Information Week has a really interesting article entitled In Depth: Five Things You Must Know About VoIP, written by Nick Hoover, running this morning.

VoIP is Inevitable

Maybe it's not quite in the same league as death and taxes, but at some point, not having the converged-network capabilities VoIP allows becomes a competitive liability. Picture this: Since installing VoIP, your largest customer says it's become a big user of its videoconferencing and presence tools. It would like to plug in your staff to speed up response times. Too bad you don't do VoIP.

This section revisits the need for VoIP and cites some current neumbers and trends. While I've never phrased it quite that way, I'd say it's not only inevitable. If you arean't already doing something about it, you're falling woefully behind and losing a competitive edge in technology,

It Costs More than you Think is #2 on the list of things Hoover identifies. This is one of those theorems that is just so much crap and drives me batty. VoIP costs "you" more than you think for one reason, and only one reason. "You" don't prepare and plan and get ready for VoIP. "You" take shortcuts, make assumptions, skip network readiness assessments, and overlook security. Then "you" complain VoIP cost more than you planned. I do not know of any company that's performed due diligence aforehand an felt suprirsed by the costs of VoIP implementation. I know many companies that have indeed done all the wrong things and been appalled that the got what tyhey paid for (and deserved). And I'm very sorry, but if you give short shrift to planning and preparation for your corporate VoIP services, you somewhat deserve what you get. Plan ahead. Be dligent.

#3 is Deployment can be tricky. I sort of wanted to sau "duh" but he's right. Again diligence in planning is how to be prepared for the new network requirements. Yes that old PBX you bought 15 years ago hummed along and spat out dialtone without any effort, A convereged, multi-service network is a new breed and does far more than just provide dialtone. Be prepared. Plan ahead. Be diligent.

#4 caught my eye with VoIP Security is Dodgy. Since that's a premise I don't agree with, I had to keep going. The eye-catcher led me to -

VoIP hasn't experienced many big security vulnerabilities. Enjoy it while it lasts. The miscreants understand market share, so when enough companies are on VoIP to make it worth their while to probe for weaknesses, they'll attack. Compared with the relatively safe neighborhood of the public switched phone network, the Internet is a "crime-ridden slum," says Gary Miliefsky, founder and CTO of NetClarity, a maker of network security appliances. "If you're going to move your phone systems to the Internet, you've got to be prepared for problems," he says.

Ok, so security is dodgy and the Internet is a crime ridden slum, but we haven't experienced VoIP vulnerablities. We just want to inflame and scare the daylights out of you? No, not entirely. Hoover does cite the recent highly visibly Miami VoIP cybercrime incident. Although that particular crime has been so overblown and overstated that nobody will ever realize what small potatoes it really was.

Hoover, through question and quote makes the obvious point - general network security practices are necessary and hat too many businesses are looking to VoIP but not to securing it.

Cheap calls are just the start is really just a fantasy. I've said for a long time, if you're implement VoIP to save money on calls, you're wasting your time and money. That isn't the point of VoIP. It's always one reason, but it should be one of the least compelling. Hoover points out that a large number )he cites 41% of respondents to a survey) are pursuing unified voice, data sharing, email and conferencing.

I think it's clear that for me the article seemed to be sending a mixed message of confusion at times. Some points were quite accurate, and some went a bit askew from my knowledge of VoIP. I am concerned that it's another article ipointing to the complexity and cost of VoIP without appropriate consideration of how to do it right.

Building a fence is also too expensive, too complex and insecure if you don't plan, don't prepare and don't know what you're doing in ever detail before you being. Measure twice, cut once is an adage that service many purposes.


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