GARY AUDIN
President, Delphi, Inc.
For 30+ years, Gary has been an independent communications and security consultant. Beginning his career in the USAF as an R&D officer in military intelligence and data communications, Gary was decorated for his accomplishments in these areas. He has analyzed the US Navy's future for IP transmission via satellite and prepared a VoIP feasibility for a major multinational firm. He has participated in VoIP procurement, RFP preparation and review for converged systems and networks for enterprises and state governments.
Mr. Audin has been published extensively in the Business Communications Review, ACUTA Journal, Computer Weekly, Telecom Reseller, Data Communications Magazine, Infosystems, Computerworld, Computer Business News, Auerbach Publications and other magazines. He has been Keynote speaker at many user conferences and delivered many webcasts on VoIP and IP communications technologies from 2004 through 2009. He is a founder of the ANSI X.9 committee, a senior member of the IEEE, and is on the steering committee for the VoiceCon conference. Most of his articles can be found on www.webtorials.com and www.acuta.org. In addition to www.nojitter.com, he publishes technical tips at www.Searchvoip.com.
Blog Entries by Gary Audin
The real question is will the FCC succeed in its effort regulate broadband services similar to the telephone network?
Will my DSL service eventually deteriorate though lack of support? Will Verizon raise my DSL fees ? Will I be forced to migrate to a more expensive service?
The word "relationship" is the key. I am willing to work with someone who is also willing to work with me.
"Wireless as a carrier of last resort? That's like buying Tequila shots for the designated driver!!!"
Outsourcing/managed services are seen as one major threat; the economic downturn is the other. Telecom expense management vendors and folding telecom under IT are seen as somewhat positive.
What if the network group ordered and possibly installed WAN services that are no longer needed? This is a real possibility in today's economy.
TCO has three parts: acquisition, operating expenses, and long term expenses.
The relatively simple pricing models used by ISPs today will become more complex.
Your energy saving plan for 2010 should speak dollars, not BTUs or kWhs. That is the way to gain attention and put the plan into a business perspective.
What it all adds up to is metering by service providers that could end up costing users more.
...And who's really the biggest?
Use of personal-liability plans is actually increasing, and with it, the cost and management headaches for the enterprise.
I want the enterprise to look at the ramifications that will ensue if cloud services are to be part of the their operations.
There is no limit to the number of issues that will continue to emerge. The consumers have their goals and so do businesses. At odds with some of the goals are the service providers.
Aura allows the enterprise to consider a wider range of possibilities than were available before the Aura approach was available.
What I learned from Sorell's SIP trunking workshop at VoiceCon.
Some application examples of ICT that would produce the benefits...
Given the challenging economic times, an attractive alternate source of funds besides revenue (taxes, fees, donations…) is from grants.
I want the attendees to know the risks, liabilities, costs, and staffing obstacles that they will encounter.
If you have not tried out your own HD voice within your IP PBX island, do so. Listen to the difference.
A major challenge to the FCC and the users of the Internet is the service providers' insistence that they alone are the arbiters of how and when traffic is carried over their networks.
I want full disclosure of what I receive for my subscription dollars, not adverting hype.
Want a softphone without a PC? Try the thin client approach using a virtual PC. But be careful which thin client device you choose.
The stimulus can help the smaller carriers compete and possibly move into the large carriers markets while still serving the rural and urban poor markets.
Get ready for the next generation of cabling standards.
Going green will save money and can make the annual report look good to the shareholders/owners and their local community.
How do you know your copper cables are certified? Do they perform to standard? When there is a problem, what are the causes? Will the cable really support that specified speed? Will it carry the PoE?
There are major power consumption differences for IP Telephony call managers.
Working on a SIP interoperability project taught me that there is SIP, then SIP, then SIP.
The analog line in the enterprise, government or educational institution is more common then even the average telecom person realizes.
If the IT department includes the closets in their strategies for energy conservation, there will be commensurate savings.
I found 809 items under the category "Telephone Systems." It was an education to see what is on the site.
The cost of power as an expense is now closing in on the cost of the ICT staff. You can always fire, retire or furlough staff, but not power.
With UCaaS, the enterprise could avoid large startup costs.
The vendors have implemented very little or no technology workaround to compensate for poor WAN call connections.
I want the customer to give attention to security and compliance and not be sold only on the attractive financial hype that is now emerging.
"When the conditions are right, there can be big payoffs for doing less work."
Avaya has about 9,000 services experts worldwide, supported by 24 network operations centers, with 13 technical support centers.
RFC 4474 implements Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). This provides an authenticated identity for the originator of a VoIP call.
Those implementing UC must consider the server and storage power consumption when selecting the IPT/UC solution.
If the softphone is the communications tool that most meets the enterprise's needs, then reducing the cost of energy is paramount.
If you want the softphone to be always-on, as is true of hard phones, then your electrical energy bill will suffer.
Trials of tiered or measured charge structures have already occurred, much to the anger of the customers.
Services as well as software charges can make year one of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) prohibitive.
There are 7 phases in the procurement cycle followed by 4 phases for implementation.
What communications equipment should you buy, and what should you lease?
"True to form, as telephony has always tracked GDP, the market slipped 8%, which is about what most major developed economies did over the same period."
UCC success has more to do with the enterprise's staff and planning than the products.
Two of the areas on which I will focus have to do with network assessment and management tools.
ICT purchases will increase as a result.
IP video has arrived and will eventually be part of most organizations' IT services.
I do not know if this helps create a national E911 standard. We need one.
Comcast may be considered a phone company with all the limitations that imposes. Comcast may be in a lose-lose situation.
Service level reporting will assist in maintaining acceptable service delivery, and the reports can also save communications dollars.
Looking at the past focus and Genachowski's interests, the FCC will head in new directions.
I polled a lot of people and asked, "Is telecom as much fun? Why or why not?"
Indirectly, this standard and its support in IPT systems may go a long way to providing more uniform national 911/E911 support.
Enterprises are still struggling with their Information and Communications Technology (ICT) organizational structure. No mater the size of the enterprise, they are not immune to the challenges going forward.
If you are new to VoIP and IP telephony or are not sure that the vendor presentations covered everything you needed to know, this is the tutorial for you. It not only covers the basics, concepts and terminology, a number of best practices to be followed for successful implementation will be covered.
Selling the carbon footprint doesn’t go far with the CFO. On the other hand, actual energy cost reduction, more than 25%, will certainly get the CFO’s attention. Software management of power, selecting the right VoIP/IPT solution and adopting new power saving standards will all contribute to lowering the power bill.
The Telco landline is slowly retiring. A Jupiter research report surveying landline decline for 2006 and 2007 has landlines declining at 1% to 1.7% each quarter. Is this a good thing?...
In reading Eric’s post Is UC Inevitable?, I considered some of my clients and what their responses to a survey would be if asked. I am questioning the answers....
I was searching for more information on IT Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC). This was stimulated by my inquiries about e-discovery and some work I am doing for an RFP....
Who owns the content when you use a Web browser? You think you do, not the browser developer. This would not be the case if the Google Chrome End-User License Agreement (EULA) was still in force. Imagine the complications, security...
I believe that not soon, but eventually, the IP PBX will become the dominant PBX architecture--sometime after 2010. I am sure there is no single compelling factor that will make my opinion come true. There are many factors that all...
Skype is a free Internet based telephone service that many enterprise employees access and use. Some enterprises use Skype for internal use. One French and U.S.-based company used Skype for their development team’s collaboration. So should an enterprise allow Skype...
Suppose we depend on web sites like Google, Yahoo and others for supporting the enterprise business instead of or in addition to the private enterprise sites? How far would you go in this direction? There are issues of privacy, security...
This entry was written by Mark J. Fletcher, Product Manager, E911 Emergency Services for Nortel, and was edited by Gary Audin. What if 9-1-1 does not work? What if the location is incorrect? Suppose you implement 9-1-1 and E911 in...
Response Point, Microsoft’s other approach to VoIP, has its first Service Pack (SP1) available. SP1 was announced at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2008 in Houston TX. I first discussed Response Point in my blog, “Microsoft’s Response Point, Good for...
E-Discovery has been growing concern for the IT organization. E-discovery is now a concern for the communications manager as well. In my previous blog, “VoIP, E-Discovery and the Law”, I discussed what e-discovery is for voice communications, and the ramifications...
When it comes to e-discovery in the enterprise, are you implementing risk management or risky management? Since December 2006, the e-discovery laws mean enterprises can no longer claim that having to find old documents and e-mail is an unreasonable burden....
I always wanted to create a headline without words. This is my chance. You have heard of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), but Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) may be new to you. MPLS has been available for a few years....
The cost for VoIP/IP Telephony service calls is 150% more than every other category of IT technology--higher than cabling, software, servers, PCs, you name it. This translates into $449 for the average service professional work order as compared to the...
My previous blog, “Is Your Network Counterfeit – Part 1?” discussed the discovery by the FBI of considerable counterfeit network equipment. The security of the counterfeit equipment does not seem to be an issue, YET. I worked in military intelligence...
The N.Y. Times headline on May 9, 2008 read, “F.B.I. Says the Military Had Bogus Computer Gear”. This headline did not make me feel comfortable. The idea that the equipment, mainly Cisco knockoffs, have been employed in government networks should...
Cable ISPs, although they appear to deny these allegations, were found to be blocking peer-to-peer trafic like BitTorrent. The Max Planck Institute for Software Systems report, “Glasnost: Results from tests for BitTorrent traffic blocking” differs from the cable company’s press...
When a new technology or application of a technology surfaces, there are usually many books published about the technology and how it works. Less frequently, there a books that do not tell you how to build the technology, but inform...
The WAN optimizer is hardware designed to reduce bandwidth consumption. WAN optimizers are designed for TCP traffic, which dominates the IP network. TCP traffic has a lot of redundancy and can be compressed; it does not have the network performance...
Response Point is Microsoft’s software based IP PBX. Its initial offering is for the S in SMB. It does not fit the medium and large enterprise location, but could satisfy the requirement of the small office of 5 to 50...
Regarding Eric's post, "Will UC Cut Costs?" and the customer disconnect: Should we should not be surprised? Gartner only lends credibility to what many of us have known since the term UC was created....
The U.S. is the biggest source of security threats in the world. So says the Sophos “Security Threat Report Q1 08”....
While some ISPs want to control and limit the customer’s traffic, other ISPs keep adding faster access speeds. Qwest just announced two new higher speed services, Qwest Connect Quantum and Titanium. Is Platinum is not a good enough name now?...
There continues to be a lot of discussion of the technology of VoIP and IP Telephony (IPT). There is nothing wrong about technology, but buying or leasing an IP PBX is as much a business decision as a technology decision....
Some ISPs are very much against regulation. So are some politicians. It appears that the ISPs say there is no problem. My thought is that regulation seems to come after the abuse is obvious. Should we wait for the abuse?...
The "Global Information Technology Report 2007-2008” has just been published by The World Economic Forum (WEF). The U.S. ranks 4th, in a tie with Singapore, behind Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland in the report’s [Internet] Networked Readiness Index (NRI). That is...
I was the moderator and presenter with Jim Davies, CTO of Mitel on March 11, 2008 of an on-demand webinar and podcast: “Discover the Green of Technology”. We both covered a number of useful tips on energy savings from the...
Last year in March 2007 I posted a blog, “Another Hit to the Cabling Budget; Electrician Shortage = Higher cabling Costs” at . In that blog I wrote “By 2014, the U.S. requirement for electrical workers will increase to more...
There are utility incentives and rebates that will help reduce energy costs. These will vary by utility and location. New incentives are constantly being added to these programs. Some utilities are even saying they want enterprises to buy less power...
Who pays for IT and communications power? How much power is used? Can anyone do something about conserving IT and communications Power? I recently asked these questions of my audience at the Voicecon conference in Orlando in March 20, 2008....
Customer service or the lack thereof is always an issue with hardware, software and communications companies. Louis D’Ambrosio, the President and CEO of Avaya, presented the first keynote at Voiceon in March at Orlando. I enjoyed the speech and his...
It can be done--that is, saving 25% on your VoIP energy bill from desktop to data center. That is the conclusion of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)....
First it was the address, then within 40,000 square feet, then 25,000 square feet and now 7,000 square feet for E911 location information. Slowly, some states are filling the hole left by the FCC, but not consistently. They are passing...
How do enterprises think about reducing energy costs? Is energy consumption part of the new equipment RFP process? How much has the greening movement entered into the IT and communications decisions of the enterprise? Certainly, the green movement has had...
“From YouTube, IPTV, and high-definition images, to “cloud computing” and ubiquitous mobile cameras—to 3D games, virtual worlds, and photorealistic telepresence—the new wave is swelling into an exaflood of Internet and IP traffic.... We estimate that by 2015, U.S. IP traffic...
Anyone can call themselves a consultant. Finding the right consultant for telecommunications can be difficult. Definitely not all consultants are equal. Even issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for consulting services may not find the best consultant for the task....
Well, it is finally happening. Time Warner Cable (TWC) is experimenting with an Internet charge structure that prices Internet usage by the gigabyte. The Washington Post reported in “Pay Per Gig” by Steven Levy, on January 30, about the TWC...
You rarely hear of academic education for VoIP and IP Telephony. Here is one source if you are in the Chicago area: the VoIP laboratory that is part of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Center for Professional development. The...
Voice quality over IP networks is never constantly acceptable. As the network and traffic change, so do the conditions that VoIP calls will encounter on the IP network. There will not only be good and bad days, there will be...
The IT skills needed for VoIP and IP Telephony crossed many boundaries. The skills needed for UC cross even more boundaries. When implementing Unified Communications (UC), IT must modify its structure. IT should not patch together pieces of their present...
It’s finally happening. The FCC is looking into restrictive practices by ISPs. The Associated Press reports in a New York Times article dated January 9, 2008, that the FCC will investigate customer complaints that Comcast interferes with the Internet traffic...
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