Technical Posts Archives | Page 7 of 23

2 May 20193 May 2019

Start Simple, Add Later

In one of the previous blog articles (Introducing Lean Communications), I explained how lean communication can improve the way organizations work. This approach must also be applied to the deployment phase by making it as incremental and simple as possible.

The adoption of a new UC system must be supported and required by one or more key users, usually managers of departments inside a company. These key users must support the adoption by understanding the advantages.

The role of key users is very important, and they must be involved in all steps of the platform introduction. Key users, before and after the deployment, must collect important feedback from other users and create requirements for the UC solution.

Continue reading “Start Simple, Add Later”

25 April 201919 March 2019

How To Manage Accounts Creation

When installing a new system, it is hard to escape the paradigm of creating yet another user database and new passwords for each one of these users.

How does this happen? The engineer who configures the system usually starts by adding a few accounts manually to perform the first test calls and then more and more, until all users are created. This approach has clear drawbacks, since it is:

Error-prone: it is easy to make mistakes
Time-consuming
Not secure: users are not removed, even when they leave the organization.

The best way to manage accounts creation is to let somebody or something else do it for us. The ideas described below also apply to customer contact creation in the UC server.

Continue reading “How To Manage Accounts Creation”

18 April 201919 April 2019

Reviewing Service Continuity Scenarios

Depending on how critical the UC service is for the organization, it might be necessary to put service continuity scenarios in place, including:

Failover: a secondary server is used in case the primary server fails.
Load Sharing: both systems work at the same time, but if one goes down, the other can manage the whole load.

Let’s start analyzing the simplest scenario: one UC Server and X users / devices connected to it. Failover is perfectly fine in this first scenario.

Continue reading “Reviewing Service Continuity Scenarios”

11 April 201912 April 2019

Selecting PoE Switches

In the previous article we discussed why network reliability is crucial for UC solutions. This time I will explain why PoE switches are important to grant power continuity of the phone service to match those of traditional PSTN systems.

When switching from a legacy phone system to a modern UC server, many things are taken for granted by the buyer. For example, that the system will also work in case of emergency situations, like a power outage.

Home analog phones connected directly to a local exchange usually work in the case of power outages, as the local exchange uses a UPS system. Legacy PBXs worked in a similar way, either embedding a battery or relying on a separate UPS system.

Continue reading “Selecting PoE Switches”

4 April 20194 April 2019

What is Network Reliability in UC Platform

Besides the platform, a key component to success is the quality of the network on which the platform will function.

In this blog article we will analyze which network devices must be chosen carefully, and which technologies we need to be familiar with to successfully deploy our UC solution.

Firewall / Routers

As seen in Reviewing Security Concerns of UC solutions, we should consider firewalls and routers only as support for enforcing security. The UC server and the connected devices must be secure, even in the absence of dedicated devices such as firewall / SBCs with packet inspection capabilities. This is achievable only by applying the best practises and security policies inside the UC solution.

Continue reading “What is Network Reliability in UC Platform”