Top 5 IP Communications Myths
As voice, video, and data networks have begun to converge, more organizations are seeing the value in deploying IP business communications solutions, including IP telephony, unified messaging, voice mail, customer contact solutions, and audio, video, and Web conferencing.- Customers should wait to deploy IP-based business communications until the standards are more mature.
- An IP-based business communications implementation is more expensive than implementing a traditional time-division multiplexing (TDM) communications system.
- There is no single compelling application (“killer application”) for IP-based business communications today.
- IP-based business communications systems are less secure than hybrid systems with a mix of IP-based and traditional communications.
- Deploying IP-based business communications means throwing away your investment in traditional voice solutions.
- MYTH #1: Customers should wait to deploy IP-based business communications until the standards are more mature.
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The perception here is that standards processes for telecommunications and data networking is a complex and mysterious art, steeped in decades
of tradition and secret voting. As a result, many people are concerned that because of the relative newness of IP Communications, the current
standards for these solutions are not mature enough to justify investing in the technology. The fear is that if you invest in an IP Communications
solution now, by next year, everything will change, and your investment will have been worthless.
The Reality:
Fundamental standards for IP-based communications are already in place; new standards will continue to emerge. In the world of technology, it can often take far less than a year for a standard to become obsolete. In the case of IP Communications, most of the standards that are critical to the success of the solution have been around for some time. In fact, many people are surprised by the number of standards it takes to place an IP phone call today. - MYTH #2: An IP-based business communications implementation is more expensive than implementing a traditional TDM communications system.
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Today’s IP phones seem more expensive when compared to traditional circuit-switched key system and enterprise phones. With IP phones, the intelligence resides in the physical set rather than in set-line cards within enterprise and key system controllers; this can give the appearance that the bulk of the solution cost is tied to the endpoints. The end customer sees only a higher phone cost for voice over IP (VoIP), rather than the comparison cost based on averaging the line card and the phone costs for the enterprise. As a result, price sensitivity becomes a significant
barrier to IP telephony adoption. The small and midsize business markets, with their even greater price sensitivity, would be expected to adopt
IP telephony at a much slower rate unless a suitable system was offered to this market at a compelling price.
The Reality:
IP Communications solutions are proven to offer lower TCO and high ROI. The typical IP phone today costs the same or less than an equivalent digital desk phone set. When you factor in the lower overall total cost of ownership (TCO) that results from an IP Communications solution running on a converged IP network for voice, video, and data, an IP Communications solution can save organizations a substantial amount of money. - MYTH #3: There is no single compelling application (“killer application”) for IP-based communications today.
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After all, if there were, wouldn’t everyone be using it? And should organizations wait until that application is discovered to make the investment in a converged voice, video, and data network running IP Communications solutions?
The Reality:
There are many applications available today that cut costs, increase productivity, and improve customer satisfaction. The true power of IP Communications lies in the convergence of voice, video, and data applications for the user. The architecture of IP Communications allows applications to be integrated with organizations’ existing applications, from existing e-mail, CRM, and calendar systems to vertical applications such as inventory lookup, hotel wake-up calls, and school attendance. Just like there is no single reason for the adoption of the Internet, there is no single reason to adopt IP Communications. The most compelling application will vary by enterprise, and even more by user. - MYTH #4: IP-based communications systems are less secure than hybrid systems with a mix of IP-based and traditional communications.
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For many people, there’s just no arguing the fact that IP Communications solutions are less secure than hybrid systems. The sentiment seems to
be, “When was the last time an Internet worm took down your PBX?”
The Reality:
IP Communications solutions are secure and reliable. Security is an important issue—whether or not you are running voice on your data network. But the real myth is that hybrid systems are more secure than end-to-end IP Communications solutions.Everyone is familiar with how a traditional digital PBX is put together. With these systems, you have to protect against toll fraud, masquerading, and war dialing. And with traditional systems, unauthorized access or eavesdropping can often be accomplished with a simple pair of alligator clips; but, you probably don’t have to worry about Internet worms. However, some people think that you don’t need to worry about network security if you opt for one of the “hybrid” migration strategies being promoted by the traditional vendors.
Typically, the first step in the hybrid migration process is pulling the CPU and call processing out of the cabinet and putting it on a dedicated LAN. You must then make sure that LAN is completely secure, since an attack on the call processing component affects every user on the system-not just IP phone users.
In this scenario, not only do you have the same security considerations as if the entire solution was on the IP network, but you also have to manage two separate networks, without realizing the benefits of having an integrated solution on a single, converged network.
There’s no denying that security is an important factor in deploying IP telephony, whether you are deploying a native IP solution or a hybrid solution. Cisco is the only vendor that addresses security at all levels of the IP Communications infrastructure—the IP network, the voice systems, and the applications, providing the “defense in depth” necessary to make your IP Communications systems as secure as they can be.
- MYTH #5: Deploying IP-based communications means throwing away your investment in traditional voice solutions.
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Since all companies already have a voice communications system of some kind, many people think that a movement to IP Communications
means throwing away all the money they’ve spent over the past 10 or 20 years building that voice infrastructure. The feeling is that you have to
forklift out your old voice system to put in an IP Communications solution—making the move to adopt this technology a relatively big
commitment.
The Reality:
IP Communications solutions offer migration at an organization’s preferred pace. This is an example of applying the old way of thinking to an entirely new paradigm. In the TDM world, telephony was thought of as a series of boxes that were located in each building in the company. Each box had a certain number of shelves, each shelf had a certain number of line cards, and each line card had a certain number of ports.In the IP Communications world, think of telephony as a service in the network. The service is available from anywhere in the network, independent of location. For example, a multisite business may deploy the call control software only at the central site, then enable the remote sites to access the service remotely over the network.
In the end, every supplier in the industry agrees that the piece of sheet metal called a PBX that is bolted down in the basement today will disappear eventually—no boxes, no shelves, no line cards, no ports.
By integrating with most major legacy PBXs and voice-mail systems, as well as mission-critical business applications, Cisco IP Communications solutions empower customers to migrate based on their business needs instead of technology limitations.
Additionally, the idea of location-independent services in the network means that a company can use a building-block approach for migrating its communications to IP on a site-by-site, group-by-group, or application-by-application basis. In fact, 99 percent of Cisco customers migrate their networks to IP Communications using this approach.
