IP Communications Featured Articles

Information technology is an arms race. Not only can it deliver competitive advantage for the business that adopts early and uses it effectively, but it is almost certainly a competitive disadvantage for the firm that doesn’t stay up on the latest advancements.

For small and medium-sized businesses, keeping up can sometimes be a challenge; they’ve neither the resources nor the expertise. But that’s where the multi-service business gateway (MSBG) comes into play.

MSBGs combine multiple IT functions such as data, voice and video capabilities into a single device. They can be a powerful communications enabler, especially for small businesses, bringing together key enterprise functions such as VoIP, routing, switching and analog voice interfaces.

They also can include security tools such as firewalls, virtual private networking and intrusion detection and prevention, all on a single, error-tolerant platform with a common management and control plane.

Convergence (News - Alert) brings several benefits, including ease of use, flexibility and reduced costs, as well as tighter integration.

One good example is unified communications (UC), which brings together communications channels and makes it easier to communicate without having to handle the complexity of several different platforms.

The growing popularity of UC bodes well for the MSBG. Capable of enabling unified communications by providing a common platform for both voice and data services over an IP network, the MSBG industry benefits from UC adoption.

MSBGs can, in particular, help with the convergence of integrated security and networking appliances. It can help consolidate security solutions such as VPNs and firewalls along with voice and data communication and IT services, resulting in lower overall costs.

The MSBG security framework includes securing IP networks with conventional VPN and firewall capabilities and advanced VoIP security features. Security can include four separate levels: network level security, media security, communication session and application layers.

Currently, MSBG sales are strongest in Europe, according to research by Global Industry Analysts, with Asia-Pacific as the fastest growing market with a compound annual growth rate of nearly 10 percent.