Verizon Enterprise Solutions & Verizon Business Markets: 2Q 2017 highlights

Verizon Enterprise Solutions delivers the connected world – simply, securely and reliably. During the second quarter of 2017, we helped global clients provide better customer experiences and produce better business results through services such as advanced connectivity, collaboration and managed services. Second quarter 2017 highlights include:

Clients and partners

• Reinforcing Verizon’s commitment to supporting public safety and first responders, the company participated in Operation Convergent Response on June 7-8 at The Guardian Centers in Perry, GA. The exercise, captured in this video, brought together nearly 200 first responders and government officials from across the country, with technology companies, to experience firsthand how advanced technologies can support crisis situations. Technology demonstrations played out over several live-action scenarios reenacted by teams of actual first responders.

Business communications

• Verizon Enterprise Solutions introduced Visual Interactive Calling, a new mobile customer experience solution designed for banks, retailers, airlines, travel and hospitality companies, and other brands looking to improve how they communicate with and serve customers. The new tool enables consumers to connect directly to a live agent from within a customer app to answer questions, help complete an order or resolve an issue.
• Continuing our innovative heritage in the contact center space, Verizon expanded its leading contact center portfolio to countries in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. Specifically, Verizon’s Unified Customer Experience solution, the company’s cloud-based contact center platform that enables seamless interaction with customers via voice, email, chat, social and mobile, is now available to the company’s enterprise and government customers in countries and territories including Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Network

• Verizon Enterprise Orchestration was introduced to our business customers to change the game when it comes to service delivery models. Designed to grow and evolve with the needs of a business, orchestration as an enabler to virtual network services allows organizations to quickly and easily deploy new services and integrate additional services into the network; protect sensitive data on a secure platform, and easily update and change security policies across networks and devices at the site level. The new solution also allows greater flexibility for responding to changes in utilization and demand by virtually turning applications up and down as needed.

Security

• Verizon Enterprise Solutions launched Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP), a new service that enables enterprise customers to proactively identify and block cyberattacks by creating a virtual boundary around their network. Verizon's SDP service, a scalable Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution, provides pre-authenticated, context-aware, secure access to enterprise applications. The service works by isolating communications between enterprise applications and end-user devices, enabling rapid identification and prevention of network-based cyberattacks such as denial of service, connection hijacking, and credential theft.
• The company also introduced the Verizon Threat Research Advisory Center which draws cyber situational awareness from Verizon's global public IP backbone to power enhanced applied intelligence solutions that help improve cyberattack detection and recovery times. This allows Verizon’s customers to recognize and react to today’s more sophisticated cyber threats faster and more effectively – and ultimately, helps stop cyberattacks in their tracks.

Reports

• The Verizon 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report, now in its tenth year of publication, revealed significant findings including how cyberespionage is now the most common type of attack seen in manufacturing, the public sector and education. Nearly 2,000 breaches were analyzed in this year’s report and more than 300 were espionage-related, many of which started life as phishing emails. In addition, this year’s report found a 50 percent increase in ransomware attacks compared to last year as organized criminal groups escalated their use of this type of malware to extort money from victims.

Internet of Things

• Verizon's LTE network carried a live over-the-air LTE Cat M1 VoLTE call - laying the foundation for the next generation of IoT connectivity. By proving CAT M1 VoLTE technology works on a production network, Verizon, along with Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies Inc., demonstrated that the reach of Cat M1 can extend across Verizon's U.S. LTE network, fostering growth opportunities for IoT companies and developers, whether they are focused on data-only or voice-enabled products.

Awards & appointments

• Verizon Business Markets presented its inaugural ‘Community Maker Award’ to recording artist and foster care advocate Jimmy Wayne at the 2017 Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada.  The award recognizes individuals who give back to their communities by lifting up those in need.  As part of the Community Maker initiative, Verizon also donated two VGo robots to the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh to benefit young patients by helping them to virtually connect with others and attend events, such as their own classrooms, so that they do not fall behind on their education while in treatment.