[SatNews] Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) has unveiled a virtualized server offering for the government market designed to reduce IT infrastructure and operating costs, while enabling “Field Office of the Future” applications.

To meet their broader missions, federal agencies at the field office, bureau, and division level are seeking to deploy richer and more secure citizen-facing applications, which increasingly demand more bandwidth and IT infrastructure at each site. The Hughes Virtualized Field Office Server offers both centralized or cloud service applications. Agencies can provision the platform with mission-critical applications tailored to their specific needs. Some examples of this flexibility include:

• WAN Optimization, which creates ‘virtual bandwidth’ to and from the field office, improving performance for centralized and cloud applications
• Live and on-demand training and learning solutions, using video and rich media to improve employee productivity, deliver cost-effective training on agency-specific topics and federal mandates, and promote employee development
• Video surveillance to enhance physical security
• Interactive digital signage, for engaging federal employees within agencies and throughout federal campuses; and Virtualized desktop environments to replace expensive dedicated PCs

With the Hughes Virtualized Server offering, federal agencies can reduce the number of servers at their sites, while keeping essential applications locally for performance and reliability. Virtualization at the field office level enables IT departments to better utilize their local infrastructure, improving efficiency, application availability and performance while lowering IT costs dramatically. Unlike standalone do-it-yourself solutions, Hughes installs, maintains, and manages the Field Office Server platform, freeing agencies to focus on meeting their missions.

Additionally, the Company has launched its managed Voice-over-IP (VoIP) solution for the distributed enterprise. Using the new Hughes ActiveQoS™ technology, Hughes can provide superior voice quality over affordable broadband, eliminating the need for customers to invest in expensive leased line MPLS networks.

Hughes ActiveQoS technology is integrated into the Hughes customer premise equipment and actively monitors and adapts to network congestion over the broadband network and incorporates several innovative optimization methods, including traffic metering, network change adaptation, and traffic prioritization, to ensure that real-time, latency sensitive applications, such as voice, are prioritized on an end-to-end basis. As a result, users enjoy a high-quality voice experience with minimal packet loss and jitter. The Hughes VoIP solution includes both hosted VoIP, as well as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunking services, and offers full number portability.