Business Productivity
Mitel builds its next-generation collaboration applications with the Amazon Chime SDK
Across industries, our customers have increased investments in communication-enabled applications. For example, retailers are integrating two-way video into customer service applications, and healthcare providers are using video to connect physicians and patients. Our customers, however, tell us that building real-time communications applications is a challenging and time-consuming process requiring large up-front investments, developing specialized skills sets, and high ongoing operational costs.
Today, we are excited to announce the general availability of the Amazon Chime SDK that allows customers to build their own applications on the same proven infrastructure services that powers online meetings on Amazon Chime. By using the Amazon Chime SDK, application builders can deliver applications faster, simplify operations by avoiding the need to deploy, monitor, and scale real-time infrastructure, and extend application capabilities with integrated AWS services such as Amazon EventBridge, Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), and Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS).
This blog describes how you can use the Amazon Chime SDK in your applications. It also tells the story of Mitel who incorporated the Amazon Chime SDK into their CloudLink platform to power their next-generation of collaboration applications after working closely with AWS as AWS developed the SDK.
Mitel Networks
Mitel is a global market leader in business communications that markets cloud collaboration solutions for enterprises.
When choosing technology for it’s next-generation collaboration solution, Mitel saw a potential fit with the Amazon Chime and Amazon Chime Voice Connector services. The Amazon Chime SDK launching today was developed by AWS with feedback from Mitel and in parallel with Mitel’s own development of CloudLink. Mitel helped AWS prioritize key features, test SDK design elements, and address integration issues or functional gaps as they were encountered. Mitel designed CloudLink, a microservice platform hosted on AWS and used for building its collaboration applications, to use the same infrastructure services that power Amazon Chime online meetings.
As a collaboration vendor, Mitel chose to focus on the user experience and the critical features identified by their enterprise customers while leveraging the AWS cloud for the critical real-time communications components. Mitel identified the following requirements for audio, video, and screen sharing services:
- Utility WebRTC audio, video, and screen share services (including multi-point control unit (MCU) and single-point forwarding unit (SFU) capabilities)
- Infrastructure to support a global customer base
- Availability of local toll and toll-free dial-ins in key countries
- Support across a variety of devices and form factors
- Client SDKs with high-level interface for quick integration, but with the flexibility to access lower-level abstractions
- Integrated logging, monitoring, and alarming to ensure quality of the experience for their customers
- Pricing that aligns with the Mitel business model
Mitel found in AWS an audio, video, and screen sharing solution that met its business objectives and a relationship with a technology vendor that could be the foundation of Mitel’s cloud collaboration applications.
“Mitel is a partner in the cloud transformation strategies of many of our enterprise customers. In this capacity, we are trusted with critical communication workloads. When we built the CloudLink platform to power our next generation of collaboration applications, we knew that the AWS cloud had the global reach and security and operational excellence track records that these customers require.
While integrating the Amazon Chime SDK into CloudLink, we immediately saw how AWS building blocks like the Amazon Chime SDK simplify architectures and can help us innovate more quickly for our customers. Working directly with AWS as they developed the [Amazon Chime] SDK, we went from a blank sheet design to field trials of a new collaboration service in under nine months.”
Richard Tworek, Vice President, Mitel Labs and Next Generation Products.
Customers can choose communications services powered by the AWS cloud that best meet their needs. The Amazon Chime SDK allows customers to consume communications as a utility for developing communications applications. Customers needing turn key collaboration solutions can use applications such as those built on Mitel’s CloudLink platform.
Using the Amazon Chime SDK
The AWS SDK now provides methods to create ephemeral Amazon Chime SDK meeting resources. These resources provision the cloud services required for video calling, audio calling, and screen sharing in your choice of AWS regions (US East (N. Virginia) and US West (Oregon)) within a singe package.
You can add the Amazon Chime SDK for JavaScript to your application, making it easy to connect your application to SDK meeting resources for sharing and playing back media. The SDK includes methods to bind video streams to HTML elements and list, preview and select audio input, audio output, and video input devices. You are charged only for the Amazon Chime SDK resources that are consumed. Each Amazon Chime SDK endpoint (for example, a user of your application) joined to an Amazon Chime SDK meeting, is billed at a rate of $0.0017 for each minute they are joined. Learn more about Amazon Chime pricing here.
Getting Started
You can get started using the Amazon Chime SDK today with the latest version of the AWS SDK and by downloading the Amazon Chime SDK for JavaScript. The Amazon Chime SDK for JavaScript, examples, and sample application are available here.
Documentation is available at the links below.