SINGAPORE--(Marketwired - Mar 28, 2017) - At a glance:

• ALE expands cloud services with new Rainbow™ Connector, adds new flexible cloud models for OpenTouch®, providing customers with a range of options for their UCaaS needs

• Rainbow open architecture provides a set of services ("Rainbow Hub" CPaaS platform) that integrate with industry-specific applications and processes, adding collaborative value to customers' assets

ALE, operating under the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise brand, is introducing its hybrid communications blueprint to help businesses adopt Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). Rainbow™ Connected Platform, the ALE "relationship machine," is an overlay service that connects ALE and third-party communications platforms in a hybrid approach, enabling businesses to protect and leverage existing systems while accessing new unified communication services.

The new Rainbow Connector links any PBX (ALE or non-ALE) to the cloud and extends Rainbow UC capabilities (IM, Voice, Video, Screen and File sharing) as it enables calling via the PSTN, with Rainbow assuring call completion beyond the Rainbow community.

ALE is introducing OTEC-S, a multi-tenant cloud-based offer aimed at providing small and midsized companies with the benefits of Telephony as-a-Service coupled with Rainbow's UCaaS capabilities. This expansion of the Alcatel-Lucent OpenTouch® Enterprise Cloud (OTEC) offer further extends the ALE strategy to deliver connected platforms by enabling enterprises of any size to take advantage of new subscription-based models. Large enterprises have benefited from the OTEC multi-instance architecture since its introduction three years ago. All OTEC customers benefit from the latest release with no upgrade costs, while the providers help manage the subscription from their data center.

In parallel, ALE will introduce OTEC Flex, a unique offer delivering cloud flexibility to Large and X-Large customers. OTEC Flex enables these customers to deploy communications in a flexible and adaptable private cloud environment from one location to another, while dramatically reducing the cost of resources, operations and maintenance.

Rainbow also acts as a CPaaS platform, where everything connects, by using APIs to integrate with business processes and in-house and third-party apps, allowing multiple customers to access the platform at the same time within a separate secure environment.

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Business Partners who deliver Rainbow services can offer applications that create greater value in communications via Rainbow Hub APIs portal. For example, a school district can take advantage of a broadcast lockdown and response application in a crisis, a hotel can leverage the Rainbow services integrated into their customer loyalty program application, or a bank can use Rainbow to integrate messaging and notifications over their customer relationship applications.