Metaswitch

Metaswitch, founded in 1981 as Data Connection Ltd by Ian Ferguson and six unnamed individuals from IBM, is a developer of cloud nativecloud-native communications software designed for enterprises, communication service providers, and equipment manufacturers. Cloud nativeCloud-native software is designed to run in private, public, and hybrid clouds, or on customer premises. Metaswitch provides communication solutions for over 750 communication service providers across the world. The company has offices in eleven cities in eight countries. Metaswitch has headquarters in the United Kingdom and the United States. Metaswitch was acquired by Microsoft in July 2020 for an undisclosed amount, although it was reported that part of the deal included the issuing of $270 million worth of Microsoft stock.

Metaswitch started as Data Connection Ltd in 1981. The company was founded by Ian Ferguson and six former employees of IBM. In August 2000, its voice-over-DSL group––the VPSwitch Group––was relaunched as the MetaSwitch Group. The first MetaSwitch product was the VP3000 integrated DSL voice switch, announced in June 2000. In August 2011, the company formally changed its name from Data Connection Ltd to Metaswitch Networks Ltd.

Through Metaswitch services, businesses receive support in areas such as the development, deployment, and managmentmanagement of custom Metaswitch solutions; seamless subscriber migration; launching and marketing of new services; and interactive staff education with certification programs.

Metaswitch Managed Service for Teams Calling is an accelerated development service that supports and assists in the network operations of telecom operators as they develop voice calling services integrated with Microsoft Teams and other public switched telephone network (PSTN) service providers. The service fast-tracks a company's entry into Metaswitch's Operator Connect program. Similarly, Microsoft Operator Connect Accelerator is a Metaswitch partner program that helps operators achieve a faster time to markettime-to-market Operator Connect service delivery.

Metaswitch offers unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solutions, such as UC and Collaboration, powered by its MaX UC platform; SIP trunking, which replaces traditional time-division multiplexing (TDM) voice connections with a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service;

Metaswitch's first acquisition was AppTrigger––a service broker solutions provider––in March 2010. In April 2011, it acquired Colibria, a company that provided enhanced instant messaging and other similar solutions. In February 2017, Metaswitch acquired OpenCloud, a company of mobile service enablement experts.

Metaswitch is partners with over one hundred companies, including Dell, Nokia, Samsung, Cisco, 3M, Red Hat, Panasonic, Oracle, HP, and Affirmed Networks.