Cisco IP Paging System: When and How to Integrate with an Existing System

When is it a good time for an organization to think about making that transition to IP Paging? You know if they have a bunch of buildings that have analog systems in place, can they upgrade in place now?

Yeah, so there’s a few different ways to look at it. The right time, when you see the most cost savings, is when you’re remodeling a facility, if you’re constructing new facilities, IP speakers definitely fits into a cost savings model at that point.

If you have existing analog technology, we can take advantage of that. So we don’t say you have rip and replace and start all over. Take advantage of what you have, retrofit, and if you need to add supplement using IP or network paging, it’s very easy to do with our products, you can still have your traditional analog system.

But if you realize at one point, “Geez, we really wish we had a speaker in this facility at the entry way,” it’s very easy to add that. to that facility and take advantage of all at one time. So, it can be done multiple ways. So, in practical terms, we go into a closet with a network cable, plug in a box that’s connected to the network and then out of that, connect to your analog system.

Exactly. And that can be done multiple ways. It can be done through IP zone controllers and they can also be done through a station port or a trump port from your PBX to access that system. So, if it already had a connection to your telephone system, we can take advantage of that and utilize any existing connections too but, a number of different options.

Source: http://www.telecomreseller.com

The Advantages of IP Telephony Systems for Businesses

By Nick McDonald, Contributing Writer TMCnews

As customers turn to telephones everyday to get answers to questions, many companies are turning to digital or IP phone services to meet increasing demands. Syndeo Communications is one company helping organizations with these types of needs, as it offers a paramount phone system called the Switchvox (News - Alert) AA355.

The system provides businesses with a well-rounded communication strategy that utilizes many of the features found in other Voice Over IP (VoIP) systems. Thanks to call recording and reporting features, organizations that use this IP telephony system can ensure customer service levels remain high.

Another prominent VoIP equipment provider, TelcoDepot.com has created a new and improved IP phone service that it will advertise on its online site. The TalkSwitch (News - Alert) VSX is ideal for small businesses. Each VSX system comes equipped with 20 auto attendants, 16 remote extensions and a voicemail broadcast feature. All three also support external IP extensions with high quality G.711 voice encoding.

Overall, these types of call controlling systems are not only efficient, but they also provide a control mechanism for business spending. By providing call accounting assistance, a company can get the proper information needed to run an efficient call system. Besides the money it saves, call accounting can also help businesses drive traffic and with proper monitoring, create productivity by reducing the amount of non-business activity.

IP-based systems will also assist call accounting solutions by offering more possibilities. Given the complexities of the corporate environment as calls are routed over a variety of channels and include extra data, such as voice and multimedia communications, it is imperative for organizations to have an IP service that works for them. In this new era of digital media and providers, IP phone systems and services are an element businesses may be overlooking, and it could cost them in the end. Finding a way to efficiently communicate with customers is imperative and IP phone systems are a great tool that will help organizations do just that.

Avaya Launches Outsourcing Solutions to Improve Performance, Reduce Costs of Business Communications Networks

Basking Ridge, NJ – Avaya today introduced a new set of outsourcing services to help companies dramatically increase the performance, reduce the costs and accelerate the transformation of their communications environments. With the new offer, Avaya Communications Outsourcing Solutions (COS), Avaya takes on the task of managing all of a company’s communications operations—regardless of age, location or vendor—to help them compete in a new era of advanced collaboration.

“More companies are looking to move their communications infrastructure towards a managed or outsourced model. The vendors that offer deep communications expertise and scale will be in the best position to help businesses optimize their communications environments for higher performance and cost-efficiency. Improving one’s communications infrastructure and applications is critical as we enter a new phase of advanced enterprise collaboration.” stated Eric Goodness, research vice president, managed services, Gartner, Inc.

Avaya Communications Outsourcing Solutions is part of the company’s portfolio of Managed Services, which enables businesses to have Avaya take on the management of their communications infrastructure and applications. COS is Avaya’s first fully-outsourced offering that provides custom-built solutions and comprehensive management of a client’s entire communications environment, including unified communications, contact center, data and video applications. COS offers a higher level of managed services by serving as a client’s communications arm, integrating directly with their IT processes and managing their overall communications functions (such as production, billing, operations and more).

Avaya Communications Outsourcing Solutions are custom-managed services typically designed for two types of businesses: Those who are ready to migrate their aging infrastructure and transform it with advanced capabilities, but may have constraints around internal resources or budget; and those who are not ready for a technology transformation, but want to improve the cost-efficiency and performance of their existing infrastructure.

“Avaya has invested significantly over the past year to provide a level of communications outsourcing support that is truly unique in the industry, bringing dramatic, transformative benefits to customers. With a custom-built solution for each client, Avaya Communications Outsourcing Solutions can help remove financial and support constraints for companies, and enable them to get the most out of their communications infrastructure investments.” said Ed Nalbandian, vice president, Avaya Operations Services.

These services solve customer issues in four key areas—performance, resources, tools and cost. Avaya Communications Outsourcing Solutions includes:

• Seamless worldwide multi-vendor support using nine global Network Operation Centers (NOC) supporting 3 million communications ports under contract.
• Full alignment with Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) standards for multivendor environments. ITIL is a best-in-class set of standardized practices to support IT infrastructure.
• A breakthrough communications management platform, Matrix—the result of a $10 million investment in a predictive, preventive cloud-based platform. This includes a customized Web portal to let supervisors get a clear view into Avaya services.
• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) improvements can be delivered by COS. Typically, 15 to 20 percent in TCO improvements are driven by Avaya Managed Services through improved performance and reduced investment needs.

· Extensive communications applications expertise and support, driven by an organization of more than 700 dedicated voice managed services experts.

· New Operating Expense procurement (OpEx) options encompassing hardware, software and services in an all-inclusive per-user price, minimizing or eliminating the need for capital purchase for a technology transformation.

· Customized Service Level Agreements (SLA) delivering guarantees on availability and reliability, helping to ensure peace of mind.

Video Surveillance: Minimizing Cost and Maximizing Return on Investment

By Mae Kowalke http://blog.tmcnet.com/

The use of video surveillance as a public safety and security tool is growing. Partially, that’s because homeland security regulations and initiatives around the world are driving deployment. It’s also because high capacity wireless data networks have brought down the cost of infrastructure to the point where the ability to provide comprehensive coverage is practical and cost-effective.

However, it should be noted that the initial investment and operation and maintenance costs of video surveillance can be significant. This is highlighted by the fact that protection responsibility is shifting from police/military to infrastructure owners.

“In the US energy market, for example, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation-Critical Infrastructure Protection regulations require that utilities tightly control access to their most important infrastructure,” notes Sheridan Nye, Senior Analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media’s Enterprise Verticals practice, in a LifeTalk article, “Is Video Surveillance Worth the Investment?”

Since the security benefits of video surveillance can be significant, companies and organizations either voluntarily looking to deploy this technology, or those compelled to do so by regulations, are considering a variety of strategies to justify the expense and achieve cost savings. One of these is to look at indirect cost savings that can be viewed as return on investment (ROI) for capital expenditures on security network infrastructure.

For video surveillance systems, Nye notes, ROI is usually indirect, and comes from multiple sources. He further states that, “Protecting assets … has a direct impact on insurance premiums as well as meeting regulatory requirements.”

In the U.K., video surveillance is being embraced to counter metal theft, which is a big problem. Copper, which fetches a high (and rising) price, is especially appealing to thieves. The rail industry in the U.K. alone lost £43 million worth of metal in the last three years, and companies are spending at least £12 million each year on security to prevent metal theft.

Although video surveillance may not be able to prevent this theft in the first place, items like pipes and cables can be visibly marked to be traceable if stolen. In fact, situational awareness, public safety officials being able to deploy pervasive video surveillance and potential bad actors knowing it is present, is also a deterrent to potential thieves.

As potentially useful as video surveillance can be for security, it’s especially difficult for public safety agencies to afford the technology, since there have been major funding cuts in the past several years due to the recession. Often, video surveillance is only an option if the cost is shared with other organizations.

“Video is an example of a service that can be shared between the transport service and the police or other agencies like the ambulance service,” Nye points out. This is why being able to leverage the deployment of LTE is so critical since they dramatically cut the costs of deploying a wired-based video surveillance network and can be share by multiple parties.

In addition, complementary technology, such as motion detectors, can also reduce the cost of operating video surveillance systems. Compressing video to lower quality when precise imagery isn’t necessary can also help by boosting efficiency and network capacity.

The most recent issue of LifeTalk which features multiple articles on the issues and value of deploying a comprehensive video surveillance capability is worth a read. It includes a variety of perspective as well as information about the differences between U.K. and U.S. markets, projections for deployment growth along with features on partnering and what the Sao Paulo Militar are doing in Brazil .

Avaya Recognized by Frost Sullivan for Delivering Superior Communications Solutions to Healthcare Customers

By Marketwire - Medical and Healthcare

Tuesday, 21 February 2012 06:35 Avaya Receives Frost & Sullivan 2011 Customer Value Enhancement Award for Improving Patient Care With Unified Communications BASKING RIDGE, NJ--(Marketwire - Feb 21, 2012) - Avaya recognized for having "dedicated resources that are tuned in to anticipate, prepare and respond quickly to changing healthcare requirements" Avaya, a global provider of business communications and collaboration systems and services, today announced it has received Frost & Sullivan's 2011 Customer Value Enhancement Award for delivering superior customer communications to healthcare customers using unified communications (UC). Frost & Sullivan is an independent research firm that annually recognizes best-in-class companies for excellence in growth, innovation and leadership. Avaya received the award for its continuous focus on customer value enhancement for healthcare clients. According to Frost & Sullivan, this is driven by the company's dedicated internal resources, solutions portfolio and a commitment to providing open architecture support. Other characteristics companies must demonstrate to win the Frost & Sullivan Award for Customer Value Enhancement include: Excellence in implementing strategies that proactively create value for customers with a focus on improving return on investment (ROI). Focus on enhancing the value that customers receive, beyond simply good customer service, leading to improved customer retention and customer base expansion. Avaya is a global provider of UC applications in the healthcare market, and approximately 5,500 healthcare facilities worldwide have deployed Avaya technology. The company's healthcare solutions portfolio helps hospitals, healthcare organizations and care providers anticipate, prepare and respond to changing market requirements, including trends in care coordination, patient interaction and telehealth/home-care delivery. Avaya solutions encompass the entire lifecycle of patient care -- from pre-admission preparedness and the delivery of care in treatment to post-discharge care and follow-up. Avaya is showcasing its UC innovations in mobility, social media and videoconferencing at the recent 2012 HIMSS Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas. Read more about the Avaya Healthcare Solutions debuted and demonstrated at HIMSS here. Supporting Quotes: "Avaya has dedicated resources that are tuned in to anticipate, prepare and respond quickly to changing healthcare requirements, such as policy and regulatory compliance, and user demands, such as increasing nurses' time with patients, improving patient workflow and improving mobility. Avaya's offerings in the healthcare arena have been consistently focused on delivering superior levels of patient care, leading us to award them the 2011 Global Customer Value Enhancement Award in UC Technologies." --Alaa Saayed, senior industry analyst and ICT team leader, Frost & Sullivan "This recognition from Frost & Sullivan reinforces the consistent value Avaya delivers to healthcare companies through our unified communications and collaboration offerings. We are helping healthcare providers around the world improve clinical workflows, patient care and remote and home-based care with a wide range of innovative communications solutions." --Sanjeev Gupta, general manager, Avaya Healthcare Solutions. About Avaya: Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centers, networking and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visitwww.avaya.com. About Frost & Sullivan: Frost & Sullivan, the growth partnership company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, visitwww.frost.com. Certain statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "should" or "will" or other similar terminology. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While we believe these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These and other important factors may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to Avaya's filings with the SEC that are available at www.sec.gov. Avaya disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Read more http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=1621930&sourceType=3

Avaya could Go Public in a $1BN IPO

Networking gear maker Avaya will become an even more serious threat to Cisco and Juniper Networks come April with reports of going public. That’s the timeframe two different anonymous insiders provided, according to a Bloomberg report. Avaya has been wanting to go public since the original June filing was turned in, but according to the same two people that disclosed the revitalized plans, the market wasn’t ripe.

Cisco Systems Inc., the top manufacturer of networking equipment and a competitor to Avaya, slumped 11 percent last year, while rival Juniper Networks Inc. dropped 45 percent. The weakness reflected concerns that customers would delay upgrades amid economic turmoil. The outlook brightened in recent weeks after quarterly results from Cisco exceeded profit and sales estimates and analysts predicted that AT&T Inc., the largest U.S. telephone company, would step up capital spending.

Avaya is still a long way behind its two biggest competitors, but it has been making definite progress in at least one area. It’s the second largest vendor of enterprise telecommunications solutions, following Cisco. The latter has maintained parallel ventures in the consumer space, the umi and Flip, but shut them down a few months ago.

That was the result of an internal overhaul to the networking giant’s internal decision-making and fragmented businesses, which has gone on for almost a year and is starting pay off. The process of consolidation with a refocus on the enterprise market is similar to processes others in the tech sector are undergoing.

Cisco beat Wall Street’s average expectation with its Q2 earnings announced earlier this month. The company reported 43 cents per share on revenue of $11.23 billion, higher than the 37 cents analysts forecasted.

By MARIA DEUTSCHER | FEBRUARY 20TH http://siliconangle.com

Dell Canada, Fongo Partnering on Free VoIP Calling App

By Beecher Tuttle TMCnet Contributor

With the PC market waning, Dell Canada is venturing into the VoIP app market through a new partnership with Fongo.

The two companies have launched a new VoIP phone alternative called Dell Voice, an Android and iOS app that enables users to leverage their existing data connection to place and receiving free calls using their mobile phone or their computer.

Like other competing apps, Dell Voice will target users who want to avoid long distance charges on their house phone or who routinely go over their allotted minutes on their mobile phone. The app may also be particularly attractive for small businesses that want to cut costs by running their office communications through their computer and their mobile communications through a VoIP app.

The app is free and the calls are free (to most parts of Canada), but know that VoIP works over 3G and 4G networks when a Wi-Fi connection is unavailable. Data charges from your wireless carrier or Internet service provider may apply. If you have an unlimited data plan, no need to worry.

Users who download the free app can choose a local Canadian phone number and can make emergency 911 VoIP calls if needed.

"Dell and Fongo want to tilt the competitive playing field by offering smartphone users everything we believe they need in a mobile phone service - for free," John Stix, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Fongo, noted in a statement.

"Dell Voice aims to help Canadians reduce the cost or even eliminate the need for a voice plan," he added. "I believe Dell Voice is a game changer that has the potential to transform the telecommunications industry, while helping to put money back into the pockets of Canadian consumers and business owners."

Dell partnered with Fongo to take advantage of the company's privileged access to Fibernetics, a Canadian CLEC that operates a coast-to-coast network in Canada.

The app is currently available at the App Store and the Android Market. Ironically, Canada-based RIM's Blackberry won't get the app until March.

IP Reflections – SIP and Serve Blog: David Byrd

In attempting to better understand the impact of the FCC rules change regarding InterCarrier Compensation (ICC) and Universal Service Funding (USF), I found myself lost in a sea of IP related missives. Ignoring the obviously flawed reasoning behind the rules change, I looked for studies that could summarize their effects upon an ITSP like Broadvox. On the surface the changes appear to create a level of fairness by addressing unfair termination and access charges. However, the reality is they will negatively impact rural carriers and VoIP service providers. All of whom are analyzing the financial impact upon their revenue streams in order to determine the proper path forward. Since the FCC chairman, Julius Genachowski, indicates that the change is his solution to expanding the reach of broadband and implementing a fairer approach to funding that expansion, I view the overall action as misguided. In prior blogs, I have indicated that focusing our efforts on expanding the reach of broadband is premature given our poor position relative to the rest of world in delivering competitive broadband to the majority of the country. Whereas, it is possible to get 1 gigabit speeds in various countries, the US is struggling to provide speeds in excess of 20 megabits at a reasonable price point. This becomes increasingly important with the adoption rate of multimedia mobile devices.

Bandwidth consumption is experiencing a dramatic increase because of video on demand, video conferencing and streaming applications, all of which are provided by a growing number of content delivery networks. Frost and Sullivan are projecting a nearly 30% increase in 2012. Amazingly, this may be a low forecast given the adoption rate of smartphones and tablets. Consider that nearly 500 million such devices were sold last quarter. Perhaps, it is appropriate to remind you of Google’s intent to deliver a gigabit IP network to Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas. Construction on the project began in earnest just this month. After completion residents will be able to experience Internet speeds 100 times the current average equaling the top speed available throughout Kiev, Ukraine and by the end of year every home in South Korea.

The US has a penchant for ignoring what is happening in other countries. It is a detriment that we continue to do so despite having the greatest international presence of any country. Our lack of awareness and knowledge results in poor planning and misplaced priorities. Our ability to navel gaze is not the result of our political system but is the nature of our culture. We do not embrace true diversity well (multiple languages, international concepts, interracial neighborhoods and social environments).

IP communications has become the foundation for technological innovation, financial markets, education, entertainment and global communications. I support making it universally available in the US after we make it competitive with the rest of the world.

Source: telecom reseller

Polycom Names Eric Brown Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer

Company consolidates financial, operational, and IT functions under
Brown to increase efficiency and scale

PLEASANTON, Calif. – Feb. 8, 2012 – Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in standards-based unified communications (UC), today announced that Eric Brown will join the company as chief financial officer, chief operating officer, and executive vice president, starting Feb. 21, 2012. In his dual roles as CFO and COO, reporting to Polycom President and CEO Andy Miller, Brown, 46, will manage all financial, operational, and IT functions at Polycom, which are being consolidated under one leader for greater efficiency and scale as the company looks to accelerate its momentum and grow faster than the overall UC market. Polycom today also announced that Mike Kourey will retire from his position as EVP & CFO of Polycom in order to pursue other opportunities, including spending more time on corporate boards and on various charitable activities (see related release here).

Brown comes to Polycom from Electronic Arts, the world’s leading publisher of video game software, where as chief financial officer and executive vice president, he led the company successfully through rapid change. Brown was instrumental in leveraging advances in wireless and mobile technologies, shifting EA to online distribution of products and services, and streamlining EA’s portfolio to drive profitability. He also served as key architect of a recent strategic acquisition designed to drive expansion and growth of digital offerings and make EA products available through mobile, social and cloud-based delivery. Prior to Electronic Arts, Brown was COO and CFO at McAfee, Inc. Before that, Brown was President and CFO of MicroStrategy, Inc, and also co-founded DataSage, Inc., where he also served as CFO. Brown earned his bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

“As Polycom drives toward our vision to make video collaboration ubiquitous, I am very pleased to welcome a leader of Eric’s caliber and proven operational excellence to our executive team,” said Miller. “Eric’s strengths and track record in finance, operations, and IT are exactly what Polycom needs at this time of unprecedented growth at the company. With Eric on board, we can put even more focus on innovation, and I look forward to spending additional time with customers and focusing on our long-term strategy. Eric brings deep knowledge of enterprise software and delivering software through mobile, social, and cloud-based models, all of which are integral to Polycom’s software strategy. Eric will be an asset to our team and will play a leading role in the next era of growth at Polycom.”

“I am delighted to join Polycom at such an exciting time,” said Brown. “Polycom^® RealPresence^™ video collaboration is truly transformative technology, increasing business productivity, ensuring business continuity, and speeding time to market by eliminating the barriers of distance and time, and bringing people together virtually face-to-face. The growth trends in mobility, cloud-delivered services, and business social networking are the driving forces behind a whole new paradigm for communication that is centered on the power of video collaboration. With Polycom’s software strategy, open platform approach, broad ecosystem of partners, and strong brand loyalty among its huge installed base, I believe the company is ideally poised to capitalize on this new model.”

Polycom announced fourth-quarter and full-year 2011 financial results on Jan. 23, 2012. The company confirms its financial results, first-quarter 2012 financial guidance and the long-term operating model given at that time.

Top 4 WAN Obstacles and Solutions to Cloud Migration

The biggest buzzword in the network industry is Cloud: the majority of organizations have a strategy to use cloud-based services and applications, whether it be Public or Private clouds. Organizations have come a long way since ’migrating to the cloud’ discussions began . Take a look at this video recorded just a few years ago when cloud was still an enigma:

But Cloud has never been a new concept: IT professionals have been migrating applications to centralized datacenters for decades now…mainly to share recourses and save money by having less IT personnel supporting branch offices. Unfortunately, application performance as well as reliability and uptime requirements quickly became barriers to this centralization. And while headquarters is where you often have the most skilled IT professionals and reliable facilities, branch offices often have the most customer interaction, requiring the most performance and reliability.

Today, WAN connectivity is much more reliable with higher performance, and bandwidth costs are dropping. This enables companies to have bigger links and backup links (that are more closely to the primary link). Companies can once again start migrating to a centralized datacenter, a private cloud, or public cloud applications.

The customer premises router (CPE router) is located at each branch, but often it is only providing WAN connectivity –and not many necessary services for Cloud migration.

You’ll now have to rely on your WAN connectivity for any day-by-day tasks, and if for some reason you lose it, it becomes instable or slow, your productivity and customer satisfaction will drop. You need the mechanisms to guarantee that WAN connectivity is always up, the correct applications are using your bandwidth, and the applications have good behavior even when used over a WAN, providing predictable performance for any applications, as well as survivability and fault tolerance.

Obstacle 1: Application Visibility and Prioritization

You need to have a better visibility of which applications are using your WAN:, what the needs are for each application, and control mechanisms to prioritize mission critical traffic so that correct application have priority over not unimportant applications. With embedded functionalities like NBAR, NetFlow, and IPSLA, Cisco enables network administrators to get an in-depth view of WAN utilization, and mechanisms like quality of service (QoS) and hierarchical QoS (HQoS) enable administrators to control the environment prioritizing traffic as needed.

Now we are going a step forward, with Application Visibility and Control (AVC) and PA (Performance Agent). AVC supports over 1000 applications using NBAR2, enabling a granular and smarter application control. It also has an advanced graphical reporting interface and management with CiscoPrime Assurance Manager and Cisco Insight.

Cisco Performance Agent (PA) measures application response times at branch edge, extending visibility into remote sites. PA is embedded on the IOS, so there is no need to change the router or add/change any equipment.

Obstacle 2: Application Acceleration

Once you have WAN utilization visibility and apply the correct mechanisms to ensure proper prioritization, you have to focus on how we can deliver applications to branches with the same performance as we have in the datacenter. Applications were written for a LAN environment -- not to a WAN -- and WAN latency increases application response time and degrades user experience. If now we have to access applications on the cloud, we have to create mechanisms that accelerate applications, providing similar performance for branch users.

TCP/IP optimization, compression, and caching has become a must have. Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) is the family of application acceleration from Cisco, from the equipments that is seated on the datacenter, to appliances for branches, or even integrated on the CPE.

Cisco WAAS Express is the solution for application acceleration embedded on IOS and is enabled via licensing, avoiding the need of an extra box on the branches or replacement of the access router.

Obstacle 3: Reliability

Consolidated data center and cloud environments also increase reliability demands and need to adapt to change in the network conditions. Also, the backup WAN link is often underutilized, wasting money and increasing convergence time.

Performance Routing (PfR) is technology used to guarantee the maximum usage of WAN links, performing intelligent load balancing based on applications needs, and providing a much faster convergence time in the case of error or failures.

Using IPSLA, NetFlow or even RTP, Cisco Integrated Services Routers Generation 2 (ISR G2s) keep a table of link conditions, such aasjitter, delay and latency, and perform load balancing based on those conditions and on the application needs. This ensures that all WAN links are being utilized in a manner that applications uses the best link for their needs, while also ensuring a much faster convergence time if one of the links fails.

Obstacle 4: Survivability

If everything goes wrong, you’ll still need to have mechanisms to stay productive. You can extend the datacenter to the branch, extending virtualization to the remote office and guaranteeing survivability for applications. This is not only important for productivity, but is also a requirement to stay in compliance with several policies that still may require local presence.

The solution that Cisco presents for this need is the UCS Express on the ISR G2, the extension of the virtualization to the branch router. UCS Express is based on the SRE (Service Ready Engine) blade and can be used in any router with an SRE slot, which means ISR G2 2911 or bigger. The SRE blade is a full PC that can be inserted o the router; it has its own processor, memory and hard-drive, and is internally connected to the router by two GB interfaces. On this blade, you can run the VMWare’s vSphere Hypervisor, and on top of it you can run any OS (Like Windows, Unix,..) and have your own applications running inside the router. UCS Express enables extension of the datacenter rto the branch router, providing survivability to applications and meeting compliances policies that requires local presence.

In conclusion, migration to Cloud is something that will happen. The good news is that today we have enough WAN bandwidth and reliability that enable this transition, and the Router plays an important role on this. Mechanisms embedded on the router allow us to have visibility and control on what is going on over the WAN, accelerate application ensuring an adequate response time, intelligent load balance mechanism ensuring the best utilization of all WANs links and faster convergence time, and finally extending the virtualization to the branch router guaranteeing survivability and policy compliancy. Cisco ISR is the only router in the market that can provide all of those in one box, ensuring a seamless migration to Cloud. For more information, please visit www.cisco.com/go/isrg2.

By Mauricio Gaudencio