BUSINESS PHONE NEWS

Looking for a Really "Big Cloud" to Host Your Most Important Business Applications? Here it is...

Posted By Dan Baldwin
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When it comes to choosing a colocation or "cloud" data center to safeguard off-site the most important business applications you run, how big is "big enough"? Are there some data centers that are just too small to get a decent computing job done? Can a data center be too big?

These are just three of the many questions that crossed my mind as I toured the cavernous, two story, 50,000 square foot new data center "purpose build" by three data center entreprenuers at San Diego's ScaleMatrix during the grand opening of their new facility.

I have to admit, over the past decade of touring data centers I guess I've just not given them much respect.  Most of the one's I've seen have been squeezed into fairly tight quarters in a basement somewhere with a lot of chain link fencing and freezing cold air.  Yesterday I was in a new type of data center big enough to park a 737 passenger jet in surrounded by almost 600 invited guests including the San Diego Chamber of Commerce for ScaleMatrix' grand opening. A new data center experience indeed.

 

Is Bigger Better for Colocation Data Centers?

But back to my question, "Is bigger better or too big?"  I honestly don't know. I've put the question to a couple business associates I know that make a living selling colocation services to businesses. (I'll be sure and let you know what they say.)

In every conversation I've ever had with a colocation broker only three things seemed to matter, power costs, power costs & power costs. (There was also the matter of security and redundant network access - but it was mostly about power costs).

If you're interested in why several data center pros would build a new data center from scratch for their clients, then check out this lengthy interview of the major players at ScaleMatrix.  You should likely focus on the "cradle to grave" comments about a data center customer's life cycle on page one of the interview.  

On the last page of the interview they talk about how customers looking at a $200,000 IT equipment upgrade can skip buying all the new gear and simply use ScaleMatrix' cloud for a couple grand a month. They also mentioned how enterprise businesses (and smaller) can put all their business phone system equipment in their facility to create their own hybrid hosted VoIP solution.

 

The "Real Reason" to Colocate in San Diego

In theory a business can have their colo space anywhere on the planet that has reliable access to fast Internet. Of course a good reason to have it in San Diego is it creates a nice "business reason" to go out to the facility as often as possible to make sure the computer racks are all at the right temperature.

Isn't that why so many business conventions are held in Las Vegas or Hawaii?

In all seriousness, when business customers move some or all of their business to "the cloud", it's not really in a cloud it's in San Diego or some other place like this Wyoming wind farm.  The important learning point for anyone contemplating this solution is that they need to make sure the recommendations they're getting from experts in the cloud/colo/hosting data center realm (there's a big difference between San Diego and Wyoming) make sense for a customers specific vision. 

 

What Do You Need to Do to Choose the Right Data Center?

Nothing more than to first ask yourself, "What are my cloud plans?" and "Which of my critical business applications would be safer off-site"?

Then call us.

With the answers to these two questions we can start to explore which options make the most sense for your business.

Once we know where you think you are in the "going to the cloud" concept, then we can introduce you to some of the consultants and brokers we trust in this field to really fine tune your options.

Two associates that I know that seem to be experts in this area include Dany Bouchedid of Colotraq and Aaron Loehr of Bandwidth Advisors.

I've asked both of them to comment on this article to let us all know whether ScaleMatrix is a cloud/hosting/colocation solution that they'd recommend to their clients and prospects.

 

How to Buy or Sell Colocation, Hosting & Cloud Solutions Video

Click the video below to listen to Dany Bouchedidof Colotraq give a 45 minute lecture on buying & selling colocation, hosting & cloud services in October 2010.

Colocation & Managed Hosting Seminar by Dany Bouchedid of Colotraq

 

 This BPN029 blog post is copyright protected by Telecom Association.

Will Your Office Computer Network Fail When the Internet Switches to IPv6 in 2012?

Posted By Dan Baldwin
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I count on the public Internet to work in my day-to-day business dealings. If the public Internet stops working, so does my business.  But who even owns the public Internet and who's doing what to make sure it keeps working? Is it really Al Gore?

So when I was recently invited to listen to a webinar about the implications of the pending "Internet switch to IPv6" I said to myself, "Huh, that sounds kind of important."

I'm glad I got the information. Ten minutes into the presentation I'm thinking to myself, "This seems like a pretty big deal and it might start affecting my business this year or next!"

Following is what I think I've learned about

Need to Separate Your Phone Numbers From Your Phone Lines & Answer Calls Anywhere? SIP Does That

Posted By Dan Baldwin
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Would your sales increase if your best employees could be put on the phone with your best prospects regardless of where your employee was or where the prospect was calling from?

Now you can do this!

Thanks to "SIP trunking" technology which can go on practically any existing business office phone system, you can literally separate your phone numbers from their physical phone lines so your inbound calls can be answered anywhere by your best employees regardless of geography.

 

It's Like the Best "Call Forwarding" of All Time (Without the High Cost)

In past years you could use "remote call forwarding" or RCF services to get one phone number to ring in a different location but it was terribly expensive.

Businesses have also employed byzantine networks of

Giving Up on VoIP Phone Service Because of Outages? Try the Provider That Never Goes Down

Posted By Dan Baldwin
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Our business phone system customers often refer other business owners they know to us who are having the worse time with their phone service because their VoIP phone carrier has a service outage every other month for an hour or even a day which brings their business to a complete stand still.

When we ask about which carrier they use that keeps going down we learn it's either a "no name" provider that's just getting into the VoIP and SIP phone service business or it's one of the big incumbent carriers that are in the process of converting their old "TDM" (time division multiplex AKA old copper phone line) customers over to VoIP and SIP.

 

How Can VoIP Phone Outages be Eliminated?  Ask These 5 Questions...

Start by interviewing IP phone service providers that have never experienced an outage - like BandTel.

During the interview of all prospective business VoIP/SIP/IP phone service providers, ask the following five questions:

Why the Toughest IT Directors Like BandTel for Business Phone System SIP Trunking Solutions

Posted By Dan Baldwin
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Many of our business customers ask us how they can get the upgraded "VoIP features" in their old PBX business phone systems like "voice mail in my email", "simultaneous ring", "work-at-home", etc. without having to "fork lift out" all the old phone systems in their multiple locations and buying all new IP-PBX phone systems.

For a couple of years now the answer to this inquiry has been "SIP Trunks". As many business end-user IT directors have learned, SIP trunking is an IP (Internet protocol) solution that uses a "black box" to connect an older analogue PBX business phone system to a broadband public or private business Internet connection.

"But who's SIP trunk black box to use and why?" is the main question asked by discerning IT directors. Just saying that a SIP trunk provider has a black box doesn't mean the solution works. Inside every IT director is the critic who says, "I think you should be more explicit here..." quoting the famous cartoonist Sydney Harris.

(Very few IT directors keep their jobs by accepting "and then a miracle occurs".)

This is why we introduce IT directors shopping for SIP trunking solutions to

Looking to Eliminate Phone Lines by Plugging Your Cable Internet Into Your Old PBX Phone System? Call Us!

Posted By Dan Baldwin
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In today's economy, many business owners and decision makers find themselves either trying to expand without a lot of cash or trying to downsize to save more cash. Whether due to expansion of contraction though, every monthly overhead item gets a thorough "scrubbing" especially nettlesome invoices like business phone line bills, broadband cable Internet bills and the like.

When looking at separate phone line & Internet bills, many business owners ask, "What happened to making phone calls over the Internet? Why am I paying separately for business phone lines and business Internet service? Can't I get rid of my phone lines?"

 

You Can Cancel Your Business Phone Lines to Save Money ...

If you look at your normal business phone service bill from the telephone company you'll see that you're paying for three separate services:

1. Phone calls,   2. Phone numbers, and 3. Phone lines.

Those of you who have already tried

How Google's Motorola Purchase Aims to Increase YOUR Business Profit

Posted By Dan Baldwin
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As a business owner you know that the most valuable commodity any of your best managers or employees command is time. You know you also secretly dream that you can "do something" that will magically give your people "more time" to do their best work (while still paying them the same amount of money.)

Google's purchase this past week of Motorola Mobility may just help you do that "something" you've been looking for to give your people "more time" to make you money.

How?

By turning the smart phone into a "magic wand" for your business.

What?

Imagine how much more money your business could make if every time

Will the Verizon Strike Adversely Affect Your Business Phone or Data Service?

Posted By Dan Baldwin
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This past weekend Verizon's 45,000 union workers (out of 196,000 total workers) voted to go on strike against Verizon rather than concede to what they call "Wisconsin-style" union busting tactics at the negotiating table that would "gut the health care" benefits of union workers among other labor issues.

I got my start in the business phone service industry working for "the phone company" in the early 90's and had the opportunity to work side by side, as a manager, with many union members. I know from personal experience that they're hard working and very dedicated to their craft.

Now as an independent business phone bill auditor as well as a voice and data network services consultant, I work with

AT&T: Your business is important ... start paying $8 more per month for every phone line!

Posted By Dan Baldwin
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So I'm helping a large multi-location business customer sort through, analyze, organize and otherwise  "fix" their multiple AT&T and Verizon phone bills and we ran across this politely worded notice recently mailed from Ma Bell:

 

Dear Valued AT&T Customer:

Your business is important to us...(yada, yada, yada)...please note that monthly rates for Local Exchange service are scheduled to increase as follows...(we're adding $8 a month to the cost of each phone line).

If you have any questions...(blah, blah, blah)...Thank you for choosing AT&T.

Sincerely,

Your AT&T Service Team

Huh, what!? 

Well I can certainly understand why AT&T "values their

How Many Jobs Can Office Technology Help You Kill or Create Today?

Posted By Dan Baldwin
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As a business owner, which of the following best states your attitude about jobs in your company?

1. I only hire additional employees when absolutely necessary to increase long term profit, 

2. I feel a patriotic duty and personal responsibility to create as many new jobs as possible,

3. I'd like to eliminate jobs in my company so I can increase my own shareholder equity.

For myself, I mostly fit description number one and sometimes number three. I feel like I met the patriotic "job creation obligation" in number two when I hired myself - right after I created my own company. As a "recovering Democrat" and a Christian though, I can see the personal and societal benefits of creating new jobs when I can.

 

Does Improved Employee Productivity Resulting from Office Technology Kill or Create Jobs?

I believe the short answer is