Strategies for Migrating Corporate Voice
Traffic to the Data Network
Quintum Technologies
Introduction
With the rapid changes taking place in communications today, business decision-makers
face both compelling opportunities and potentially costly pitfalls. The issue of
"convergence" - whereby voice, fax, data and multimedia
traffic are transmitted over a single multi-purpose network - is a particularly
sensitive one. The business and technological advantages of combining a company's
various types of communications over a common infrastructure are appealing. These
advantages include: 1) lower recurring transmission charges, 2) reduced long-term
network ownership costs, and 3) the
ability to deploy powerful voice-enabled applications for collaboration, customer
service and supply-chain integration.
On the downside, technology professionals are concerned with the
quality of voice calls on the data network,
the stability of voice-over-IP (VoIP) solutions, and the consequences of being prematurely
"locked in" to a given vendor's architecture. A lack of expertise and experience
with VoIP technology is also preventing many organizations from taking even the
most tentative first steps into the world of converged networking.