engagement, Customer Engagement, and

Video deployment.

The Pod Fx solution can support the vast majority of our Team Engagement,

Customer Engagement, Video, and management applications, as we have fully

embraced virtualization of most of our solution in this space.

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Wow, that is quite impressive! So, who has been buying Avaya Pod solutions?

The first are Enterprises that have aging Team Engagement or Customer

Engagement systems they would like to upgrade to take advantage of modern

Team Engagement and/or Customer Engagement features and to drive cost down

through virtualization.

One point worth noting is that even though many of these customers have had the

skills to build their own virtualized environment, they still buy Pods because they

see value in time to market and simplified operations. We will elaborate on that

later.

Pod Fx is also a perfect solution for an Enterprise Greenfield. You might have a

organization that is building a new Data Center, or expanding into a new market

region or another city, and wants to be up and running quickly with a new

communications solution. The simplicity of the Pod Fx and its ability to be rolled

into the Data Center, powered up and be operational quickly, is of strong value.

The third profile is Cloud Service Providers – both large, like British Telecom

Wholesale, and smaller regional players. Many of these companies are leveraging

Avaya Pod Fx™ so they can offer hosted services in conjunction with any of their

current on-premises business. For these organizations, short time to revenue is

key, as are simplified operations for improved margins.

Does this make sense so far?

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Yes, it does! You mentioned customers that have the expertise to engineer and

build their own solution still buy the Avaya Pod Fx™. That really interesting. Can

you go into a bit more detail?

Sure. In fact, the biggest competition we face in the Pod Fx sales process is

organizations building their own virtualized environment and just purchasing the

applications from Avaya. Although building a solution yourself may seem more

economical at first glance, there are many hidden costs, particularly in lifecycle

management, that you might not have considered. Let me explain.

The first consideration is resourcing. Do you have the skill sets to not only build the

environment but also properly maintain that environment? What training is required

to obtain the required skill sets? Consider the cost in money and time!

Even if the answer is yes – and we do see this with many customers who actually

buy Pods in the end – they may not have the time. Such a project takes between 9

and12 months; this is the average, based on what we hear from customers.

Thirdly, lifecycle management should also be a critical consideration, as it is often

overlooked by organizations. Upgrades, patching, regression testing, making sure

everything in the system maintains compatibility—this can take a lot of time for

generally overburdened IT staff and typically requires skilled architect/engineering

resources.

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So, we always lead with the full stack Pod Fx solution. Because the Avaya

turnkey deployment model is unique in the industry, organizations may not be

aware that this option exists.

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You already mentioned a number of factors that impact the actual cost of a do-it-

yourself solution. I think it would be good to go into more detail!

Yes, that is a good idea. Here, we have a table that gives a bit more detail on what

activities would need to be completed in order for an organization to build its own

environment and how this is all bundled in with the Pod Fx turnkey solution.

It is meant to show all the aspects to consider when building your own

environment. What we have found is that optimization of compute, storage, and

network resources requires a deep understanding of the virtualized applications

and how they perform in a virtual environment. Performance of real-time solutions

must be tested under realistic load conditions, including failures and recovery.

Many enterprises have faced unforeseen challenges that have led to catastrophic

failures when attempting to implement virtualization. These failed implementations

have resulted in organizations discontinuing virtualization efforts for real-time

solutions.

And that of course is very costly and results in a lot of time lost. And, in the end,

virtualization not being implemented has a major impact on the on-going cost for

communications!

Absolutely; therefore, the Avaya Pod Fx™ is the right solution, as it mitigates the

risk and provides a carefully architected and tested solution for real-time virtualized

applications.

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So, after this intro, I would like to learn more about the functionality Avaya Pod

Fx™ provides and, we should have a look at the various solution components. Can

we do that?

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Yes, that’s what we are going to do right now!

Avaya Pod Fx™ leverages industry-leading virtualization technology from

VMware®, storage technology from EMC², state-of-the-art compute servers from

HP, and industry-leading applications and networking from Avaya in a single

integrated solution that comes complete with common orchestration and support.

But, does it come as a shrink wrap fixed solution, or is it customizable?

The Pod Fx Series can be customized for a wide variety of service provider and

enterprise data center needs. The Pod Fx comes preconfigured to match the

customer’s specific environment. The customer can select the applications to

deploy and the available sophisticated design tools will ensure that the Pod is

configured with the appropriate amount of compute, storage, and networking

resources. It is also possible to specify optional components, including media

gateways, session border controllers and Avaya Scopia® Video Collaboration. The

final solution is specifically configured to the customer’s unique needs and shipped

pre-assembled to the customer’s site.

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But, what happens when a customer grows out of the initial Pod Fx solution?

As we saw, the Pod Fx comes sized to the customer’s initial specific application

requirements. As the organization adds subscribers/users and/or services, we can

scale the Pod Fx resources by running multiple instances of the virtualized

applications. Alternatively, we can extend the deployment with an additional Pod Fx

or via Avaya Extension Pods. Avaya Extension Pods can be used to host additional

gateways outside the deployed Pod Fx base system. All Extension Pods have a

minimum of two network switches and one management proxy server, plus all

resources required for the installation.

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Okay, can we now have a look at the applications that are part of the Pod Fx offer?

As you know, the Pod Fx solution is a turnkey solution, combining virtualized

computing, storage, networking, and management components.

The Pod Fx solution has been designed by a team of experts in Networking, Team,

and Customer Engagement, as well as Video. Key Avaya components in Pod Fx

are Avaya Aura® and Avaya Fabric Connect. In the Pod Fx, we deploy Avaya Aura

Virtualized Environment, which offers a wide array of Team Engagements and

Customer Engagement applications, including Avaya Oceana™ and Avaya Breeze.

Networking inside the Pod Fx is provided through Virtual Services Platform

switches, providing high-performance, resilient Fabric networking through SPB, or

Shortest Path Bridging.

The Pod Fx provides a new deployment model for Avaya virtualized applications,

but can also be extended to any generic IT application.

Does that mean a customer could incorporate other applications?

Yes, it does. Provided the applications support Virtualization, they can be

incorporated in the compute environment within the Pod Fx.

And, the Pod Fx includes a comprehensive set of management tools, such as

Network topology visualization, Health monitoring, Status check, Access control,

and a common console for management.

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How do all of these components work together?

Let’s have a quick look at the overall architecture. At the top, we have our the Pod

Orchestration Suite containing the management applications. Each application is

installed as separate a ‘virtual machine’ supported by VMware® vSphere, the

VMware® virtualization platform. The VMware® vCenter™ management system is

used to manage the applications as VMs, or Virtual Machines, and provide

management and high availability features.

In order to store, protect, and manage data as well as for backup and recovery,

virtualized applications require storage. The Avaya Pod Fx™ solution leverages the

EMC² VNX series mid-tier unified storage system.

For networking, we leverage our Avaya fabric-enabled switches, the VSP 7200 and

4000 Series.

From an access perspective, we optionally include the Avaya Session Border

Controller. We have also validated a number of 3rd party solutions within the Pod

ecosystem. These include Palo Alto Networks Layer 3 to 7 Next Generation

Firewall/NAT, Fortinet Firewall, and the Riverbed Stingray Load Balancer. These

applications are available as an OVA, an Open Virtualization Application. This is a

single file that archives all the files that make up the application.

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Finally, from an endpoint perspective, we support a full range of hard and soft

telephony, collaboration, and video clients, as well as 3rd party tools like the

EMC² desktop.

So, VMware® is playing an important role in the Pod Fx?

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Yes, absolutely!

As you probably know, the appliance version of the Avaya Aura® Communication

Manager offers a Survivable Core and Software Duplication options. This assures

call preservation during any failover to a backup instance of Communication

Manager.

In order to achieve the same level of availability, the Communication Manager can

be installed as a Virtual Machine in a separate VMware® server cluster.

Avaya Aura® and the-High Availability feature of VMware® complement each other

to create enhanced capabilities for resiliency and survivability, not only locally but

also geographically. Avaya Aura® VE has been tested with VMware® availability and

resiliency features such as vMotion, vMotion Storage, VMware® High Availability,

and VMware® Snapshot.

And, most other applications within the Pod Fx solution can benefit from the

resiliency options in VMware®, offering a very reliable application environment and

effective tools to perform non-interruptive system and application updates and

hardware upgrades.

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So, what does the Pod Fx portfolio look like?

The current Pod Fx portfolio comprises three elements.

The first product is the 4200 Series. It is the product that is positioned for

deployments requiring greater than 5000 end points or more than 500 Contact

Center agents. It supports both multi-instance and multi-tenant capabilities - and

offers what we call Extension Pods, the second portfolio member, to accommodate

expansion for servers and storage. Multiple Pods and/ or extension Pods can be

networked together in a seamless way to scale massively. We have very large

deployments in service supporting tens of thousands of users.

The Pod Fx 4200 comes racked, stacked, and cabled with its own integrated power

and cooling, and ships in its own full size Avaya branded enclosure.

The third portfolio member, the Pod Fx 2400, offers the same functionality but in a

smaller, less expensive form factor for smaller site locations and for mid-market

enterprises. It supports between 2,000 and 5,000 end users or UC end points or up

to 500 Call Center Elite Agents. Another major difference between the two

platforms is that the 2400 can be installed in the customer-provided Data Center

racks.

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And what about the compute servers?

Both the Pod Fx 4200 and the Pod Fx 2400 include a number of HP DL360p

servers, based on the application compute and redundancy requirements. The

servers are set up as VMware® HA Clusters and servers are pre-loaded with the

Avaya Aura® application suite, Contact Center applications, as well as the Pod

Orchestration software collection.

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You mentioned VSP switches as a components as well. What can you tell us about

those?

Networking in the Pod Fx 4200 is provided through a pair of Avaya VSP 7200

Fabric Connect enabled switches. They are installed in a dual Top of Rack

configuration, providing redundant 10 Gbps connections to the installed servers in

the Pod, through the revolutionary Avaya Switch Clustering technology.

The VSP 7200 provides wire speed routing and switching and has full SPB support,

with all services, including IP Multicast supported.

And in the Pod Fx 2400?

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Networking in the Pod Fx 2400 is delivered through a pair of VSP 4850s. The VSP

4000 family of switches runs the same software as do the VSP 7200s and therefore

provide the same functionality feature set.

The VSP 4000 offers 48 ports of 10/100/1000, including two shared SFP and an

additional two SFP+ uplink ports. It supports Avaya Fabric Connect and all Fabric

services, including L3 VSNs and IP Multicast.

And what about the storage system?

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The Pod Fx 4200 includes the EMC² VNXe 3200 operating environment residing on

Serial AT Attachment (SAS) drives. The Pod Fx 2400 also includes the EMC² VNXe

3200.

VNXe is a unified storage platform that provides automated, application-ready

storage. It provides a single platform for file and block data service. The VNXe

includes integrated support that can diagnose and resolve issues automatically.

I also saw Pod Fx configurations that included Avaya G.450 gateways. What is

their role in the solution?

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The G.450 provides two key functions. First, it can provide T1 and E1 digital trunks

for the Communication Manager; secondly, it provides DSP resources. DSPs, or

Digital Signal Processors, are required for voice compression and decompression

and for functions such as Music on Hold. Alternatively, one can deploy the Avaya

Media Server (AMS), which will be discussed a little bit later to provide the DSP

resources. To be clear: the AMS does not provide E1/T1 trunking.

And from an application point of view, what Avaya solutions are available on the

Pod Fx solution?

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As a crucial software component in the Pod Fx, Avaya Aura® VE provides a

comprehensive suite of Team Engagement applications, including the

Communication Manager, Session Manager, System Manager, and a wide variety

of services and messaging solutions. The customer can select a customized

collection of applications to meet the specific requirements of the organization.

And for Customer Engagement?

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In addition to the comprehensive and rich suite of Team Engagement applications,

the Pod Fx solution incorporates a wide range of Customer Engagement

solutions—Call Center Elite Multichannel, Avaya Interaction Center, Avaya Aura®

Contact Center, and of course the earlier mentioned Avaya Oceana™ next

generation Customer Engagement solution. These applications are complemented

with powerful tools such as Avaya Aura® Workforce Optimization, Avaya Control

Manager, Call Management System, Avaya Aura® Experience Portal, and Avaya

Navigator.

And management?

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Right! No solution is complete without management, so the Pod Orchestration

Suite includes a range of powerful management tools, such as Avaya Control

Manager and Wireless Orchestration System (WOS). The Pod Fx solution also

incorporates a set of tools specific to managing the various components within the

Pod, such as the PVM, the Pod Virtualization Manager, and the Pod Upgrade

Manager. In the next module, we will discuss the most important management

components in more detail.

Okay, that is a good overview of the various components and applications in the

Pod Fx solution. What about scaling?

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Good question! So, here is a table that provides the scalability for the various

application scenarios of the Pod Fx solution. Review at your own pace, and click

the next button when you are ready to proceed.

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You mentioned it before: A solution is not complete if it does not comprise a

complete and well-integrated set of management tools. In this part of the course,

we should review the available elements in the Pod Orchestration Suite.

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All layers of management for the Pod Fx are covered by the Pod Orchestration

Suite. The POS applications look like a single entity, from the application layer all

the way down to network layer. Single-Sign-On and role-based access control are

key unifying features of POS. In addition, drilling down through layered dashboards

helps in the quick analysis, isolation, and debugging of issues if they occur. The

ease of use and the comprehensive management suite help in reducing the total

cost of ownership for Avaya’s Pod Fx™.

So, the Pod orchestration Suite is not an application, but it is a collection of tools

available to manage all aspects of the Pod Fx. Am I right?

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Yes, that’s right. So, let’s have a look at the most important applications in the suite:

The Pod Fx configuration includes Virtual Enabled Aura (VE) and will therefore

require the Avaya Aura® System Manager (SMGR) for management.

The System Manager provides the main landing page with Single-Sign-On

navigation to the SMGR infrastructure, from which one can navigate to the various

Avaya management applications , such as VPFM, COM, and PVM.

Avaya Pod Fx™ comes with a comprehensive management suite for monitoring

and configuration of rack components. All Pod configurations include the Avaya

Visualization Performance and Fault Manager (VPFM), providing layered

dashboards for health monitoring, diagnostics, performance, and analytics, as well

as reporting on both Avaya and other vendor pod components. VPFM provides “drill

down” capabilities to individual components as well as the launch of Avaya or 3rd-

party managers, such as EMC²’s Unisphere and VMware® vCenter™, for

component-level monitoring, troubleshooting, and configuration.

The Pod Visualization Manager (PVM) provides a view of the rack and the installed

solution components and allows starting of the related tools.

So, PVM is quite an important application in the suite. Can you tell us more about

it?

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Yes, sure.

The Pod Visualization Manager (PVM) provides a visual representation of each

hardware component in the rack. The Element Managers for each of the hardware

components can be launched from this interface. The right hand pane shows the

high level health of the Pod Fx. Real time data is fetched by using SNMP from the

hardware components and graphically presented for simplified real-time monitoring.

Navigation to other POS application is easy through the left hand pane. VPFM, the

Visualization, Fault and Performance Manager, event dashboard, configuration

application, and the traffic flow monitor can all be launched from the links in this

area.

Right-click menus are available for quick launch of tools like the vSphere web

client. The Storage and Storage Network can be monitored by using EMC²

Unisphere.

What other tools should we be aware of?

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The Management Server Console (MSC) is the centralized tool to manage the

software inside the Pod Fx solution. It maintains a central repository of the software

applied in the Pod Fx and can be used to deploy new applications in the Pod Fx

solution.

The Pod Utility Module element is a smart update tool. It monitors software

versions and provides information on what elements require software upgrades.

The tool ensures software within the Pod Fx is compatible between the various

elements, to ensure availability and optimal performance.

And, of course, that is crucial in a solution with so many solution components!

Absolutely!

Are there other tools we should know about? For instance, what about the VPFM,

you mentioned earlier?

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For both voice and data in a multi-vendor network environment, VPFM is used to

perform network discovery, topology visualization, and performance and fault

management. Customers can leverage the layered dashboards for health

monitoring, diagnostics, performance, analytics, and reporting (on Avaya and non-

Avaya Pod Fx™ components), to drill down to individual components, or to launch

Avaya or 3rd-party managers (such as EMC² Unisphere and VMware® vCenter™).

And then we also have IPFM. What functionality does that tool provide?

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The IP Flow Manager works in conjunction with Avaya’s VSP 7200 and VSP 4000

Series. Data is collected via these Avaya devices on a per-port basis and forwarded

to the IPFM, which then performs monitoring, analysis, and presentation of

application issues and usage. With its user-friendly interface and built-in

intelligence, the IPFM eliminates the need for manual collection of data and

analysis of that data at a central site. Through the IPFM, administrators can access

and analyze data quickly and easily through a web browser.

The IPFM offers innovative thresholding and automatic notification features that

enable administrators to keep an eye on their network without the need to

constantly watch a monitor and review reports. Using pre-defined filters, the

network administrator sets thresholds for specified applications such as file transfer

protocol (FTP). If, at any time, FTP traffic exceeds a certain percentage, the

appropriate personnel will receive an automatic notification as requested. For

instance, notifications could be sent to the upper-end network management station

and via email to the administrator. The thresholding capability enables network

personnel to resolve issues before they affect the network, rather than after the

fact, helping minimize or eliminate the impact on productivity

Okay. Any tools for VMware® specifically?

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Yes, of course! The VMware® vSphere Client provides the dashboard to manage

the VMware® environment. From this interface one can create VMs, Virtual

Machines, one can start and stop them, and also clone VMs, initiate backup, and

restore and operations such as the migration of a VM to another host, also known

as vMotion.

The vSphere provides a sophisticated user interface with visibility to all Virtualized

servers, allowing intuitive management intervention.

That is quite a comprehensive set of tools. Could we now move to the various

implementation options we have with the Pod Fx solution?

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Sure. We will now review the deployment options and we will discuss licensing.

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Here is a condensed view of how the VSP 7200s are connected to the devices in

the Pod Fx 4200.

The first aspects to recognize and understand is the dual 40 Gbps connection

between the two switches. These connections offer the connectivity for the vIST,

the Virtual IST, which allows us to create a highly resilient switch cluster. This

switch cluster enables us to create redundant active-active connections to the

servers, of which you see one example at the top left. Note that the server is also

connected to a networked PDU, a Power Distribution unit, which allows us to

remotely power cycle a server.

As you can see, the storage system at the bottom is connected dual redundantly

through two times two 10 Gbps links. Service Processor SP-A is dual connected,

as is SP-B. These four connections are in fact two SMLTs, Split Multilink Trunks,

which offer active-active connections with extremely fast fail-over if needed.

Failover is in the range of 200 milliseconds, fast enough for any application to

survive.

This slide shows the physical connections within the Pod Fx, as well as how an

Extension Pod would be connected.

Obviously, depending on the build out of the Pod, there may be some connections

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missing in this diagram, but this diagram is a only meant to be the starting

point for understanding that this is a fully redundant network, providing high

bandwidth with the ability to manage downtime for upgrades so there is no

performance loss.

I assume the architecture for the Pod Fx 2400 is the same. Am I right?

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Not quite, as we do not use the VSP 7200 here, but the VSP 4850. This diagram

shows the physical connections within the Pod Fx 2400. It shows how the VSP

4850s are connected to the various elements in the Pod Fx and how it can be

connected to the customer network. The two VSP 4850s are put in a cluster

configuration, using an MLT comprising 1 Gbps links, which support the virtual IST.

The Storage is connected with a dual 10 Gbps link and, to the customer network,

we implement either two 10 Gbps connections, one from each VSP 4850, or

multiple 1 Gbps connections in an SMLT set-up.

So, the key networking technology in the Pod Fx is Fabric Connect. What can you

tell us about that?

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Avaya Fabric Connect contributes to the overall resiliency of the system. Fabric

Connect is a differentiated networking technology available in the VSP switches

used within the Pod Fx. This technology turns the network into a private cloud

infrastructure and brings the same simplicity, resiliency, and agility benefits to the

network that have been recognized already in the virtualized compute environment.

It is a proven technology enabled in over 600 customer networks worldwide and is

based on IEEE/IETF standards.

Leveraging the embedded Fabric can offer distinct benefits in Pod Fx deployments.

We have identified specific use cases where Fabric can bring significant

advantages to a Pod Fx deployment.

Multi-site Pod Fx deployments for a seamless back-office communications

environment when you need to interconnect Pods over an IP/MPLS WAN.

Geographical redundancy over any type of WAN infrastructure.

In larger contact center environments when dual service providers are used for

resilient WAN connectivity – Fabric can offer protection and fast failover if there is a

failure in one of the Service provider networks

When a customer is deploying multiple tenants/ multiple instances of applications

with a number of shared services. Fabric offers a simple and secure way to provide

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completely isolated environments for applications.

The final scenario is when migrating from Avaya Aura appliances to Pod Fx –

Fabric can be leveraged to complete the migration without taking the

applications out of service

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The main value of our Fabric technology is that it will work seamlessly over

whatever you are using to interconnect your Data Centers (fiber, IP WAN etc) –

without any major changes or updates from your networking / IT department. We

can connect over dark fiber using L2 Ethernet services and can connect over 3rd

party IP MPLS cores by creating a network overlay. And we can implement this

without disruption to the existing WAN.

You mentioned geo-redundancy. Can you tell us more about that important aspect?

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Most customers who deploy Pod Fx deploy geographic redundancy. Geo-

redundancy offers the ability to have backup instances of the key Avaya

applications not only in a separate server cluster but in a completely separate data

center, geographically separated from the main data center. The design supported

by geo-redundancy adds value by offering a solution that maximizes system

availability for catastrophic failures. When a single location is no longer available,

this architecture will provide a backup communications solution.

In this scenario, we have the ability to interconnect Pods to improve network

connectivity and scalability across multiple locations. One of the unique

differentiators that we have is that we can do this interconnection without changing

the customer’s existing WAN connection.

We can seamlessly interconnect Pods over L2 services or direct Fiber or

transparently over an existing IP/MPLS WAN through our Fabric Connect and

Fabric Extend technology.

We also offer the smaller more cost effective Pod Fx 2400 - so now you have the

option to deploy 4200/2400 combinations to reduce the costs of geo-redundancy.

Customers can also re-deploy existing servers (Communication Manager, Session

Manager) to provide geo redundancy for critical applications.

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We also have customers who leave their appliances in place and start with

Pods specifically for a Disaster Recovery site. All of these options are possible.

Could you tell us more about brining a Pod Fx into an existing network?

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Bringing a Pod Fx into an existing network can imply different scenarios. At the top-

left we see the simplest possibility—a single Pod Fx connecting to routers or switch

routers at the edge of the customer network. The connection is built in a redundant

fashion, with a full mesh of connections between the two VSP 7200s in the Pod Fx

and two switch/routers at the network edge. In the center, we have two Pods or a

main Pod, with an Extension Pod connecting the network in the same fashion. The

difference here is of course the fact the two Pods are networked together, using

Fabric Connect technology.

The third image shows a dual Data center scenario. To provide very high scalability

and extra levels of redundancy, this customer has chosen to implement two Pod

Fxs in two distant Data Centers. The connecting network can either be an IP routed

network or a Fabric Connect network.

Well, I think we are approaching the end of this course. Where could I go if I want

to have more information about the Pod Fx solution?

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If you would like to know more, go to avaya.com and search for Avaya Pod Fx™, or

click the image, which will take you there directly. Bookmark it if you want to be

able to quickly return to the page.

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https://www.avaya.com/en/product/avaya-pod-fx/



Another excellent source of additional information is the training offer on Avaya Pod

Fx™ from Avaya Learning. A complete set of courses is available, including Design

Training, End User Training, and also Administration and Support courses. In

addition, Avaya Learning provides a set of update or Delta training sessions. Take

some time to review and click the ‘Next’ button when you are ready to go to the

next page.

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https://www.avaya-learning.com/lms/#/training/PID/3620W00



Avaya Learning courses are taught by experienced instructors with a deep

knowledge of the product and related product offerings, so they can put everything

in the right context. The courses are developed by a team of industry and product

experts to ensure accuracy and relevance of the provided information. Avaya

Learning delivers the full range of courses and can be very flexible in the type of

delivery. If the target audience is geographically dispersed, they provide courses

through Virtual classrooms. Alternatively, courses are classroom-based in Avaya

Learning premises or on-site. For many subject and products, the offer also

includes web-based self-paced courses. As a result, Avaya Learning customers

rate the course deliveries consistently with high marks.

If you want more information, click the links on this page and consider bookmarking

them for later reference.

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http://www.avaya.com/learningcatalog

http://www.avaya.com/learning-maps

http://www.avaya.com/learning-credentials

http://avaya.com/classport

http://www.avaya.com/learning



Coming to the end of this course, I will summarize what I have learned about the

Avaya Pod Fx™ solution.

The Avaya Pod Fx™ is a turnkey solution designed to meet customer needs for

virtualizing applications, including communications applications in data center and

on-premises deployments for both cloud and private enterprises. Virtualized

compute, storage, networking, and management components are combined in an

easy-to-deploy, ready-to-operate package. This solution provides a new

deployment model for Avaya virtualized applications, including Avaya Aura® Team

Engagement and Customer Engagement, as well as video services. Providing all

the elements needed for the “full-stack” solution, the Avaya Pod Fx™ accelerates

time-to-service, optimizes performance, and reduces deployment risk – all while

simplifying the task of running best-of-breed technology from Avaya, Hewlett

Packard, EMC², and VMware®. Through these technologies, we can provide a

highly resilient, secure and scalable solution for Enterprise as well as Service

Provider customers that can be added in a very simple way to an existing network,

regardless of whether that is running IP or Avaya Fabric Connect. How is that as a

summary?

Well done. I think you effectively captured the key points on the Avaya Pod Fx™

solution. Thanks for that!

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