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Recent technology advancements and the push to all-IP have many believing that fax technology has gone the way of the bag phone. In reality, however, faxing is still an important tool in the workforce. What has changed is the way in which we use fax – it is incorporated into the network and delivered as IP fax. The migration toward cloud-based technology has also added a new dynamic to IP fax. 

Today, if you want to leverage IP fax connectivity, you need a FoIP (Fax over IP) server and a VoIP/FoIP gateway to connect to the PSTN. When the Internet is introduced into the mix, you need a FoIP server connected to the Internet where the service provider then connects to an SBC (session border controller), connected to the VoIP/FoIP gateway that connects to the PSTN. This approach must support the T.38 protocol.When IP fax is leveraged in the cloud, it is delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS (News - Alert)). 

The provider delivers an application to the customer that enables the transfer of fax communications across the network, through the Internet and to the recipient, or vice versa. This approach also ensures all faxes can be captured within the network for easy storage and retrieval for future use. Each customer served by the third party providing IP fax through the cloud has their own virtual server partition with their own backup that is totally separate from all other customers. In a shared platform, however, all customers share the data space. 

The latter approach is much more efficient as everyone is sharing the same platform. Plus, companies like Sagemcom can support any type of environment, making it easy to move your IP fax to their servers for total management. Fax is still very much an important component of the enterprise communication infrastructure. When you work with Sagemcom, the company serves as the optimal partner to deliver enterprise faxing that is on-premise, virtualized, or enabled through SIP trunking, managed services and Software as a Service. 

The demand for IP fax is here and if your company has made the move to an all-IP environment without including a clear strategy for integrating your fax technology, it’s time to take a step back and explore why Sagemcom may be a good partner to consider.