Total Telecom Consulting

Cloud computing is fast evolving from a futuristic technology into a commercially viable alternative for companies in search of a cost-effective storage and server solution. In fact, Gartner Inc. predicts that by 2012, 80 percent of Fortune 1000 enterprises will pay for some cloud-computing service, while 30 percent of them will pay for cloud-computing infrastructure. While the technology has its fair share of drawbacks (such as privacy and security concerns), an undeniable silver lining is currently turning skeptics into enthusiasts. Here are just a handful of cloud computing’s benefits.

1. Scalability: IT departments that anticipate an enormous uptick in user load need not scramble to secure additional hardware and software with cloud computing. Instead, an organization can add and subtract capacity as its network load dictates.

2. Easy Implementation: Without the need to purchase hardware, software lisences or implementation services, a company can get its cloud-computing arrangement off the ground in record time — and for a fraction of the cost of an on-premise solution.

3. Integration: Its much simpler to integrate voice, video and mobility with cloud based solutions. All of these serices can be access from your office, home, virtual workers ETC. The Video and unified messaging is critical as it increases internal communication and makes it more effective. Since you see who you are speaking with even if they are at another location the provides significant improvements in employee moral and effectiveness in competing tasks.

4. Frees Up Internal Resources: By placing storage and server needs in the hands of an outsourcer, a company essentially shifts the burden placed on its in-house IT team to a third-party provider. The result: In-house IT departments can focus on business-critical tasks without having to incur additional costs in manpower and training.

5. Quality of Service: Network outages can send an IT department scrambling for answers. But in the case of cloud computing, it’s up to a company’s selected vendor to offer 24/7 customer support and an immediate response to emergency situations. That’s not to suggest that outages don’t occur. In February 2008, Amazon.com's S3 cloud-computing service experienced a brief outage that affected a number of companies. Fortunately, service was restored within three ho

Internet Connectivity

Every Significant business has a need for business internet solutions.  However, today’s technology has vastly changed the ways in which Data & Internet services can be delivered to businesses.  Making the right choice up front can save your company quite a bit of money when the technology changes. In the past, there were not a lot of options for Data & Internet.  Small businesses basically installed a Point-to-Point circuit to connect offices and/or an Internet T1 for the businesses internet access needs. 

Over the last few years that has all changed.  Businesses now have many different Data & Internet solutions to choose from such as Metro Ethernet, Cable, Fios, 3G, 4G, T1, DS3, Ethernet, Point-to-Point, or MPLS. With all the different offerings most businesses find themselves needing expert advice from data consultants such as the experts at Total Telecom Consulting. Businesses need to make the right informed decisions based on the type of business, the budget, the required reliability, geographic location, etc.

With the rate technology changes and constant evolution of ways to deliver Data & Internet become more complex businesses have realized they either need to employ a full time expert to stay on top of the technology, or make use of industry expert data consultants on an outsourced basis.

Total Telecom Consulting supplies that much-needed expertise for all sizes and types of businesses seeking help with this decision.  Contact us today and an expert will be able to present all your options and help you become a fully-informed buyer.

Data & Internet services today can be broken down into seven major categories:  Wireless Data Cards, DSL/Cable Modems, T1/DS3 Dedicated Internet, Point-to-Point circuits, Ethernet, Fixed Wireless and MPLS.  Often times a combination of the different services is necessary to properly supply a business with its primary and back up Data & Internet services requirements.

MPLS

Multi Protocol Label Switching, is quickly replacing frame relay and ATM as the technology of choice for carrying high-speed data and digital voice on a single connection. MPLS not only provides better reliability and increased performance, but can often decrease overall costs through increased network efficiency. Its ability to assign priority to packets carrying voice traffic makes it the perfect solution for carrying VoIP calls.

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MPLS Basics
MPLS is a form of protocol, rather than a specific type of service. It can be used to deliver any type of circuit that a customer needs, from IP VPNs to optical connectivity.

Packet Labeling
The key to MPLS is its ability to label data packets. In traditional IP networks, packets are routed based solely upon the data's network-layer header. The arrival of each packet forces a router to "decide" where it should go next with no regard for its actual content.

The Need for Speed
MPLS greatly speeds up the routing process by labeling each packet as it arrives on the network. Each network router stores information on how to handle different packet types, as indicated by their header label. This directly translates to higher efficiency by lightening the load on an organization's routers and freeing up needed resources. Speed of packet transmission is increased as the load on network infrastructure is reduced.

Not All MPLS Traffic is Created Equal
The inherent advantages of MPLS are most noticeable in situations where real-time traffic is configured to be given preference over data packets that do not require the same amount of speed or priority. With a traditional IP circuit, all traffic is treated equally. This becomes a critical problem when demand for bandwidth temporarily exceeds the capacity of the circuit. The only form of prioritization on most traditional IP networks is "first come, first served", with no special treatment being given to real-time sensitive traffic like voice and video conferencing.

Priority Treatment

As an example, a large e-mail attachment of personal photos being sent to an employee's personal mail account would normally receive the same network priority as a real-time video or audio conference being held by company executives. The result can be phone calls or video transmissions of inferior quality, as the two sources battle against one another for priority. An MPLS network on the other hand will instantly assign a high priority to real-time voice and video. E-mail traffic and other connections that are not as likely to be affected by latency will be pushed to the back of a router's queue to make way for high-priority traffic. This noticeably improves the performance of real-time applications and has a minimal effect on lower priority traffic such as e-mail, where a delay in milliseconds is almost impossible to detect.