* Methods for extending VoIP to the branch office
Ask 10 network managers how to best extend VoIP to the branch office, and you’ll get 10 different answers – or at least five.
In recent discussions with 90 IT executives, we explored how they were bringing VoIP to their branch offices. Not surprisingly, the answer depended not only on vendor selection, but also architecture and business goals. The selections generally center around five methods: distributed, regional clusters, centralized, service providers, and peer-to-peer.
The largest percentage of organizations, 40%, uses a distributed approach, whereby they install an IP PBX at every location. This is most common among small and midsize organizations, and the vendor most commonly associated with this design in ShoreTel (although Cisco and Nortel customers also used this design).
What’s the advantage of installing an IP PBX at every location? If a primary business goal is business continuity, a web of interconnected PBXs provide backup to one another in the event of an outage.
Architected properly, each location also can serve as a disaster-recovery facility, allowing employees to plug in IP phones that register based on a redundant directory in each PBX. Essentially, each site can operate independently while also continually updating directory and call feature information from the other PBXs in the network.
On the downside, however, the more devices at each branch office, the more time-consuming remote management can be. True, remote monitoring and management tools can ease the management burden, but often, a personal visit from an IT staff member is the only way to resolve a problem.
We recommend a distributed approach for organizations with business-continuity concerns. Although we most commonly see this design with small and midsize organizations, there is no reason a large, highly distributed company can’t take advantage of the benefits, as well.
Next week, we’ll review the benefits of a regional clustered approach to branch office VoIP.
