The
new Blackberry - a corporate solution for unified
communications
Blackberry always did the basics well but now it’s starting to do the “would
like” features really well too. When Blackberrys first appeared on the
corporate IT radar, they seemed to offer the answer to the perpetual problem
of managing corporate PDAs on a medium and large scale...
Server
virtualisation - what you need to know
Server virtualisation is becoming increasingly popular,
not only for the cost, availability and administrative
benefits if offers, but also from a green IT perspective.
So this week, I thought I’d take a look at
some of the offerings in this area of technology...
How
to configure a redundant LAN
The main obstacle to network disaster recovery (DR) is legacy configurations.
You need to ensure that any device on your network has all static routes and
host files removed; these cause untold nightmares in rolling out new applications...
The
truth about Microsoft OCS (Office Communications
Server)
Microsoft Office Communications Server appears to deliver the world, an end-user
product or hosted solution that pulls together TDM IP-PBX phone systems, Internet
based communications (IM, VoIP), voice mail and faxes, all into one portal...
Options
for designing a redundant WAN for IPT and unified
communications
There are many ways to provide disaster recover for your primary WAN. One of
the most expensive is a diversely routed MPLS solution; if your applications
are so business critical that any downtime exceeds the cost of an additional
WAN, this is the so ...
How
to deploy and configure a wireless network for
voice
If you’re thinking about deploying, or upgrading, a wireless network for
voice there are several things you need to consider in respect of the technology
you use and the configurations you set up. Here’s an overview of the process
I recommend for deploying and configuring a WLAN for voice...
Implementing
a converged home worker network
If you’re planning to set up a home worker
network, there are three major factors you need to
take into account. They are...
Increasing
your security for IPT and unified communications
Why do we need additional security IPT and unified communications? The main reason
is because, by implementing IPT and unified communications, you are making fundamental
changes to your network...
How
to optimise your WAN’s performance for
convergence
When you’re looking at WAN performance, especially
with convergence, there are a lot of issues that
can come up but, in all honesty, most of these arise
because the WAN is not correctly configured to support
QoS or the applications that are expected to run
across it...
How
does fixed mobile convergence (FMC) work?
Fixed mobile convergence is about bringing together a mobile GSM/GPRS/3G/UTMS
network (e.g. Vodafone) with a fixed telecom network (e.g. BT) to provide a single
communications platform for voice, video and data IP traffic. The best way to
explain FMC...
What
do you need to know to add video conferencing
to your IPT network?
Historically, video conferencing, especially externally, has used ISDN; when
you take it into IP it changes and there are a number of factors that must be
taken into account...
Getting
a service level agreement for IP telephony and
unified communications
In terms of technology, your SLA needs to cover every device along the voice
path of the IPT solution. This will include all your handsets, CAT5 cabling,
LAN switches, core switch, call control servers, unified communications servers,
email servers then out either over...
How
to scope a pilot IPT project?
The first thing you need to determine in your project is your pilot group of
users, who, in turn, will help you define the feature set that you need to test...
How
to use technology to reduce your carbon footprint?
This week, I’m looking at carbon emissions
and how technology can help you reduce them in the
business environment. Here are my tips ...
How to implement unified communications
Because
every situation is different and each system typically
needs to be customised for the business, deployment
requirements can vary by project (except for the IP
telephony element which must always be pure IPT) so
to illustrate the process for ...
How to spot
the difference between vendor’s IPT solutions
I think there’s
a lot of confusion in the market place about IPT
phone systems. We find that customers often think
that one system is the same as any other. When we
were just talking about systems with very basic functionality,
I think this was true ...
How do you decide between
IPT and popular VoIP offerings like Skype?
Generally
with VoIP, you’re taking an analogue signal,
from a phone into a laptop or into an existing phone
system. The phone system has a router which compresses
the analogue signal into an IP data signal and this
is transferred over ... |