IT managed services are services provided to a company on a contract basis. Depending on the contract with the provider who is sometimes known as an MSP or managed services provider, the provider might provide services as needed, or they might provide services as maintenance to proactively prevent problems.
IT managed services are usually billed on a fixed fee schedule for a particular set of services, which makes this service easy to budget and more affordable for small- and medium-sized businesses. It’s more affordable to purchase IT managed services today than ever before because of the reduced cost necessary when the services are provided over the Internet. Unlike when you need to call an appliance repairman to come to your home and you’re billed for traveling time and every minute the person is on your property in addition to the cost of the repairs, IT managed services can often be provided remotely, cutting costs substantially.
Some of the more common IT managed services that are provided are things like security monitoring, data back ups, general technical assistance and things like managing the company’s network.
Some IT managed services are considered part of the core services and are included for a set monthly fee, like infrastructure monitoring and security monitoring. If problems arise and the IT provider needs to do things beyond those items considered part of their core plan, the cost would be added on. Still, for companies that can’t afford their own IT department, these managed services are a cost-effective way to make sure their networks remain problem-free.
IT managed services originally began much like the idea of appliance repair. When something went wrong, an MSP was called to come and fix the situation. This could prove costly for a company, when a regular charge for monitoring could have caught the problem early and seen it fixed quickly before much damage was done. So IT managed services have become proactive in preventing “breaks” that need fixes. This still occurs, but if an MSP is already in place monitoring, the added cost of fixing problems is still less than it would have been had no monitoring occurred.
Depending on the company and its requirements, IT managed services may still be performed on site. If this could be common, then the estimated cost for this could be part of the monthly IT managed services fee.
A large benefit of IT managed services is that it’s much like outsourcing your IT needs to one provider, rather than needing IT work done from this software company or needing IT work done on a piece of hardware from another company. All your IT needs are handled from one provider, and your network is monitored continually to minimize problems.
Friday, March 13, 2009
What is SIP Trunking
Businesses can reduce long-distance charges and connectivity charges related to the need for separate lines and connections for voice and data communication through SIP trunking. SIP trunking stands for Session Initiation Protocol trunking. With this, people in the business can communicate outside the business through IP. Traditional phone lines can even be replaced with an IP phone system connected with SIP trunking, which creates basically one pipeline within the organization to carry voice, data and even video.
Regular SIP trunking merges data and voice communication into one line. It basically acts as a merger for a traditional phone system and the Internet, allowing voice communication to travel over the data network. With SIP trunking, no functionality is lost, as people within the business can still call locally and long distance, emergency and 911 calls can still be made, and caller ID should still work normally. But because some of the voice communication travels over the Internet instead of on actual phone lines, the phone carrier can’t charge for the time the communication spends on the Internet, so the cost is less.
Setting up SIP trunking can cost a bit in the beginning, though. Three things are necessary to make it work: The business must have a PBX, preferably an IP PBX; it must have an ITSP, an Internet telephony service provider; and it must have a border element, which is usually handled by the service provider.
A PBX is a Private Branch Exchange. This is the telephone switching system within an organization that allows calls to be switched between users. An IP PBX serves the same purpose, but it switches calls between users on VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, which is essential just voice communication traveling via the Internet rather than traditional phone lines.
When a business uses an IP PBX, instead of each user requiring separate lines for Internet access, telephone and VoIP communications, each user requires only one line as all these protocols share it, which makes SIP trunking efficient.
The second requirement, an ITSP or Internet telephony service providers makes sure that the IP network is connected to the traditional telephone network. The third thing, the border element is what allows the connection between the network, the phone system and the ability to use VoIP beyond the organization’s network. A firewall that allows SIP trunking, for instance, could be a border element. The ITSP should provide this element.
While an IP PBX can be an investment, as can things like IP phones and other necessary equipment for SIP trunking, it eliminates the need for special desktop equipment for each user and the need for things to switch between VoIP and the regular phone lines. SIP trunking handles these switches automatically. Telephone and long distance charges can be dramatically reduced, and because there’s technically only one connection for both voice and data instead of two, that cost can be reduced as well. SIP trunking should show any organization enough savings to pay for itself within a short period of time.
Regular SIP trunking merges data and voice communication into one line. It basically acts as a merger for a traditional phone system and the Internet, allowing voice communication to travel over the data network. With SIP trunking, no functionality is lost, as people within the business can still call locally and long distance, emergency and 911 calls can still be made, and caller ID should still work normally. But because some of the voice communication travels over the Internet instead of on actual phone lines, the phone carrier can’t charge for the time the communication spends on the Internet, so the cost is less.
Setting up SIP trunking can cost a bit in the beginning, though. Three things are necessary to make it work: The business must have a PBX, preferably an IP PBX; it must have an ITSP, an Internet telephony service provider; and it must have a border element, which is usually handled by the service provider.
A PBX is a Private Branch Exchange. This is the telephone switching system within an organization that allows calls to be switched between users. An IP PBX serves the same purpose, but it switches calls between users on VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, which is essential just voice communication traveling via the Internet rather than traditional phone lines.
When a business uses an IP PBX, instead of each user requiring separate lines for Internet access, telephone and VoIP communications, each user requires only one line as all these protocols share it, which makes SIP trunking efficient.
The second requirement, an ITSP or Internet telephony service providers makes sure that the IP network is connected to the traditional telephone network. The third thing, the border element is what allows the connection between the network, the phone system and the ability to use VoIP beyond the organization’s network. A firewall that allows SIP trunking, for instance, could be a border element. The ITSP should provide this element.
While an IP PBX can be an investment, as can things like IP phones and other necessary equipment for SIP trunking, it eliminates the need for special desktop equipment for each user and the need for things to switch between VoIP and the regular phone lines. SIP trunking handles these switches automatically. Telephone and long distance charges can be dramatically reduced, and because there’s technically only one connection for both voice and data instead of two, that cost can be reduced as well. SIP trunking should show any organization enough savings to pay for itself within a short period of time.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The case for Virtual Tape Libraries in the SMB space
Due to new VTL offerings which include integration of De-Dupe and Single Instance File copy technologies, VTLs have been getting a lot of press coverage lately, particularly in various trade magazines, and industry websites. Recently new code allowing for only single instances of files to be saved to virtual tape, or disk have made VTL investments more cost effective.
VTLs with compression and data de-duplication improve capacity utilization and lower expenditures on disk, they also can hold more data before moving it to tape.
However there are a few factors to be considered when looking at VTL technologies. To most software backup applications, the VTL appears to be just another tape drive. So the VTL performance is still limited by the speed of the backup software and the server that is running the backup software. So implementing a VTL as just a tape library replacement solution is not ideal. The VTL must support a network backup solution scenario meaning agents need to be deployed which allow for disk to disk backup over the network.
That begins to increase the cost to the SMB client. Where each server you would like backed up requires an addtional license fee, so now not only are you paying for the disk, you are paying for the agents, and you are also paying for the tape that will eventually archive your data.
So your initial VTL implementation costs looked good at 30k, however to get the real performance gains have jumped to 45k.
OK so all SMBs have their pain points, backup windows definitely being one of them, however there are instances where VTL definitely make sense however there are other cases where tape investments still make sense.
VTLs with compression and data de-duplication improve capacity utilization and lower expenditures on disk, they also can hold more data before moving it to tape.
However there are a few factors to be considered when looking at VTL technologies. To most software backup applications, the VTL appears to be just another tape drive. So the VTL performance is still limited by the speed of the backup software and the server that is running the backup software. So implementing a VTL as just a tape library replacement solution is not ideal. The VTL must support a network backup solution scenario meaning agents need to be deployed which allow for disk to disk backup over the network.
That begins to increase the cost to the SMB client. Where each server you would like backed up requires an addtional license fee, so now not only are you paying for the disk, you are paying for the agents, and you are also paying for the tape that will eventually archive your data.
So your initial VTL implementation costs looked good at 30k, however to get the real performance gains have jumped to 45k.
OK so all SMBs have their pain points, backup windows definitely being one of them, however there are instances where VTL definitely make sense however there are other cases where tape investments still make sense.
Friday, December 7, 2007
About NE Communications
NE Communications, Inc. is a complete computer network solutions provider. We provide on-site computer network consultants, network engineers, network security specialists, and computer technicians. We can dispatch to anywhere in the United States within 4 hours. NE Communications, Inc. also offers a managed services solution, where an organization’s entire infrastructure can be managed and supported for a fixed monthly fee.
Welcome to the NE Communications Blog
NE Communications, Inc. is a network consulting firm. We specialize in the design and implementation of voice and data networks. We are also experts in converged network technologies. We offer network assessment, design, deployment, and support services for small medium, and large business enterprises.
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