Business Communications Manager is a complete hardware and software solution that includes LAN, WAN, and station interfaces, a call server, and an integrated router. The system runs on the Microsoft Windows NT Embedded operating system. Null video, keyboard, and mouse drivers to allow it to operate in a headless environment. Windows NT-based native PAP and CHAP protocols for authentication. Windows NT Embedded also meets Nortel Networks requirements for reliability and scalability.
Reliability is definitely a key requirement.
General telephony applications require 99.999 percent reliability. We believe that Windows NT Embedded can give us the extra edge to achieve that level of reliability. Customers will be able to retain most of their investment in the architecture and platform, yet scale up to meet increasing demands. The first big advantage of building Business Communications Manager on the Windows NT Embedded operating system was that it was completed and released in eight months, compared to the 20 months that it probably would have taken with a proprietary system. Nortel Networks developers started building Business Communications Manager on the beta version of Windows NT Embedded.