* Questions you should ask VoIP vendors
As part of Network World’s brand new, blown out VoIP Buyer’s Guide, Senior Editor Cara Garretson outlines nine questions you as an IT manager should ask any vendor trying to sell you VoIP security. Garretson’s buying advice addresses both the security parameters that come as part and parcel of the underlying VoIP infrastructure, as well as those pitched as the value proposition for any number of add-on VoIP security products.
The following questions should be posed to VoIP infrastructure vendors:
1.) Does the vendor sell security appliances that sit in front of the IP PBX to protect voice traffic?
2.) Is the security appliance default-configured to work with VoIP traffic?
3.) Do these products also offer features such as encryption and authentication of VoIP traffic?
4.) Do the VoIP applications that run on these VoIP platforms offer adequate security, such as multilevel administration features so that access to all management features aren’t granted to administrators when they’re not necessary?
5.) Do the security features support both the IETF’s Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), as well as the proprietary protocol used by the vendor’s IP PBX?
In order to ensure an organization is getting the most protection possible from its third-party VoIP security products, the following questions should be asked of any potential vendor:
1.) Which types of threats does your product protect against?
2.) What voice protocols does your product work support?
3.) What kinds of advanced security features are offered?
4.) How difficult is it to implement the advanced security features?
You can read Garretson’s article in full here.
