I've had a couple of question lately about QoS and whether implementing all that complexity in a corporate network is really need to successfully deploy VoIP.

I saw a post last night (Voice quality holding back VoIP?) that had this to say:

Quality of service is the most common barrier for enterprises considering the switch to voice over IP (VoIP), according to new research.

Nearly half of businesses named quality of service as a downside to VoIP, more than any other aspect of the technology, including business disruption, cost or security, according to a survey of 150 participants at last week's VoIP for Business show in London.

There were a couple of other points in the article that I felt were really important for business people looknig at enterprise implementations.

Deloitte partner David Tansley said "data networks fundamentally are not designed to deal with real-time voice traffic." Ovum research director Peter Hall countered that quality of service is more of a concern for consumer VoIP applications run over the public internet - not for enterprise services. He said: "In the enterprise, if done properly, there shouldn't be quality of service issues."

The key words there are "if done preperly." I believe that points back to some of my earlier comments about the importance of performing a comprehensive readiness assessment of your network before investing in any VoIP solution. More and more we see this as the key to success in VoIP deployments.

Technorati Tags: VoIP, readiness assessment, IP Telephony