Business Continuity

SIP Trunking vs. PRIs

SIP trunking (Session Initiation Protocol) and PRIs (Primary Rate Interfaces) are both methods used to connect a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). This connection, or interface, is necessary to allow a VoIP phone system to work just the same as an ordinary PSTN phone system, and be able to make calls to any phone—regardless of whether the call recipient is on the VoIP network.

Regardless of which method you use, the end result is transparency. You can enjoy the cost advantages and the advanced feature sets of VoIP, but you are still able to just pick up the phone and make a call to anyone, without having to think about whether the party you are calling is on your network.

SIP means cost savings

For users who have chosen to take advantage of a hosted PBX system however, this will not be an issue, since the SIP trunking or PRI is going to be on the hosting party's side, instead of on-premises. The third party provider will take care of it behind the scenes. But, for those who run their own IP PBX on premises, there must be a provision made to make this interface happen. Fortunately, options like SIP trunking and PRI make the process fairly transparent and easy to implement. Both options work in much the same manner, placing an interface between the IP PBX and the firewall. An IP PBX is usually recommended, although if you have an older analog PBX you can still leverage that original investment by attaching an Integrated Access Device (IAD) to it. This allows your older PBX to function as a type of hybrid PBX that allows for VoIP calls. However, not all PBXes will work with SIP trunking, so make sure you have the right equipment before embarking on this path.

There are differences between SIP trunking and PRI however, the greatest one being cost. SIP trunking is less expensive for two reasons; first, provisioning can be done remotely without an on-premises call by the provider. Second, additional channels can be purchased incrementally, one at a time. PRIs come in groups of 23 channels. This allows you to purchase only as many channels as you really need, on an as-needed basis.

There is no differentiation in call quality between SIP trunking and PRIs as well, which makes the SIP trunk option the preferred configuration in most cases. SIP trunking is usually recommended for businesses that have high-quality, high-speed connections and a Quality of Service guarantee from their providers.

Light Bound can be your Virtual Service Provider. We help you answer that email and return the telephone call without worry.

LightBound is your Fonality Authorized Reseller for trixBox Pro Editions for VoIP PBXsolutions both hosted and premise based IP Based Telephony.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical SIP Trunking vs. PRIs

SIP trunking (Session Initiation Protocol) and PRIs (Primary Rate Interfaces) are both methods used to connect a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). This connection, or interface, is necessary to allow a VoIP phone system to work just the same as an ordinary PSTN phone system, and be able to make calls to any phone—regardless of whether the call recipient is on the VoIP network.

Regardless of which method you use, the end result is transparency. You can enjoy the cost advantages and the advanced feature sets of VoIP, but you are still able to just pick up the phone and make a call to anyone, without having to think about whether the party you are calling is on your network.

SIP means cost savings

For users who have chosen to take advantage of a hosted PBX system however, this will not be an issue, since the SIP trunking or PRI is going to be on the hosting party's side, instead of on-premises. The third party provider will take care of it behind the scenes. But, for those who run their own IP PBX on premises, there must be a provision made to make this interface happen. Fortunately, options like SIP trunking and PRI make the process fairly transparent and easy to implement. Both options work in much the same manner, placing an interface between the IP PBX and the firewall. An IP PBX is usually recommended, although if you have an older analog PBX you can still leverage that original investment by attaching an Integrated Access Device (IAD) to it. This allows your older PBX to function as a type of hybrid PBX that allows for VoIP calls. However, not all PBXes will work with SIP trunking, so make sure you have the right equipment before embarking on this path.

There are differences between SIP trunking and PRI however, the greatest one being cost. SIP trunking is less expensive for two reasons; first, provisioning can be done remotely without an on-premises call by the provider. Second, additional channels can be purchased incrementally, one at a time. PRIs come in groups of 23 channels. This allows you to purchase only as many channels as you really need, on an as-needed basis.

There is no differentiation in call quality between SIP trunking and PRIs as well, which makes the SIP trunk option the preferred configuration in most cases. SIP trunking is usually recommended for businesses that have high-quality, high-speed connections and a Quality of Service guarantee from their providers.

Light Bound can be your Virtual Service Provider. We help you answer that email and return the telephone call without worry.

LightBound is your Fonality Authorized Reseller for trixBox Pro Editions for VoIP PBXsolutions both hosted and premise based IP Based Telephony.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise. 

For enterprises wanting to make full use of their installed IP-PBXs and not only communicate over IP within the enterprise, but also outside the enterprise a SIP trunk provided by an Internet Telephony Service Provider to connect to the traditional PSTN network is the solution. Unlike in traditional telephony, where bundles of physical wires were once delivered from the service provider to a business, a SIP trunk allows a company to replace these traditional fixed PSTN lines with PSTN connectivity via a SIP trunking service provider on the Internet.

SIP trunks can offer significant cost-savings for enterprises, eliminating the need for local PSTN gateways, costly ISDN BRIs (Basic Rate Interfaces) or PRIs (Primary Rate Interfaces).

There are three components necessary to successfully deploy SIP trunks: a PBX with a SIP-enabled trunk side, an enterprise edge device understanding SIP and an Internet telephony or SIP trunking service provider.

The PBX
In most cases the PBX is an IP-based PBX, communicating with all endpoints over IP, but it may just as well be a traditional digital or analog PBX. The sole requirement is that an interface for SIP trunking connectivity is available.

The enterprise border element
The PBX on the LAN connects to the ITSP via the enterprise border element.The enterprise edge component can either be a firewall with complete support for SIP or an edge device connected to the firewall, handling the traversal of the SIP traffic.

The ITSP
On the Internet, the ITSP (Internet Telephone Service Provider) provides connectivity to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) for communication with mobile and fixed phones. 

Light Bound can be your Virtual Service Provider. We help you answer that email and return the telephone call without worry.

LightBound is your Fonality Authorized Reseller for trixBox Pro Editions for VoIP PBXsolutions both hosted and premise based IP Based Telephony.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise.

The SMB market is perhaps the most exciting and opportunistic in virtualization today, as the sector constantly looks for cost-saving solutions and VMware continues to provide virtualization packages that are affordable and robust. More and more SMBs are looking to the scalability and affordability of cloud, but may not realize that virtualization provides them with the best path to the cloud along with added benefits like consolidation, management, and automation of routine, time consuming tasks. We are also seeing that after the recession, more SMBs are considering the lifecycle savings of virtualization and see adoption and implementation of virtualization as a strategic business objective.

Light Bound can be your Virtual Service Provider. We help you answer that email and return the telephone call without worry.

LightBound is your Fonality Authorized Reseller for trixBox Pro Editions for VoIP PBXsolutions both hosted and premise based IP Based Telephony.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise. 

To build on VMware’s SMB offerings, we are excited to announce today a new promotion for SMBs looking for the most cost-effective and comprehensive virtualization solution on the market – the new vSphere Essentials Plus with vMotion.  For SMBs with less than 20 servers, vSphere Essentials Plus provides a proven, reliable, industry leading virtualization solution. With vMotion, SMBs can now migrate VMs between physical servers with no impact to end-users – ensuring that applications have higher availability and the testing and deployment of apps is safe and seamless.

For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) looking to not just survive but thrive during the downturn, an IP phone system may be just the answer. It will give them communication capabilities previously available to only the largest companies. It will let them work in ways that they would have found impossible before. It will help them accomplish more with fewer resources. And it can save them considerable money.

But even if a company is more than ready to move to IP, choosing the best system for its individual circumstances isn’t easy. There are several contrasting approaches to IP telephony, each with its own benefits. The biggest differences among them are who owns, operates and maintains the equipment, and where it is physically located. These differences produce major variations in cost, convenience and ease of management.

This report analyzes the three leading options, which go by the names of premise, hosted and hybrid-hosted. It describes each approach, explaining how they work and the equipment and support they require. It also lists the advantages and disadvantages of each.

PREMISE

The traditional approach is for the SMB to buy and operate the equipment. It either installs the IP PBX itself, or has a dealer or VAR (value added reseller) do it. The equipment sits in the company’s own premises, connects to its LAN, and distributes calls to IP phones also connected to the LAN. The company owns the equipment and software, and administers and maintains them. Calls can come to the IP PBX from the communication service provider over traditional PSTN lines or over the company’s broadband Internet connection.

The premise approach has several advantages. Although the upfront cost is higher than with hosted service, at the end of the day the company owns the system, rather than having to make payments forever. And with ownership comes increased control – companies can customize or extend the capabilities of their systems more than they could with hosted service. Another advantage is that it’s not necessary to rely solely on the Internet to deliver calls. A premise based IP PBX gives you fallback capabilities should your Internet service be interrupted. Security is also higher because all messages and call data remain on the company’s premises.

But when compared to hosted solutions, there can be a significant disadvantage depending on the needs and resources of your organization. The biggest is monitoring and maintenance. Someone has to be available virtually all the time to make sure the system is running right. Someone also has to maintain and upgrade the software on a regular basis. Premise systems typically require maintenance contracts that add significantly to the total cost of ownership. Accessing the system for administrative tasks such as moves, adds and changes also requires either having someone on site to do it, or establishing a special connection setup to allow remote access. The latter typically involves opening a special port through the corporate firewall, which can not only be a tricky process but may be against company security policies. Configuring remote users can also be complicated and thus expensive.

PROS

▪ Own the system with available financing options

▪ Can customize to suit needs

▪ Doesn’t rely on Internet for quality, reliability

▪ Messages, prompts, records remain on company’s own premises

CONS

▪ Significant costs for hardware and software maintenance contracts

▪ Requires on-site staff for monitoring and maintaining

▪ Administration requires on-site staff or special connection setup

▪ Configuring remote users can be tricky

▪ Hardware, software upgrades eventually necessary if user numbers grow

HOSTED

Hosted VoIP, also known as hosted IP PBX service, runs on equipment belonging to and located in the data center of a service provider. Calls travel to and from the SMB’s offices via its broadband Internet connection. Hosted services can provide many of the features and capabilities that traditional phone systems offer. Users can make or transfer calls by dialing each other’s extensions. They can also make conference calls, park and pick up calls, and answer calls forwarded to groups of extensions, known as ring groups. That’s not to mention all the new capabilities that IP makes possible, such as listening to voice mail messages through e-mail or another online interface, or placing calls by simply clicking on names in onscreen address books.

The business is left with no associated asset. Security is another concern, since voice mail messages and call records reside on the service provider’s premises, not the company’s. Call quality and service reliability can also be significant worries, since both are totally dependent on the company’s Internet connection.

PROS

▪ Low upfront costs

▪ Increase capacity exactly as needed

▪ No need for maintenance contracts or staff

CONS

▪ Quality, reliability depend on Internet

▪ Pay full rate for little-used extensions

▪ No end to payments, no eventual ownership of equipment

▪ Messages, prompts and call records reside in service provider’s data center

HYBRID-HOSTED

The hybrid-hosted approach combines the key elements of hosted and premise systems. The customer buys and owns the IP PBX equipment, which resides on its own premises. But the vendor monitors and helps manage the equipment from its data center. This arrangement offers most of the benefits of both hosted and premise solutions, while doing away with most of the disadvantages of both.

As with conventional premise solutions, hybrid-hosted systems let companies pay once to purchase the equipment rather than paying forever for extensions, some of which may see little use. There’s also no dependence on the Internet for the quality and reliability of calls, though Internet transport is an option. And messages and call data remain within the company.

And as with hosted solutions, hybrid-hosted systems significantly decrease the hassles and headaches of premise solutions. Part of it is ease of use. Administrators and managers can access their systems from anywhere via web browsers, rather than having to be on premises or to have configured special routes through their firewalls. Setting up remote users is simple too, and linking branch offices is a one-click process. Users can even configure their own extensions from wherever they are.

Perhaps most important, the hybrid-hosted approach alleviates monitoring and maintenance headaches. From its data center, the vendor proactively watches the customer’s hardware and software, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, for impending failures, and takes action before they happen. It also transparently maintains the software, pushing out automatic updates without the need for someone on the company’s premises to do anything. The vendor can also choose to back up call records and generate reports, taking a significant load off the premise equipment. And it also backs up the customer’s configurations (though not its voice mail messages or prompts due to privacy concerns), allowing for easy recovery in case of disaster.

PROS

▪ Own the system with available financing options

▪ Can customize to suit needs

▪ Doesn’t rely on Internet for quality, reliability

▪ Messages, prompts, records remain on company’s own premises

▪ Vendor monitors for faults 24/7

▪ Vendor backup of customer configurations with easy disaster recovery

▪ Automatic software upgrades

▪ Easy remote administration through web browser

▪ Easy setup of remote users

▪ One-click linking of branch offices

CONS

▪ Upfront costs higher than with hosted solutions

▪ Hardware and software maintenance contracts recommended

▪ Hardware upgrade eventually necessary if user numbers grow

WHICH ONE IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

To summarize the choices, companies using hosted systems have lower upfront costs and zero maintenance worries, but call quality and reliability are totally dependent on Internet connections, and all call data, including messages and prompts, resides with the provider. With the premise approach, companies buy and own the equipment and control the call data, but they also have to spend considerable money and staff time administering, monitoring and maintaining their systems. Users of hybrid-hosted systems own and control the equipment and software, as well as the call data, but can leave much of the monitoring and maintenance up to the vendor, while administration is simplified.

Ultimately, of course, the choices are all about cost. Poor voice quality or unreliable service can lose you significant business. Spending staff time taking care of equipment also means spending money. But the most important cost to keep in mind is the cost of doing nothing. Not moving to IP telephony means giving up the opportunity to make your business work better. It means missing the chance to save money through increased employee efficiency, or to increase revenue through making better use of employees’ time and talent. In short, failing to take advantage of opportunities such as IP telephony can be most expensive option, even – or especially – during a downturn.

Light Bound can be your Virtual Service Provider. We help you answer that email and return the telephone call without worry.

LightBound is your Fonality Authorized Reseller for trixBox Pro Editions for VoIP PBXsolutions both hosted and premise based IP Based Telephony.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise. 

Hybrid IP-PABX Capabilities:

▪ Unlimited extensions and voicemail

▪ Multiple auto-attendants (IVR)

▪ Unlimited call queues (ACD)

▪ Telecommuters – even for call queues

▪ Uploading of professional voice prompts

▪ Scheduling - time and date settings

▪ Music on hold wiht upsell messages

▪ Parking, paging, and call forwarding

▪ Integration with Outlook and CRM software

▪ Customisable caller ID

▪ Click-to-call from your website

▪ Extensive reporting for productivity analysis


Light Bound can be your Virtual Service Provider. We help you answer that email and return the telephone call without worry.

LightBound, your Virtual Service provider, can combine your managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require regardless of their technical expertise.

IVMUG 3rd Annual Demo Days, Tuesday July 27th Save the date...

Date: Tuesday, July 27th
Time: 7am-6pm
Location: Indianapolis Convention Center

VMware Product Update
Keynote Speaker
28 Breakout Sessions
36 Vendors (Exhibit Area)
Hands on Lab

More infomration to come.

LightBound offers virtual storage and hosted virtual servers.
LightBound can combine managed services, voice and data services to provide you with a seamless Cloud Service that is economical and provides the business continuity that all businesses require,  regardless of their technical expertise.