History

Most of this website is about who we are today, and where we are going in the future. However, as Carl Sagan said, "you have to know the past to understand the present," so here is a brief history of some key events in Metaswitch's history from its origins to the present day.

1980s

• Founded in 1981 as Data Connection Limited by Ian S. Ferguson and 6 others, all formerly in various engineering, sales and management roles at IBM. The company signs its first deal to write communications software for networked retail point of sale systems.
• At the end of its first financial year, the company turns a profit, setting a track record of stability that has not been broken to this day.
• Seeking to establish an enduring organization with a long-term perspective, the Founders establish the Employee Benefit Trust to own the company on the behalf of all employees.
• First portable network protocol stack (IBM System Network Architecture) fast becomes the industry standard implementation, soon followed by ATM and X.400/X.500.
• In 1987, young Oxford graduate John Lazar joins the company as a software engineer.

1990s

• The company develops expertise in real-time IP communications, and invests in an interesting idea for "application sharing" across networks. The technology receives several patents and is acquired by Microsoft, who release it as Microsoft NetMeeting, sponsor its publication as an ITU standard (T.128) and eventually incorporate it into Windows. Metaswitch ports the technology to UNIX, adding H.323 audio/video conferencing, and it is licensed to all the major Unix vendors.
• The Microsoft relationship extends to include SNA and Messaging, with Metaswitch providing the core technology in Microsoft’s SNA Server and Exchange Server products, among others.
• The company receives two Queen's Awards for Export achievement.
• Major investment in MPLS and Optical Routing protocols result in industry leadership in the fast-growing optical networking arena.
• Towards the end of the decade, seeing a major opportunity in broadband voice, the company sets up a small team to explore the possibility of multi-protocol session control engine, then known as "DC-Metaswitch". The decision is made to combine that software with a hardware platform and establish a business unit to market the solution direct to carriers.

2000

• The fledgling carrier systems division comes out of stealth mode, launching its first product, the Metaswitch VP3000 Broadband Voice Platform. Initial reception is positive, leading to early trials with carriers such as SaskTel and BT and the first of many industry accolades including the Internet Telephony Product of the Year.
• First to market with Generalized MPLS (GMPLS) protocol stack, soon followed by first-to-market implementations of OIF UNIv1.0 and LMP, confirming market leadership in Optical Control Plane software.

2001

• Metaswitch's Interoperability Partner Program is launched, signing up 14 partners in the first three months.
• Looking to the growth of IP Multimedia Subsystem, the company releases its first IMS protocol stacks including Megaco/H.248, Diameter, SCTP, and the industry’s first fault-tolerant Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) implementation. These IMS building blocks are licensed by all the leading vendors building highly scalable, fault tolerant IMS solutions.

2002

• The addition of VoIP and TDM access protocols turns the VP3000 into the VP3500 and (later) the VP3510, with full Class 5 replacement capabilities.
• Extension of network protocols to IP Routing including OSPF, BGP and IS-IS.

2003

• Momentum grows for Metaswitch with a slew of customer announcements and more than 40 deployments by year-end.
• British Telecom launches BT Broadband Voice, the first major incumbent carrier outside of Asia to launch a VoIP service. The service is powered by the Metaswitch VP3500.

2004

• Metaswitch leads the emerging Class 5 Packet Switch market, according to Infonetics Research.
• The Metaswitch VP3510 achieves listing by the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), opening up the rural carrier market.
• Revenue tops $50 million for the first time.
• First Metaswitch Forum, held in San Francisco, is attended by 50 delegates from more than 25 companies.

2005

• The previously integrated architecture of the Metaswitch VP3510 is disaggregated, with separate call control, media gateway and signaling gateway elements. Metaswitch is the first vendor to offer a single software load with the choice of either integrated or distributed deployment models.
• The VP2510 is introduced as the world's smallest softswitch-media gateway combination platform. It is hailed by one analyst as "a new benchmark for rack-space efficiency".
• First IMS application server, UC9000, launched with unified messaging and auto-attendant capabilities.
• DC-SBC is launched. It is the industry’s first session border controller implementation designed specifically for integration by OEMs.

2006

• Metaswitch deploys its 200th system, at BroadRiver Communications.
• Multimedia-Enhanced Telephony Architecture is announced, illuminating an evolutionary path to IMS for carriers.
• Metaswitch launches strategic partnership with Cisco for telco and cable markets.
• Third Queen's Award for Enterprise Achievement.

2007

• MetaSphere Application Suite, and CommPortal Web 2.0 user interface are introduced.
• Revenue passes $100 million.

2008

• The company takes its first external investment, from Francisco Partners and Sequoia Capital.

2009

• After 28 years at the helm as CEO, Ian Ferguson hands over the reins to John Lazar and steps back to a non-executive chairman role.
• The company's two formerly separate business brands (Data Connection and MetaSwitch) are merged into a single corporate brand, Metaswitch Networks.

2010

• Kevin DeNuccio, former Redback Networks and Cisco executive, is appointed as CEO, while John Lazar is promoted to chairman of the board. Founder Ian Ferguson remains on the board as chairman of the Employee Benefit Trust.