What are the fundamental deliverables of IP networks? How can you
use IP networks to gain financial benefits in addition to taking
advantage of sophisticated features? Antony Adshead finds out what
information you need to know to make your network add value
In 1992 at a meeting of the internet Engineering Task Force, a
heated debate over the future of internet protocols turned angry
and so-called "father of the internet" Vint Cerf tore off his shirt
to reveal a T-shirt bearing the slogan "IP on Everything".
A typically loopy act in the high priesthood of geekdom, for sure,
but incredibly prophetic - we are now very close to 'IP on
everything' in the network. In June, BT announced that IP will be
used for voice and data over its national network in its 21st
Century Network programme. More recently, analyst Gartner predicted
that 90% of all new corporate telephone systems will be IP-enabled
by 2008.
The advantages to you of basing your business around IP is that it
is one protocol that has become dominant in voice and data traffic,
so that you can leverage economies resulting from standardisation
and convergence in addition to taking advantage of sophisticated
features.
Maren Bennette, Regional Business Development Manager for SMEs for
Cisco Systems in South West England, points to IP's growing
dominance driving down costs. "IP networking is much simpler than
its predecessors - such as SNA, X.25 and ATM - because it is based
on well-understood common standards and technology. Because it is
simple compared with other networking technologies, it has achieved
a wide customer base and has driven the cost of networking
appliances and bandwidth down to a level easily affordable by
all."
You may not need reminding of the fact that cost has always been a
pressing consideration for companies of your size, and in the past
this consideration has probably meant that you have been able only
to afford the basics and lacked the cash or resources to support
the sophisticated technology that put them on a par with larger
competitors.
An evolutionary approach
Mike Valiant, International Market Development Manager for Voice
Solutions at 3COM, says businesses like yours want the benefits
associated with networking but do not want the complexity that
historically comes with it. "SMEs want the functionality of
corporate products but they have to be less expensive and easier to
install and maintain. With limited IT staff, companies like yours
need easy-to-use, low-cost products," he says.
He says companies like yours are uniquely able to take advantage of
the latest technologies. You will likely not be hidebound by rigid
corporate policy, and rapid growth can mean an evolutionary
approach to network technology suits them.
"Most new technologies fit into a phase of SME network
implementation - setting up a basic data network, enabling remote
and internet access, adding voice capabilities to the data network
and exploring wireless solutions. Each is a natural evolutionary
progression from the other."
Andy Rawll, Product Manager for Avaya's SMB converged communication
system, IP Office, says you can now take advantage of technologies
previously only available to corporates. The growing number of
solutions that converge voice and data using IP mean that
sophisticated features are available to almost every
business.
"IP levels the playing field and redefines the rules of engagement
- smaller businesses can now build communications infrastructures
that are microcosms of those deployed by larger business. The
benefits of converged communications are now within reach of the
budget, skills and capabilities of businesses like yours, enabling
them to compete with larger ones.
"You can standardise applications, user interfaces and network
interfaces to one common, open and standard networking protocol and
simplified heterogeneous network infrastructures, where
best-of-breed and right-sized products from different vendors can
be combined in a cost-effective and commercially-compelling
manner," he adds.
In IP telephony, the intelligence is in the handsets and not
necessarily the network, so far more can be done with an IP phone
than with an analogue or digital feature phone. Because the phones
are IP devices, linked over an IP network to applications that are
running on IP servers, applications can be integrated far more
deeply and at significantly lower costs than was possible in the
days of separate phone systems and data networks. 3Com's Valiant
offers a low-risk method of migration to IP telephony.
"Networked telephony is now an affordable solution for the SME. But
for those companies unwilling to make a full commitment they can
run networked telephony alongside their existing PBX so they can
become familiar with the technology and let their telephony system
grow at its own pace.
Basic architecture
"The business case for networked telephony is a strong one in
comparison with legacy PBXs - it has very low management and
maintenance costs. When the SME grows and expands, adding new users
to the system is a simple and straightforward process. The only
additional cost is a new handset, and the easy-to-use browser
administration tools mean that anyone who can navigate the internet
can easily manage the telephony system."
This convergence of network applications means that as long as your
business gets the basic architecture right, it can design networks
to suit its needs easily. Cisco's Bennette says this can bring down
costs too. "Provided the underlying IP network - the routers, the
LAN switches, the security devices, etc - support quality of
service standards such as 802.1pq, the power over Ethernet standard
802.3af and security standards such as IPSec, the SME can more or
less design the network to suit their own requirements," she
says.
You can sketch out possible scenarios. If voice is the driver for
deploying a new network, you can design it around applications such
as voicemail or IP contact centres, and perhaps not worry whether
the switches support Gigabit Ethernet. On the other hand, if new
data applications are the driver, then network speed will be the
most important factor.
While the arguments for IP voice are compelling, it is still a
technology in the early adopter phase, but for Bennette, all
businesses, no matter their size, should be looking at it.
"Voice is the one ubiquitous communications medium needed by all
people, in all aspects of their lives. So it is not a question of
who should consider it, but of when they should consider converging
voice and data - and video - to provide a single, easy-to-manage
network at a significantly lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than
multiple networks," she says.
The answer to the 'when' question will vary from company to
company. You may well take the opportunity of a PBX coming to the
end of its lease, or being made obsolete by the vendor, to deploy
an IP telephony solution. In an alternative scenario you could take
the budget available for a data network upgrade and add a little
extra to deploy IP telephony. For many companies like yours, the
most compelling trigger is when you move offices as you grow.
A car dealership in the South West region is a good example of a
SME taking advantage of converged network services. Before IP
networking convergence, the company would have to have bought a
telephone system, a data network and a DECT wireless phone system
for roaming staff. Instead, the company has installed wireless data
and IP telephony solutions that cost half as much to buy and are
much more easily managed than three separate networks - and the
staff are said to be delighted with the flexibility their system
provides them.
Wireless in that case is a vital component of the converged IP
network. For SMEs, the argument for wireless is a good one. That
can be simply because your senior managers want the freedom to use
their laptops wherever they like, or as a way of making yourselves
more competitive against larger companies by, for example, being
available to talk from the factory floor.
3Com's Valiant insists wireless has a natural home in firms like
yours. "SMEs are characterised by rapid growth, moving offices as
they grow or moving people around, so wireless is an ideal
solution. The greatest benefit of wireless is its cost-effective
nature. Rather than having to pull up floors and drill holes in
walls, a wireless extension to a network will allow employees the
opportunity to access the network from anywhere in the office,
accessing real-time information at a fraction of the cost."
The emergence of SIP
Another IP-based technology that is now featuring in products is
SIP - Session Initiation Protocol. This is a signalling protocol
that uses low bandwidth to overcome the limitations of the public
internet to support voice, making it viable to make and receive
calls over the web.
Paul Taylor, Sales and Marketing Director at Swyx Solutions, says
this is a technology that can help bring down your costs.
"It works in a similar way to instant messaging, so users can
connect to an IP address rather than to a telephone number. The
major implication is that the cost of calls will be free, but a
further benefit is that it widens the choice of handsets that can
be used. As long as they are SIP compatible, they will work. This
significantly reduces the capital expenditure for IP telephone
equipment, making it even more affordable to the average SME in
both the short and longer term," says Taylor.
Avaya's Rawll says that applying the principles of instant
messaging technology to voice and data more widely could have as
big an impact on business as email did in the 1990s.
He says: "The application of the instant messaging concept to other
forms of communication is driving the idea of the 'personal
workspace', where communication with a user is no longer
device-centric but user-centric, providing a single ID or SIP
address for each user.
"This routes calls to their mobile, PDA, desk phone or email
according to who is calling and availability of the called party,
perhaps based on their personal information manager or calendar
application."
As with other IP-based technologies you will be able to take
advantage just as your larger competitors do. IP-on-everything
means your business is freed from the traditional costs associated
with cutting-edge advances in the past. n