To Keep The Phones Ringing, What Options Are Available To Businesses?

Considering that the most critical and vulnerable part of a phone system is the ability to receive calls, we need to consider where the phone number will stay.

FREMONT, CA: Over the last few months, many of the largest VoIP networks across North America & Europe have been crippled by refined and specific distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks competently evading typical prevention measures. Many of these networks are the backbone of most VoIP calls and hence are (or should be) critical infrastructure.

To keep the phones ringing, what options are available to businesses?

Stay ahead of the industry with exclusive feature stories on the top companies, expert insights and the latest news delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe today.

VoIP local survivability

The idea of local survivability in VoIP is pretty simple. Like a router, an edge device sits at the customer's site, and all VoIP traffic and IP device registrations experience it. This device is too home to backup connectivity to the public telephone network, generally in the form of one or many legacy analogs or digital lines, based on customer size and disaster recovery demands.

That's a common idea, but there are different ways of implementing it. Considering that the most critical and vulnerable part of a phone system is the ability to receive calls, we need to consider where the phone number will stay.

Option 1: Keep the principal number as a legacy analog line, and forward all calls to Cloud PBX

This choice has the pre-requisite that forwarding on the line is unconstrained to one simultaneous call. This changes from one phone company to the next.

In this case, the main phone number is a legacy analog line installed on-site at the customer's location. Should anything occur to the internet connection at the customer site, to the Cloud PBX service, or a basic VoIP carrier, call forwarding to the cloud can be canceled. Instead, calls will start coming in on the local legacy line to the edge device, which will route the calls to the appropriate IP phones. Outgoing calls will continue using VoIP if they can but will also have the analog line as a backup.

Pros:

• Incoming & outgoing calls will keep working, although confined in capacity.

• Internal calls between extensions keep functioning. Keep utilizing the same IP phones for calls.

Cons:

• Incoming & outgoing calls during an external VoIP outage will be restricted to the number of analog lines you keep on-site, which may be as little as one call at a time; extra callers will hear an active signal or a voicemail inspired from the analog line.

• You are required to keep paying for some legacy circuits.

• Hardware will require to be installed & affirmed on-prem.

Option 2: Substitute legacy analog phone number/line

In this case, the customer will hold one or many backup analog lines on-site for incoming and outgoing calls during an external outage. The principal business phone number stays in the cloud, but this number is the emergency backup to accept calls.

Pros:

• No forwarding of analog line to Clou

• d PBX is necessary.

• Upcoming calls to the backup number will work even if internet, Cloud PBX, or basic carriers are having an outage, also outgoing calls.

Cons:

• A second phone number will require to be advertised or given to potential callers if something happens to the main number.

• Outgoing calls during an outage will not show the company's main number but the backup phone number.

• The customer will need to keep paying for some legacy circuits.

• Hardware will be essential to be installed and maintained on-prem.

Option 3: No local durability, but do your homework on your backend provider

This is the option numerous businesses have chosen. There's no such thing as an impregnable ship, but some ships are built better than others. In case of something as critical as your phone system, an experienced provider with resources at hand goes a long way when things go wrong.

They have the resources and ability to tackle big issues in ways a small business couldn't afford. Communications services can and should still be bought from your local small business—you just might want to confirm they have a provider in the background helping out and aren't running their server in a basement somewhere.