April 2010 | Volume 13 / Number 4
E911 Watch
E911 in the CloudBy Nick MaierIf you’re one of thousands of organizations large, small or in-between that has embraced cloud computing you understand its benefits. The cost savings, and faster implementation and productivity gains have validated the paradigm shift for those who swallowed hard and adopted the mind set that it’s OK to send data to remote servers, software and storage. If cloud computing works for your CRM system, why not adopt the model for managing your E911 location information updates and 911 call routing? It’s a cost effective way to comply with E911 legislation and speed emergency response in the event of an emergency. Rather than investing in servers and software, this life-saving protection can be had for a small initiation fee and a monthly service bill based on the number of phones. Once service is established, a Web portal is used to load the location of every phone on the network into the service. Then, 911 calls are sent to the cloud using IP or PSTN trunking and the call is routed to the right PSAP based on the location of the caller. For organizations with more complex communications networks and requirements, on-premises servers and software still represent the best path to E911, primarily due to the cost savings that result from a fully automated solution that automatically captures, manages and delivers real-time location information for all voice clients on the network. However, as enterprises flatten, consolidate and extend their networks using IP voice platforms, the option of leveraging cloud computing is becoming economically advantageous to even the most complex enterprise communication network. By routing 911 calls via a cloud-based network service rather than using traditional PS-ALI E911, enterprises can send 911 calls to any PSAP in the U.S., eliminating the need for costly local 911 call trunking and multiple PS-ALI contracts with local exchange carriers. For those of you still on the fence about cloud computing, what are you waiting for? IT Nick Maier is senior vice president of RedSky (News - Alert) Technologies (www.redskyE911.com). Today @ TMC
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