In today's virtual world, telecom and network services have come a long way, from being offered using locally installed, standalone monolithic servers to ethereal entities residing in the cloud. This evolution has touched every part of network service provisioning, and one of the most fascinating facets of this trend is that the network infrastructure itself can be virtualized.

Network function virtualization (NFV) is a network architecture philosophy that virtualizes the network infrastructure. In this article, we take a look at what NFV is, how it works, how it fits in with other virtualization technologies, and how it can be of benefit for enterprise networks.

Topics: Trends, Network Design, Cloud

The cloud is used to offer services directly to the end user, as well as to provide a platform on which vendors can develop their online applications (including VoIP) for their customers. In a previous article, we covered SaaS, PaaS and IaaS as the three most prominent cloud-based models that are used to offer services to clients. In this article, we take a more in-depth look at the various cloud deployment models that are available (including private, public and hybrid) and how they are useful for businesses of different sizes. The article concludes with the factors to consider when choosing which deployment model to use when offering VoIP and other cloud services to your customers.

Topics: Customer Service, Business Telephone System, VoIP, Total Voice Solution, Trends, Cloud, Business Strategy, Unified Communications

Redundancy and scalability are important for VoIP systems. Virtualization makes both of these easier, less costly, and more efficient. Coupled with cloud services, virtualization has revolutionized how network services are provided, and in particular, how VoIP deployment is executed.

In this article, we explain what virtualization is, the trends governing its newest technologies, and how all of this can be leveraged for use with VoIP services.

Topics: VoIP, Trends, Productivity, Network Design

Software-defined networking (SDN) is changing the way networks are managed and designed. In this article, we take a look at how an SDN approach can be of great benefit to VoIP and video telephony deployments in particular.

Topics: QoS, Trends, Productivity, Network Design, Unified Communications

A major challenge inherent in designing and maintaining an enterprise network is the administration costs. Software-defined networking (SDN) can dramatically reduce both the hard costs (money) and soft costs (time) of managing a network. Although this tends to be the most compelling argument in favor of using SDN, it in fact offers may more advantages than this. In this article, we introduce SDN and examine some of its key benefits.

Topics: Trends, Productivity, Routers, Network Design, Gateway, Switches, Unified Communications

5G is emerging onto the telecom landscape. What’s new and different about it? 5G does indeed promise phenomenal potential. In this article we examine 5G and its applications for unified communications.

Topics: Trends, Mobility (including remote work), IoT, Unified Communications, WAN Technology

If you’re looking to grow your business, consider serving micro-enterprises with 1-20 employees. According to the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs, firms with between 1-20 employees made up 89% of all U.S. firms in 2016. While this has traditionally been an underserved market when it comes to VoIP telecommunications, more and more equipment manufacturers are offering products tailored to their needs. In this article, we review some cutting-edge devices that are ideal for micro-enterprises.

Topics: Customer Service, SIP Phones, IP PBX, Business Telephone System, VoIP, Grandstream, Yealink, Trends, Mobility (including remote work), Headsets, Leasing, Videoconferencing, Conferencing, Android, Product Review, Business Strategy, Bluetooth, Yeastar, Avaya

Device as a service (DaaS) is a growing trend for all types of companies who don’t want to tie up their capital in business equipment. With DaaS, you rent the equipment for a small monthly fee without having to pay anything up front, and the monthly payments count as an operating expense rather than as a capital expense.

Offering a DaaS equipment rental program to your customers is a great way to provide equipment for companies who might not have the budget allocated to buy equipment, or who would prefer to account for the expense as an operating expense. In this article, we show you how you can easily offer a DaaS rental program to your customers.

Topics: Customer Service, Business Telephone System, Total Voice Solution, Trends

Did you miss Channel Partners in Las Vegas last week? Fear not - we've jotted down some of the key themes for you. Take note!

Topics: Trends, Network Security, Cloud, Events, News, IoT, Unified Communications

Internet Protocol Version 6 is the next-generation protocol on which the future of the internet, and a huge part of telecommunications in general, is based. In this article, we review the characteristics of IPv6 and examine its benefits and challenges when applied to voice over IP, as well as suggest some practical tips for your deployments.

Topics: VoIP, Trends