SWsoft today announced that Aretta Communications, a premier provider of hosted, virtualized IP-PBX solutions, has selected SWsoft virtualization and automation software as the software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for its hosted telecommunications offering.

Aretta's hosted IP-PBX offering – based on the Asterisk Open Source PBX – is a complete, virtualized solution for the SMB market that is easier to manage, faster to deploy and less expensive than on-premises equipment. Aretta bundles the hosted IP-PBX with integrated SIP Trunking for inbound and outbound calling as well as preconfigured VoIP handsets, providing a turnkey solution for business telephony.

Aretta needed a technology platform that would allow multiple customers to securely reside on a single server. Its success depended on rapid deployment, uptime and cost containment.

After testing and reviewing the leading virtualization technologies, Aretta found that SWsoft Virtuozzo offered the highest virtualization density, running more than 50 virtual environments on a single machine. In addition, Virtuozzo management tools are linked with SWsoft automation software to provide Aretta with a fully-automated provisioning and billing architecture.

"Once we tried Virtuozzo, the selection of a virtualization solution was obvious," said Marc Fribush, president of Aretta Communications. "Running real-time applications like VoIP inside a high-density virtual environment is critical to our business. The virtual environment density and management tools provided by Virtuozzo help us deliver a SaaS platform which is both easy to manage and cost effective."

The SWsoft SaaS platform provides Aretta's IP-PBX customers with key benefits compared to traditional PBX solutions:

• Rapid deployment – SWsoft automation software enables customers to set up a server and connect a computer or mobile phone in a few hours, not weeks.

• Reduced maintenance – Adding new users, setting call forwarding, or installing new phone lines can be done in minutes using a web interface and without the expense of an on-site technician or service call to a PBX specialist.

• No capital expenditures – There are no upfront capital expenditures. Customers pay monthly fees based on the maximum number of simultaneous calls in use at any given time.

• Secure and reliable – The Aretta hosted PBX is located in a highly-secure datacenter with nightly server backups, multi-homed network connections and power backup.