Voice Readiness

• QUALITY. Delivery of reliable, high-quality voice communications— comparable to what users get with traditional PBX systems—plus, support for advanced IP functionality.
• SECURITY. Protection of voice traffic from vulnerabilities and threats, including those introduced by data traffic running on the same network infrastructure.
• SIMPLICITY. Elimination of complexity for users and managers, and the ability to easily and economically scale the network to support new devices and applications.

ENSURING QUALITY
To carry on business effectively, users must be able to conduct conversations as if they were in the same room with the person on the other end of the line. With the latest codecs, audio quality on IP phones now surpasses what was previously possible on analog or even non-IP digital phones. But to attain business-level clarity and immediacy, the network must deliver sufficient bandwidth to support the voice traffic and provide the quality of service prioritization that prevents latency, “jitter” and prolonged call setups.

Just as important, the network must be able to reliably deliver a dial tone across the entire organization, over both wired and wireless installations. Phone users have long been accustomed to virtually 100% uptime. Most businesses can’t tolerate interruptions in their telephony service, losing money by the second when calls fail to get through. So a Voice Ready Network must provide high-availability, with the capability to support additional survivability features such as resilient links, uninterruptible power or back-up systems if required.

In addition, a high-quality Voice Ready Network needs to be amenable to the strategic vision and budgetary constraints of the organization. If a company is planning to implement a call center, the network should support that capability in advance to ensure functionality and keep implementation costs in check. If a business expects to open another district office, the network should be architected to sustain employee productivity with telephony survivability features that can withstand even a WAN failure. Or if video-based training will eventually be part of the picture, the network installed today ought to be able to accommodate the bandwidth and low-latency demands that quality video signals will entail tomorrow.

GUARANTEEING SECURITY
The various threats to business data networks—ranging from Trojans and worms, to distributed denial-of-service attacks and intellectual property theft—are well known to IT professionals. But voice traffic is just as susceptible to attacks as data traffic, with most incursions occurring from within the firewall. Wireless networks present additional
points of vulnerability.

To protect business-critical communications of all types, the network must be capable of defending itself at the infrastructure and application levels by identifying threats and removing them while maintaining network integrity. In addition, network performance must be protected against traffic congestion generated by peer-to-peer, instant messaging and spyware activity.

Network Access Control (NAC) is another key element in ensuring a secure VoIP network. The cost of not keeping the network secure from unauthorized entry can be devastating to the organization, and government- or industry-mandated penalties for noncompliance can also be severe. NAC technology identifies a user attempting network access, verifies that the device being used meets minimum security policies, and implements the proper access controls.

PROMOTING SIMPLICITY
The Voice Ready Network not only needs to be simple to manage, it must be able to scale as the business grows. This requires an intrinsically simple architecture that distributes intelligence where it is needed with minimal hands-on manual configuration.

Communications are becoming increasingly mobile every day, but mobility means more than un-tethered phones and ear buds. It also involves converging wired and wireless technologies and delivering critical applications to employees at home, in remote locations or on the road. That is why the network needs to be mobile-ready as well as voice-ready. Technologies such as those based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) will be particularly important in simplifying the process of extending full telephony privileges to users as they travel or roam the building.

Then there is the matter of migration. Most businesses prefer a migration strategy that is really more of a transition strategy. That is, they want to leave as little of their legacy network behind as possible when they move to a voice-capable infrastructure. This requires a thorough network assessment and implementation plan. Plus, it means installing voice capable solutions with the flexibility to support a wide range of applications and a full complement of industry standards.

To simplify the transition to voice, network technology should be exhaustively tested for compatibility, survivability and multi-vendor interoperability. This way, the company can preserve current investments and avoid costly and disruptive rip-and-replace upgrades.

BE PREPARED
In today’s highly competitive environments, every organization needs to extract every possible advantage from voice technology—especially in promoting collaboration and communications. How can you ensure that your business has the best tools to achieve these goals when the pace of technology innovation is so unrelenting?

The place to start in strategic planning is to assess your company’s readiness to move to a converged network. CompuData offers comprehensive Readiness Assessments for your business as a first step in the deployment process. Careful planning is the first step to ensure a smooth VoIP deployment.

Call CompuData at 800.223.3282 to schedule your IP Telephony Readiness Assessment.