Do you need a Network Engineer to maintain your phone system?

If you answered yes to that question, then you're doing it wrong.

The IP-PBX came onto the Telecom scene in a big way several years ago, and finally the IT Department was able to fully control Voice Communications over "their" network.

Watch out what you wish for.

So how has all this turned out? Well it turns out that running all this voice traffic over the existing network required some upgrades to the infrastructure. You just doubled the amount of endpoints you are dealing with. Real-time voice communications is not a very forgiving application either, and QoS capable routers are a must. Oh, and do you really want everything on the same media? Maybe new cable plant would be better. Then there was the question of power. We can't have all those clumsy power supply "bricks" cluttering up the desktop now can we? OK, upgrade all the switches to PoE.

But hey, at least you could move a phone from one office to another without getting the "phone guy" in to punch down some cross-connects right?

The benefits of the premised based IP-PBX have been greatly exaggerated. It is a bear to maintain. The desktop hardware itself is not cheap and has to be added to your network maintenance plan from the manufacturer. Have you ever tried to analyze your Smartnet contract? The "simple" guide to understanding your contract is 25 pages!! And that's just the guide! I'd rather stick pins in my eyes.

Why are you doing this?

Well you did after all, make the upgrades so your network is more robust than ever. As a matter of fact you probably have less internal data traffic on your network now than you did when the IP-PBX was first deployed. But how can this be in the age of "big data"? Because at least some of your data is now in the Cloud, and the rest is either virtualized in-house or some form of Hybrid Cloud. The result is a very efficient network infrastructure with optimized throughput. A valuable investment that will continue to serve the organization well for the next few years at least.

And that IP-phone sitting on the desktop? It's a relic. You're driving a jalopy on the Autobahn. But you can upgrade right? Yeah, try getting that one approved.

The time has come for ALL premise based systems to be put out of your misery. Cloud-based voice has come of age and it is sooo much better than anything else that it's not even a debatable topic. Think about it: You're interfacing 1980's T-1 technology (ISDN PRI, look it up!) to your gigabit network in order to talk (literally, talk) to the outside world. Not only is that an inferior technology platform but the cost goes away completely by connecting directly to the Cloud!

Moves Adds and Changes? All done through a web portal that any 12yo could manage. And they're part of the service.

I could go on and on, but the bottom line is this: You've built the infrastructure to efficiently handle voice traffic on your internal IP-network, why haven't you taken advantage of The Cloud. Think you have "too many" phones? Wrong. This stuff scales. Redundancy? Built-in. Flexible, responsive service, new feature deployment is a snap.

You really need to look into this. The war is already over.

Steve Melillo
LineSpeed LLC
201-596-4000, x103

The case for a hosted phone system

As a former "Authorized Dealer" for one of the top business telephone system manufacturers for many years, I have seen my fair share of systems that greatly exceeded the generally accepted life expectancy for a PBX. Seven to 10 years is fairly common, and I have even seen some of the larger systems approach 20 years.

Eventually the day does come when the system is just too much of a risk and has to be dealt with. In spite of the many ways there are to communicate these days, for most organizations a sustained outage of the telephone system is simply unacceptable. So what should you do?

You could continue to tempt fate, and hope that your vendor can put together the required hardware and software of your obsolete system when the inevitable failure occurs. Or you can do the prudent thing, and start the process of evaluating various systems and services, so you have at least some idea of what you will be up against in terms of dollars and implementation. How soon can you get systems and services provisioned and deployed? Two weeks? Two months? Reality is probably somewhere in between, IF you've already done your homework.

One option I suggest you consider is a Hosted IP phone system. There are a multitude of players in the space, so pricing is competitive, and there is no longer a significant gap in features. As a matter of fact, Hosted offers some real elasticity that is much more difficult to achieve in a purchased or leased on-premise hardware/software solution. Hosted systems can easily grow (or contract) with your organization.

Other advantages to the Hosted or "Cloud Phone" systems include easy deployment of remote or home users, low start-up costs and the virtual elimination of your outbound calling costs. Most providers in this space include domestic calls at no additional charge. International and 800 inbound calls are billed over and above your flat monthly fee. Very often, the amount you are paying currently for a combination of analog trunks and/or a PRI T1 is MORE than you might pay for the flat monthly fee of a Hosted System.

Contact me directly at LineSpeed: LineSpeed for more information: 201-596-4000, x103

smelillo@inclink.net

Time to reconsider Verizon?

Is it time to reconsider Verizon for land-based service?

The rumors of Verizon's demise in the land-based services space have been greatly exaggerated. There was a time when it seemed as though the mammoth carrier was headed towards a wire-less only future, but in recent years Verizon has made an aggressive push for wire-line products and services with promotions and a continued network build-out, bringing FiOS and IP-based services to commercial enterprises all over the northeast.

If you have some wireline services coming to term, now is a good time to re-visit what Verizon has to offer, even if you are currently a Verizon customer. Verizon seems to have this odd habit of neglecting to tell existing customers about their latest promotions. So, if you don't ask, they wont tell, and you could be leaving dollars on the table. Not to mention more bandwidth, storage and overall performance. Oh, and that Visa gift card promo for FiOS? They have one for business customers as well.

Contact LineSpeed for additional information and a cost comparison with other providers including Optimum and Comcast. We can tee up all of the pertinent information for you to make an intelligent decision. Not sure what your current term is? We can figure it out for you and submit a simple analysis revealing the true cost of options that make sense.

Steve Melillo
LineSpeed LLC
201-596-4000, x103

Get a better deal without changing providers

You know you could be saving money on your Telecom/Internet bill but you dread getting involved in that whole process? Let's examine:

First you will have to contact other providers. That means dealing with people who are trying to sell you something. This is at best, unpleasant for most people. They will want all your contact information, and you know they are going to start "bugging" you at some point or other.
Then you have to assemble your bills.

How many lines do you HAVE anyway?

What is your bandwidth? Is it the same up as it is down? Does it matter?

Do you have "direct inward dial"? How many numbers?

Are lines the same as number? What is a "trunk"?

But there might be an easier way: Contact your current provider. Here are some questions to ask THEM:

• What is the term of my service? Is there a contract? Or am I being billed "month-to-month"?
• Can you tell if there is traffic on ALL of my voice lines? If so, can you furnish a report? Are there any lines with NO traffic at all for an extended period?
• What current promotions are there that are a fit for my configuration?
• How can I save on my bill?
• What is the bandwidth that I am paying for on my Internet access? How can I test that to make sure I am getting what I am paying for?

If you haven't made changes to your service in several years, you are most likely in one of 2 scenarios:

1. Your contract has expired, and you are being billed "month-to-month". This is good and bad. Good because you are free to make a change without the threat of Early Termination Fees, and Bad because you have most likely been over paying for a while.
2. You are under a contract that has an automatic renewal and are now subject to ETF's for however long remains on the contract. You have to do some due diligence here and find out exactly what conditions have to be met to cancel the contract (if you decide to change carriers). Typically this means sending written notice at least thirty days prior to expiration anniversary.

Very often your current carrier is willing to make a better deal on the spot because they know you are looking and they want to keep you as a customer. BUT THEY WILL NOT TELL YOU ABOUT THESE DEALS UNLESS YOU ASK!!

For more info feel free to contact me:
Steve Melillo
201-596-4000, x103
or visit our web page: LineSpeed LLC

Cloud Migration: Building The Path

As you migrate applications and storage to the Cloud, you also increase your dependence on bandwidth capacity as well as availability. Your Path to the Cloud is as mission critical as the applications and data that reside there. Here are some important steps to consider:

1. Review and assess your current internet circuit(s) for through-put, "actual" speeds, history of availability, contract terms, SLA's and active management and monitoring.
2. Determine the maximum number of simultaneous users and obtain guidelines from your "as a service" providers to help with estimated bandwidth requirements. This is especially important for any voice applications such as Hosted PBX and SIP Trunks. Then give yourself a 20% buffer for spikes and modest growth.
3. Closely examine the capabilities of your existing network equipment and firmware revision levels. What is the capacity of your network infrastructure as it exists today? How many circuits can you interface with? What types of signaling are compatible? What are the upgrade costs?
4. Incorporate some redundancy. Circuits go down, and sometimes they take hours (days?!) to be restored. This does not have to be a bullet-proof plan (in most cases) that provides the same level of service and through-put as the primary circuit, but there needs to be some type of failover or people will not be able to work effectively during service interruptions. A dual purpose of this secondary circuit could be for your guest WiFi.
5. Meet with your current carrier(s) to review your current plan and find out what options are available. What services do they have that allow you to increase bandwidth incrementally as demand increases? Do they have a failover plan on separate facilities? Find out what your options are within your current contract terms. You might not have to reinvent the wheel.
6. Monitor usage on a regular basis and stay ahead. Bandwidth creep can be insidious, and go unnoticed until you hit a tipping point when users suddenly realize response rates have become tedious and frustration levels rise. Trying to implement a solution from scratch at this point could take weeks. Have a plan.

Dependence on Cloud applications and storage will most likely increase for most organizations. Make sure you have a robust Path to get there.

Steve Melillo
201-596-4000, x103

LineSpeed LLC LineSpeed LLC

smelillo@inclink.net

Circuit Redundancy: Don't wait for an outage

Your organization relies on stable internet access more than ever. Losing your internet connection means losing access to Cloud Apps and that means lost productivity, lost CRM continuity and potentially lost business. All it takes it one major service outage to drive this point home, but leaving your organization exposed for any length of time is a bad idea.

Loss of internet access is no longer just an inconvenience. It will cripple productivity and frustrate your customers as well as employees. Don't wait until there is an angry mob at your door with pitch forks and torches. Plan for service interruptions and failure NOW.

For small organizations, this can be as simple as adding a Cable TV circuit which will often include a wireless router.Reserve this internet access as a "guest" wifi network, so visitors to your office can have an easy to connect without introducing additional traffic to your primary network. Then if your primary circuit does go out, users can jump on the "guest" network and at least get some work done until the primary circuit is restored.

Automated failover to redundant circuits is more appropriate for larger organizations, but can be tricky to configure, and may also require additional equipment and/or licensing depending on the network architecture. However, the seamless continuity provided will make your users blissfully ignorant to downed primary cricuits.

Have a conversation with your trusted tech advisor to discuss this topic in more detail, but do not wait until you have an access crisis on your hands. Outages often have poor timing with respect to your deadlines and workflow.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

LineSpeed LLC
201-596-4000, x103

Do you need IP Telephones?

Do you need IP Telephones? There has been so much hype around IP-Telephony and Voice over IP (VoIP) that I think sometimes people believe it has fully replaced every other kind of telecommunications systems available today. This is completely untrue. Although the vast majority of systems being sold today are at least "IP-Enabled" only a very small percentage are being installed with all IP-Phones, or even a mostly IP-Phones.

Of course the people spreading the hype are naturally the companies that manufacture and/or install IP-only telephone systems. They don′t have anything else to offer, so they want you to believe that they have the system that makes the most sense: The pure IP system. The fact of the matter is that IP, whether for IP-Telephony or VoIP, is simply another form of transport and does not inherently offer any additional features or applications in and of itself. It′s just another way of getting "there". And although we tend to refer to the internet as the "Information Superhighway", when it comes to transporting voice, we should really think of IP as "off-road" because much the same way a car requires special equipment such as 4-wheel-drive, special tires, greater clearance, etc, in order be driven on dirt roads or sand beaches, your voice communications system needs special equipment in order to travel over the internet or private circuits using Internet Protocol.

Routers and switches with QoS, and Cat5 cable to name a few. So what good does IP-Telephony or VoIP do for us? Plenty if it is deployed properly and with the intention of yielding some tangible benefits which need to be identified and evaluated BEFORE deciding on how much of your phone system, if any, should be IP. What kind of benefits? Let′s take a closer look at what you can and cannot do with an IP-Phone, versus a non-IP or ′traditional" digital phone.

Assuming a typical "plain vanilla" type organization, the needs of the telephone set begin with being able make and take calls, dial numbers, put a call on hold, transfer, conference, some flexible ringing perhaps. So far, no big deal. The ironic thing is that those manufacturers with only IP-Phones have gotten into the telephone business late, and they do not have the rich feature set that traditional telephone companies have been offering for many, many years. I′m talking about simple features like "Call-forwarding", and multiple call-forwarding, speed-dials etc.

But in reality, most organizations only use a small percentage of the features available in most telephone systems. The manufacturers create such feature-rich platforms in order to appeal to the widest customer audience. OK, so what are the real “killer apps” that take advantage of the fact that an IP-Phone is utilizing the same network infrastructure as your PC and servers? Unified Messaging? Outlook Integration? Click-to-Call? Believe it or not, none of the applications named above require an IP-Phone. Let me repeat that: You do not have to have an IP-Phone to be able to utilize Telephone-to-PC applications via your desktop or laptop PC, nor applications that reside on the server, including Unified Messaging and Outlook Integration.

Surprised? Most non-technical people are. It’s the hype. Then why are organizations deploying IP-Phones at all? The reasons are tactical: Overcoming geographic and logistical limitations of traditional circuits to achieve seamless integration of remote users. Or, to put it more simply: Anywhere you have internet access, you can have an integrated office phone. That’s right. And it will work just like the one sitting on the desk at your place of business. A remote office, work from home situations, a vacation home (aghhh!), multiple offices etc. are all good reasons for deploying IP-Phones.

How about VoIP? Does it allow me to make “free” calls on the internet? That question is a lot more complex than most people want to believe. First of all, you must understand that the business world still ultimately communicates over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Even organizations that are running pure-IP phone systems with all IP-Phones still have to connect to the rest of the world or all they have is a very expensive intercom. Copper trunks and/or some type of T1 will connect to a pure-IP phone system via some kind of gateway. What about VoIP T1’s you ask? Lol Well that’s a topic for another blog I think. But if you’d like to contact me, please feel free to do so by filling out the form and I’ll be happy to speak with you. I might even use an IP-Phone from my vacation home. And you’ll think I’m in my office. Unless you hear a seagull in the background.

Steve Melillo, President INS Technologies