New VoIP network monitor from NetQoS

August 23rd 2007 Posted to VoIP News UK

by Lin Freestone

NetQoS, a Texas-based software and services company, has launched a VoIP monitor to help organisations gauge how well VoIP systems are delivering end-user services and pinpoint the network causes of quality issues.

By adding call setup and call quality metrics to its existing VoIP management capabilities within the NetQoS Performance Centre, NetQoS now offers the most comprehensive performance monitoring solution for converged networks.

NetQoS VoIP Monitor is a network-based VoIP solution that links quality of experience to network performance to speed troubleshooting, without server agents or probes. The product, working with Cisco IP Telephony systems running Cisco Unified CallManager 4.2 or later, provides insight into two of the most important components of VoIP quality: call setup operations (such as time to dial tone and post-dial delay) and audio quality (MOS and

underlying network impairments).

By tracking actual end-user call quality, providing alerts on call performance issues, and isolating the cause of VoIP problems to the network source, NetQoS VoIP Monitor enables organisations to improve performance with faster troubleshooting.

NetQoS VoIP Monitor is packaged in the appliance form factor common to other NetQoS products and deploys in a matter of hours. It is available as a standalone unit or in a distributed configuration.

NetQoS VoIP Monitor is available in September 2007 at a starting price of $29,500. The NetQoS Performance Center is available to customers at no additional cost with the purchase of one of NetQoS’ product modules.

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EMC unveils comprehensive solutions for IP telephony management

August 23rd 2007 Posted to VoIP News UK

by Lin Freestone

EMC, the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions, is broadening its VoIP horizons with the release of new performance tracking and reporting capabilities for VoIP devices.

EMC has licensed Integrated Research’s Prognosis technology for use in its EMC Smarts VoIP Performance Manager and Performance Reporter products. Denver-based Integrated Research is a leader in VoIP management technology.

EMC promises deep integration between Prognosis and other EMC tools, including its storage offerings.

EMC’s VoIP products are geared toward maintaining network availability, while the Prognosis addition will detect and analyze causes of VoIP performance issues, such as providing metrics on jitter or latency.

Smarts VoIP Performance Manager and Smarts VoIP Performance Reporter provide information about phone calls, phone extensions, voice quality, availability of the telephone service and interconnections to telecommunications providers, according to the company. In addition, they monitor call volumes, call quality, and route patterns to ensure service levels are being met and offer both real-time and historical performance and trend reporting.

The two new tools support Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Unified CallManager, as well as Avaya Communications Manager. While the reporting and performance tools complement the Smarts systems management, they will also work with other systems management solutions.

These offerings, which range from about $25 to $35 per phone depending on configuration and volume, extend EMC’s systems management portfolio.

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Skype outage caused by massive PC restart by users

August 23rd 2007 Posted to VoIP News UK

by Lin Freestone

It has been established that the blackout that left millions of Skype users without the ability to make Internet phone calls from their PC for two days in August was, in fact, triggered by the users of the service.

The recent outage happened after a massive restart of its users’ computers across the globe as they re-booted after receiving a routine set of patches through Windows Update.

The high number of restarts in a short time period clogged Skype’s network, causing a flood of log-in requests. These, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact. The disruption was unprecedented in terms of its impact and scope.

Skype offers a P2P (peer-to-peer) VoIP software service, which allows users to make phone calls, instant messages and videos over their computers with a broadband Internet connection. The service is free for users of the Skype network and is extremely popular, with more than 220 million users worldwide.

Skype’s peer-to-peer network has the ability to fix itself for just such problems. However, the outage revealed a software bug within the network resource allocation algorithm that prevented the self-healing function from working.

Skype has augmented its software so that its users will not suffer from an outage in case this problem happens again, but it is perceived that some damage to the company’s image in the marketplace may have occurred.

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UK businesses slow to adopt VoIP

August 23rd 2007 Posted to VoIP News UK

by Jan Harris

According to research commissioned by IT services company Dimension Data, UK companies are slower to adopt VoIP communications systems than their counterparts in Europe and America and are therefore missing out on the financial benefits of IP telephony.

The survey included 390 IT managers and 524 end users in 13 different countries. While 60% of the US firms surveyed used VoIP, only 33% of British companies used the technology.

UK companies are also less likely to adopt technologies which integrate data sharing and transfers into the network.

The study found that 50% of the VoIP systems used by American companies were integrated into the same network as the firm’s electronic data, while 28% of the UK companies’ systems were combined.

According to the research, Germany has the same rate of VoIP use as the UK, while Switzerland was the only company to fall behind the UK on VoIP use.

The survey, which was carried out by Datamonitor on behalf of Dimension Data, also identified a low rate of mobile VoIP adoption across all of the countries included in the study.

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3CX forms alliance with VoIP Unlimited and Zen

August 23rd 2007 Posted to VoIP News UK

by Jan Harris

3CX, the network infrastructure software specialist has entered into a strategic alliance with VoIP Unlimited which provides SIP services, and specialist software distributor Zen Software.

The companies hope the partnership will facilitate the development of interoperability between their products. This will allow resellers to deploy complete SIP services and SIP software packages to their customers with total confidence.

All three of the companies are currently recruiting new UK resellers to offer their VoIP products and services, providing the benefit of a recurring revenue stream with opportunities in installation, configuration and maintenance.

Resellers can also benefit from VoIP Unlimited’s SIP service, with additional commissions on minutes and IP connectivity.

As part of the alliance, 3CX has awarded VoIP Unlimited 3CX Partner Status.

VoIP Unlimited was established to help IT and Telephony dealers introduce VoIP services to their SME customers.

Zen Software specialises in the distribution and support of software products which leverage Internet technology to the benefit of businesses. It operates in the UK and Ireland.

3CX is a privately held company which develops and sells network infrastructure software. The company has offices in six countries.

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