16 January 2008

Many enterprises shy away from all-IP unified communications (UC),
fearful that communications blackouts and brownouts could sink their
businesses. But UC doesn't have to be a gamble.

"The wonderful part of this new technology is that converged
applications can provide huge benefits," said Warren Williams, vice
president of technology consultancy InfoTech. "But the downside is that
voice has always been a mission-critical application, and when we lose
voice, it's like our doors are closed."

Williams said total failure is possible, but improbable, with
comprehensive preparation. More vexing, he said, were "little gremlin
types of problems" like misconfigured hardware or poorly managed
capacity. These problems often allow diminished or limited operation,
but they are harder to track down and fix than a crashed server or
severed T3 connection.