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Best VoIP Solutions For The Remote Office: Page 6 of 11

Cisco's survivability solution takes a middle-of-the-road approach to pricing and functionality. Although it costs about the same as Avaya, Nortel, and Zultys' solutions, Cisco's includes routing and Ethernet switching (worth about $4,200), as well as local voice mail. (Avaya says its product can perform remote routing, but few enterprises rely on the company for routing.) When the main link fails, Cisco's 2811 with Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) code provides the PBX functionality, but only to a limited number of phones and without any of the policy and calling intelligence of the core site. Nothing, for example, would prevent users from dialing a 1-900 number when in survivable mode.

IT architects have long been reluctant to load remote site routers with new applications because of the impact they may have on routing performance. As part of Cisco's new line of routers announced last fall, the 2811 can be equipped with enough additional Digital Signal Processing (DIP) resources to run the codes needed to convert between VoIP and analog data. With Cisco's SRST technology activated in the router, the 2811 can act as a backup telephony server for the Cisco Call Manager (CCM) servers located in the main office.

With a single device containing the core remote office connectivity, IT can cut shipping costs and installation time, as well as simplify ongoing management. At the same time, however, there are administrative issues to consider. For one thing, there's "one neck to choke" if something goes wrong, notes a major Cisco customer. For another, there's now a shared device between the voice and data infrastructure. If you've outsourced your remote voice and data maintenance to different providers, that common element will pose a problem. Finding an organization with credible experience managing both voice and data is possible, but not easy.

The next step down in pricing and functionality for remote site survivability falls to Alcatel. The Alcatel IP Remote Unit X-IP now includes an additional processor. The gateway at the main office calls all the branch sites and re-establishes the signaling connection, providing full telephony functionality. The problem is that an analog trunk is consumed in the process, which in our case would leave the remote office with a single trunk for calling. Alcatel is developing a gateway with a backup processor due to be released in 2005.

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