How to Survive the Switch of Metaswitch From Microsoft to Alianza

By Chris Kerber, Director of 2600Hz Marketing at Ooma

Metaswitch, the aging CPaaS technology that is nonetheless crucial to hundreds of service providers, went through some neck-snapping changes in 2024.

Metaswitch owner Microsoft announced in June an impending end-of-life for the MaX UC client, followed by layoffs that wiped out most of the team supporting the Metaswitch platform.

Then in December, Alianza said it was acquiring Metaswitch from Microsoft for an undisclosed amount in a transaction expected to close in the first quarter of 2025. Alianza promised to extend the end-of-life date for Metaswitch, with the unspoken assumption that Metaswitch customers would eventually be nudged onto the Alianza platform.

Alianza is a relatively small company and this transaction will be a big bite for them to digest, with their head count doubling to about 650 and their customer count soaring from about 200 to 1,000. Whatever the outcome, it’s clear Metaswitch will eventually be gone.

How can Metaswitch customers survive all this switching?

First, you shouldn’t get railroaded into a technology migration you didn’t choose, especially because migrations are hard, long and prone to risk. Now is the time to evaluate the CPaaS landscape and identify a replacement for Metaswitch that will meet your technology, support and financial needs.

Second, make a checklist of your requirements for a new CPaaS platform. Among the factors to consider:

• Support for remote work, with robust telephony, videoconferencing and chat apps along with trustworthy authentication and security.
• Optimal user experience with clearly understandable steps for accomplishing key tasks with a minimal number of clicks.
• A well-stocked library of APIs allowing integration with a wide range of applications such as helpdesk, CRM, accounting and marketing.
• Global compliance and localization, including support for regulations and languages in each country served.

Third, make sure the platform vendor can manage each step of the transition process. In some cases, it might be impossible to immediately move from on-premise hardware to the cloud. Not all vendors can handle on-prem and cloud solutions running in parallel. There also needs to be extensive support and training for both the service provider’s technical team as well as end users to ensure smooth transitions that don’t interfere with business operations.

No surprise, I present the 2600Hz platform for your consideration as a Metaswitch replacement.

2600Hz, an Ooma company, offers a truly white-label UCaaS, CCaaS and CPaaS open-core stack. There are no restrictions on carriers putting their own branding on 2600Hz offerings and they are free to modify or add to the platform through an extensive set of APIs allowing for significant differentiation via the carrier’s own intellectual property.

Additionally, the 2600Hz platform offers flexibility in hosting, with options including shared hosting, exclusive hosting in the carrier’s datacenters or in a public cloud of choice. This lets the carrier decide how to optimize performance and reduce latency for critical applications such as artificial intelligence and large language models.

Want to find out more? Give us a call at 415-886-7900 and let’s talk about flipping the switch on Metaswtich.