Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Is it Time to Get Our Heads Out of the Clouds Already?
Over the past couple of years, cloud computing has been a hot topic of discussion for providers, agents and customers alike; so much so, in fact, that “the cloud” seems to have eclipsed the technology landscape. With so many businesses looking to reduce their technology expenses and free themselves from on-premise IT encumbrances, companies of all sizes are looking to cloud-based solutions as the future of technology consumption and delivery. However, some critics argue that the cloud computing hype has immensely surpassed the reality.
It’s no secret that there’s cloud hype – it will provide carriers with consistent revenue and predictability, so they push the profitability and simplicity of adoption and implementation on providers, who in turn, sell it to the customer. While it is true that there are many benefits to employing a cloud solution – such as lower IT costs, increased efficiency, and greater resource access to name a few – there is an issue with the fact that often what is promised ends up falling short of performance and functional expectations. As the CEO and President of the 2112 Group, Lawrence M. Walsh put it, “there’s a lot of vaporware in the cloud (ironic imagery, eh?).”
The hype has already generated an ambiance of uncertainty. Companies both large and small are striving to determine their ideal cloud strategy and establish what should remain on-premise and what should go into the cloud. Small and start-up businesses are especially perplexed by the hype due to the fact that they have a decreased risk tolerance for making mistakes.
What’s worse is that almost any carrier or vendor with a service or product that touches the web and gives off a “cloud vibe” dubs it a cloud offering, regardless of its authenticity, in order to stay competitive in the growing market. And they have good reason to; cloud computing has been projected to top $150 billion by 2015.
When it comes down to it, the bubble of cloud perception is believed to be on the brink of bursting. (Tongue twister anyone?)And while there’s no doubt that the over-use of the term “cloud” and the discontentment it brings along with it will manifestly cause a backlash, the question that remains is: how bad will it be?
What do you think? Tell us your opinion of “the cloud” and if you think it can deliver as promised.
No Comments »AT&T Carbon Impact Assessment Tool
Do you know how big your carbon footprint is? Websites like iFootprint.com work well for determining your individual carbon footprint, but what about your business? As usual, AT&T has you covered.
AT&T’s new online Carbon Impact Assessment Tool (CIAT) does exactly that – it assesses the carbon effect of your business based on a number of aspects, including the amount of employees you have, the overall size of the company, how frequently you and your staff travel for business as well as a number of other factors. The AT&T CIAT then takes that information and recommends specific AT&T services based on your answers that can help your business shrink its carbon footprint.
Sure it might seem like a cheesy way to market UC (unified communications), telepresence technology such as web and video conferencing, and other enterprise collaboration services, but the fact of the matter is that it does a lot as far as getting the word out about environmental sustainability.
It was only a few short years ago that the telecommunications industry’s attention to green strategies and environmental sustainability seemed to hit its peak of excitement. Although it might be on the back burner now due to recent events (for example, the Verizon union strike), providers are acting like ducks on the water – they appear calm on the surface, but are paddling like crazy under the water, employing solutions to increase their own energy efficiency, while offering their customers improved options to do the same.
This has resulted in an increase of business-class energy efficient services, such as audio conferencing, web conferencing, and video conferencing solutions, as well as residential energy management and automation services (which is predicted to become a huge new profit opportunity for providers). In fact, earlier this week, ABI Research, a market intelligence company specializing in global connectivity and emerging technology, reported that carrier involvement in the residential energy industry might even aid in moving almost 12 million units of home automation systems by 2016.
AT&T has been considerably aggressive in using energy efficient technologies in its daily operations, and in an effort to expand its involvement in this area of the market, purchased Xanboo – and it doesn’t stop there. Arguably the pioneer in telecommunications company’s business sustainability efforts, BT has already spent years conducting its own in-house carbon evaluations. Other telecommunications service providers have also established comparable programs in order to improve the sales pitch for their specific solutions.
New Tools Offer Improved Efficiency and Relationships for Buyers and Sellers Alike
Although technology was initially intended to increase operational effectiveness, it has actually ended up consuming customer’s time at the expense of the very relationships that promote sales engines. Thankfully there are new tools on the market that have the ability to simultaneously improve both relationships and effectiveness.
Currently there are three demanding trends in the market that make striking the balance between effectiveness and relationships essential for today’s sales enterprise:
- Uniform services and products – with the ever-increasing number of service and product providers on the market today it becomes more and more difficult for businesses to differentiate themselves from the competition who more often than not offer the same look and feel. Because of this, when it comes to negotiations the price frequently becomes the deal breaker rather than the tools, features, and benefits they offer.
- Customization attains a new premium – with companies such as Amazon that offer suggested selling recommendations (i.e. the ‘if you like this item, customers who bought it also purchased these’ selections) consumers now come to expect exactly what they want when they want it, leaving providers to compete in order to distinguish themselves among the countless other sales messages out there today.
- Selling has become faceless – with the amount of information available to customers today, many are doing their own research and self-educating themselves before contacting a salesperson. In some cases, customers don’t even talk with a seller until after purchasing a product or service. This trend is moving most purchaser-seller conversations online; in fact, according to Gartner, a technology research company, by 2020 85% of all purchaser-seller interaction will take place online.
When it comes down to it there are two types of customers – those that lean toward active outside sales reps due to the fact that they desire highly customized and personalized service that has the ability to cater to their requirements; and those that prefer to do the research (and possibly even purchasing) themselves, that obviously require less purchaser-seller interaction. Ideally, the decision makers should have the best of both worlds: the availability of an outside sales representative that can provide personalized attention as well as the facility and easy of communicating with an inside sales representative.
Additional Information
If you’re considering purchasing new products or services then look no further than our T1Everywhere.com site. We provide not only information on all of our products and services, but professional account managers are available to answer any and all of your questions, so give us a call today!
Verizon Communications Reports a Plunge in Data Losses from Cyber Crimes
Fresh off the heels of a large data breach that exposed the names and/or email addresses of Verizon customers, Verizon is now reporting that data losses from cyber crimes have taken a plunge.
Earlier this spring, a hacker successfully breached online marketer and one of the world’s largest permission-based email marketing provider, Epsilon’s email system. The breach, while large in scale, was limited strictly to names and email addresses, and thankfully no personal information (such as credit card information or social security numbers) was compromised.
While Verizon was one of the 50 companies affected by the hack, according to a recent report Verizon Communications is now reporting a significant drop in the amount of records lost as a result of cyber crimes. The report was collaborated and prepared by Verizon, the National High Tech Crime Unite of the Netherlands Policy Agency as well as the US Secret Service, and covers approximately 900 million compromised records from over 1,700 breaches that spanned a total of 7 years.
But don’t get your hopes up quite yet – there are cyber criminals still out there.
Verizon states that the total number of data breaches has plunged from 2009’s staggering report of 144 million to roughly 4 million in 2010, and attributes the record high numbers to the ever- changing dynamic of cyber criminals and the recent drop in the amount of large-scale breaches. According to Verizon, the contradiction between the high number of beaches and low data loss is due to the fact that cyber criminals now opt to engage in “small, opportunistic attacks rather than large-scale, difficult attacks and are using relatively unsophisticated methods to successfully penetrate organizations.”
The report found a record high number of data breaches, despite the fact that the number of compromised records involved in data breaches investigated by Verizon and the U.S. Secret Service plunged from 144 million in 2009 to about 4 million last year. Also noted in the report was that the most frequent types of attacks investigated were malware, accounting for 49% and hacking, accounting for 50%.
Vice president of Verizon’s security and industry solutions, Peter Tippett, stated that despite the numerous attacks – of all different types (including country-wide schemes involving device tampering, complex internal fraud rings, slow and low attacks, and prolific and automated external attacks) – Verizon is using what they learn to improve future operations; “at the end of the day, we found once again that the vast majority of breaches can be avoided without extremely difficult, expensive security measures.”
Help Keep Company Data Safe on Employees’ Personal Devices
With the growing number of smartphones on the market, the number of employees ‘going mobile’ and using their phones to access email and other company data continues to rise. Now companies are facing the important task of making sure their confidential information is protected not only on office computers, but on their employees’ personal devices as well.
The Cisco Connected World Report that was published by Cisco in November of 2010 confirmed a number of things small business owners were already suspecting. First, the boundary between personal devices and professional computers no longer exists. Second, employees want to use these devices for work. And the third thing pointed out in the Cisco Connected World Report was that employees will use their personal devices – especially smartphones – regardless of their IT policy because of they are convenient, user-friendly, and imperative for responding to emails promptly.
If you find yourself dealing with this issue, there are a few steps you can take to secure your business’ information – starting with updating your acceptable use policy to include personal devices, such as tablet computers and smartphones. Your employees likely have their own personal information stored in their devices that they want to keep private as much as your company’s information, so the policy should acknowledge that everyone will benefit from securing these devices.
Your policy should also outline your expectations for employees’ devices (i.e. users’ responsibilities and who has rights over the data stored on them). Set a clear list of conditions for using the devices in the workplace, such as requiring employees to access your company’s network strictly through a Virtual Private Network and protecting each device with a secure password.
- As one condition of your employees using their own personal devices for work, require them to install specific security applications, such as a firewall, anti-spam and anti-virus software, a VPN connection to your network, and a remote self-destruct application that erases all information stored on the device in the event that it is lost or stolen
- Clearly define the guidelines for the type of company information they can store on their devices. For instance, you might permit your staff to read and answer emails, but forbid them from viewing or downloading attachments that hold classified information
- Whether it’s via email, over the phone, or in-person, – formal or not – have your staff register their personal devices if they plan on using them for work. Likewise, if their device is lost or stolen, they should notify your business
While this won’t guarantee your staff’s devices are completely secure, it will make a dramatic difference and a large step toward safeguarding your company’s confidential information. For more information on how you can protect your business, contact one of our professional account managers today.
Whatever You Do, Don’t Sit at Your Desk!
I recently read a Men’s Health article titled “The Most Dangerous Thing You’ll Do All Day,” that really made me think. According to the article, the most dangerous thing I do all day is sit. That’s right, sit. How could this be? Sitting doesn’t strain or pull any muscles; it doesn’t break a sweat or pack on the pounds, so what gives?
While all that may be true, they have sound reasoning behind their theory –Louisiana’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center scientists that surveyed over 15,000 women and men over a 13 year period, and found that those who sit for the majority of their day have a 54% better chance of dying from a heart attack. What’s even more shocking is that the Pennington’s lead researcher, Peter Katzmarzyk noted it was seen “in people who smoke and people who don’t… We see it in people who are regular exercisers and those who aren’t. Sitting is an independent risk factor.”
I’d also like to note that I am standing while typing this…
Why? Well, the article goes on to say that researchers are still trying to determine why that is the case, they do offer a few fairly easy solutions:
- Nix the long emails – if you’re about to compose an email that will take longer than 15 minutes to write, Men’s Health suggests you either go speak directly to that person or give them a call. And if you have to call them…
- Stand up – every time you make or receive a phone call, get up! Sitting for long periods of time (especially when crossing your legs) can cause blood to pool in areas of your legs and feet. Standing up for short periods of time will help get that circulation going
- Give me a break (or two) – according to a study by the European Heart Journal, people who take breaks during their day were over an inch and a half thinner than those that didn’t. So every hour, take two short breaks. Take a brief walk around the office, do some quick stretches or go get some water
- Toss the chair altogether – and opt for a stand-up desk. Bill Stieg, Senior Editor at Men’s Health built his own and isn’t looking back.
We’d like to know what are your thoughts are on the “danger” of sitting at your desk all day. Do you plan on trying one or all of the suggestions?
The Cloud Is a Big Deal Among Small Businesses
According to a report conducted by Microsoft, by 2014 an estimated four in ten small businesses are expected to employ multiple cloud services to replace or augment their on-premise IT resources. The report surveyed 3.258 businesses in 16 countries that employed up to 250 people, found that smaller companies commonly adopt an average of three services, while larger companies (with over 50 employees) utilize an average of four cloud services.
While the report did not account for search engines, search engine marketing, or include free and public cloud services like Twitter or Facebook, it did focus on applications – such as cloud delivered email. Unfortunately, many of today’s small businesses lack the money and resources to meet their ideal technological needs, and are looking to cloud services to fill their void. The ability to replace or augment your computer hardware infrastructures without spending the majority of your funds in equipment that is likely to be inadequate or obsolete in a matter of months, can give smaller businesses a big leg-up.
And the numbers don’t lie. Countless companies around the globe have already implemented at least one cloud resource; however, despite the rapid increase in customers, analysts believe it will be another three years before all Fortune 500 companies employ a single cloud service.
Despite all the benefits of the cloud, there are some concerns shared by small businesses. Here are some other commonly cited concerns about cloud computing:
- Resiliency – how often will you experience outages? Will it affect your mission-critical issues or deny you access to your email, records or other information? While this isn’t a huge concern with well-established providers, it is something to consider
- Tools – often cloud-based tools lack the same power as software applications. For example, Microsoft Office has employed a number of features for years that Google Docs still lacks
- Security – does your cloud provider collect your information? If so, how much does it collect? Is that information shared or used anywhere else?
- Data ownership and mobility – if you decide to cancel your cloud service, how can you retrieve all of your information? How can you be assured that any information left in the cloud will be destroyed? Can data be shared among different cloud services?
- Loss of data – There have been services in the past that have shut down unexpectedly, leaving customers scrambling to recoup their information. Can your provider guarantee there are policies and procedures in place to make sure this won’t happen?
Getting SaaS-y
Just like large enterprises, small businesses need the latest and greatest applications and software. Unlike large enterprises, however, small businesses likely do not possess the human resources, funds, or time to employ a premises-based solution or the ongoing support of applications; and that’s exactly where Software as a Service comes into play.
The Software as a Service (SaaS) model allows businesses to pay a monthly per-use fee to a provider to access licensed software via the Internet. In short, that equates to no support requirements, no upfront expenses, automatic configurations and updates, and faster time-to-market, which reduces the drag on your IT department. Compared to on-premises solutions which typically take months before they’re up and running, SaaS can be ready to go in weeks – or even days. Additionally, SaaS enables you to effortlessly support a distributed workforce for enhanced support for mobile workers, and increased productivity. All of this translates into huge competitive advantages for small and seasonal businesses.
With SaaS, all your employees need is an Internet connection to gain access to an application as if it were fixed on his or her desktop. And the benefits of Software as a Service don’t just end there; businesses with seasonal requirements can adjust their subscriptions to match the scale of their needs. Within your contract, if additional seats are needed, SaaS can easily be scaled up; likewise, if the amount of seats needs to be scaled down, SaaS can do that as well.
Are you considering Software as a Service? Here are a few questions to help you decide:
- Do you own, or are you part of a small or seasonal business or home office looking to relieve your overworked IT staff?
- Does your business lack the resources or capital to build an entirely new infrastructure?
- Do you require your data to be backed up but also need to be up and running quickly?
- Would you rather not have to deal with updating versions of software or applications?
According to Yankee Group Research analyst Steve Hilton, “SaaS blows that former model out of the water.” What’s unfortunate for smaller businesses that answer ‘yes’ to the above questions, is that many don’t know this alternative exists.
Eventually, as more companies begin to realize its benefits vis-à-vis implementing a premises-based solution, SaaS will become a fixture in the communications industry. In due course, larger organizations will come to see the advantages of freeing up their IT staff to focus on mission-critical issues while maintaining the same control over their software, and ultimately turn out to be targets for SaaS providers as well.
Prepaid, Postpaid, and Hybrid Services
Prepaid services are stepping into the light and becoming an essential part of the lineup for service providers that compete with blended service bundles that mix pre and post-paid services within an account. As a result, billing systems are also continuously evolving in order to support these developing portfolios.
Hybrid service models are said to increase the value for a prepaid customer, especially if it includes a loyalty or bonus program that will entice them to remain with the same operator. Converged services also add to the likelihood of prepaid customers to employ premium services (something most prepaid customers typically shy away from) because of the better value they provide.
Hybrid services are quickly becoming a function of a need for service modernization. Service providers are often hindered by uncompromising systems in efforts to roll out new service sets. How could this be? Unfortunately, offers vary depending upon how you pay. Traditionally, there are two different infrastructures for pre and postpaid services, causing providers to be constrained and unable to create compelling offers.
According to Intec Telecom Systems’ director of business solutions, Jack Storer, “service providers are in the midst of a transition. With declining voice revenues, they are trying to become media and content companies. They are competing in this space with anything from cable companies to Web companies, such as Google, Yahoo! Inc., iTunes and Netflix Inc. In order to effectively compete with these new adversaries, service providers will have to invest heavily in their legacy BSS infrastructures [to become more flexible.”
When it comes to consumers, enterprises and customers are generally looking for “family” plans that allow different billing rules to be applied to different people within the same account, and customization in the way of a-la-carte bundle building. With family plans, for example, a number of selected salesmen or women within a company may be given a prepaid account for text messaging and unlimited postpaid voice access. Also, customers are insistent upon more e-commerce and content options, which tend to involve prepaid models.
All of these evolving services come with an increased expectation of customer care. Regardless of whether they are prepaid, postpaid, hybrid, or part of an a-la-carte or family plan, customers want the ability to mix and match data, messaging, voice, community and family services with convenient payment options. Without those options, customers are much less likely to increase service usage, implement new services, or pay for more than a fairly basic plan.
AT&T Improves Smartphone Management for Businesses
A growing number of businesses are employing mobile technology as a crucial business tool; however, companies with corporate information on mobile devices are challenged with visibility as far as what is happening with applications, costs, data, and security. MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform is the latest service provided by AT&T for businesses of any size to help secure and better manage smartphones operating on multiple systems within their organization. Installation for MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform for AT&T is simple, user-friendly, and able to be up and running in a corporate network in no time.
AT&T’s MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform provides visibility for incorporated devices across multiple wireless service providers and those running on numerous mobile operating systems. MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform also offers both employee and company owned smartphones over-the-air control and protection. Even on employee-owned smartphones, MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform offers mobile and IT workers enhanced cost control and data security without compromising privacy.
The years of discussions and waiting for the much anticipated mobile enterprise are over – it’s finally here. Today, smartphones are transforming the way businessmen and women work and perform their daily tasks. A growing number of businesses of all embracing employee and company smartphones, and AT&T hopes to escalate that number even higher with their new MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform.
By 2014, the global mobile device management market is expected to grow to reach $382.7 million in revenue – over the subsequent five years equating to a CAGR of 7.6 percent – according to a recent IDC market share report.
The senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Enterprise Software program, Stacy Crook, believes that “the increasing acceptance of individual-liable devices in the enterprise will continue to be an important driver of activity for mobile device management throughout the forecast period.” She associates this with the added security risks individual-liable devices can present as well as the mounting number of mobile operating systems that IT will be required to support.
In short, AT&T’s new MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform service helps businesses to better manage and secure their company and employee owned smartphones that operate on multiple systems within their organization. With the addition of MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform’s management service, customers can manage their devices across multiple platforms quickly, simply, and efficiently.
Here at T1Everywhere, we partner with AT&T and other leading providers in telecommunications services to provide our customers with the best solutions at the best prices available in the market today. Contact one of our account managers today to see what AT&T’s MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform – and our other services – can do for your business!
Cloud Services: The Good and the Bad
As the excitement and hype over cloud services hype continues to mount, the idea of “cloud services” can be quite confusing. The fact of the matter is that a growing number of providers are realizing that cloud solutions can be a powerful ally for deploying applications and services.
Let’s start with the ideal cloud-services customer; this includes:
- Companies that require disaster recovery backup
- Call centers that deal with web chats and high call volumes
- Startup businesses with solid financial backing, but lacking a capital expenditure budget
- Firms that require new applications but are reluctant to renounce certain systems or processes
- Businesses looking to upgrade their communications systems without purchasing new servers, PBXs, and other additional premises-based equipment
Before we go any further, let’s define cloud services. According to Forrester Research, cloud services have three primary layers:
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) — rather than being delivered as dedicated capability, storage, compute, and other IT infrastructure is delivered as a service
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) — application platform or middleware on which developers can operate and build customized applications delivered as a service
- Software as a Service (SaaS) — end-user applications are delivered as a service, as opposed to on-premises software , allowing customers to log on to company software from any location
However, the cloud is not without its complications and limitations that make it less than ideal for certain solutions. Good things aside, there are surprisingly many situations where cloud services do not measure up. For example, disaster recovery, data backup, and business continuity solutions can overcome available bandwidth with the sheer amount of data in motion, rendering it unable to move all of a business’s data onto a cloud service in a practical amount of time.
Unfortunately, that’s not the only area where the cloud’s struggles end; providers are learning that cloud services may not deliver an adequate end-user experience to companies using hosted communications solutions, application delivery services, infrastructure management, and virtual desktops. To combat its weaknesses, cloud service providers have come up with a creative way to prevail over latency, bandwidth, and other data flow issues while still leveraging the advantages the cloud provides, and it’s simpler than you may think. It all comes down to distance – the closer the end-user is located to the resource, the better the performance and the larger the data path. The solution comes in the form of a hybrid deployment, where onsite hardware, local cloud services and public cloud services come together into a single, cohesive solution.
Network Hosting
Network hosting providers generally operate with bandwidth connections of T3/DS-3 or larger. Network hosting stores your devices, such as servers, within their data center. Employing a network hosting provider relieves you of the stress and hassle of bringing in your own circuits or cooling systems, as well as fretting over power consumption – or any of the associated costs – because providers include and manage these services for you.
T1 Lines for Small Business
There are lots of choices in finding the best internet service provider, pricing and packaging are only few of those. On the other hand, there is a very popular internet connection for businesses and corporations and even for residential customers that offers high quality service and credibility; the T1 connection. Although, T1 connections bring many benefits, the only disadvantage is the charges attached.
While the number of interested residential subscribers is growing, T1 providers are now open for small business and residential customers.
Nowadays, DSL is being considered as a top option for high speed internet connections. In fact, some have even tried to look for new means for basic cable high speed internet services. These services are proven to be very helpful, but T1 internet connection brings a higher degree of reliability that these services do not have. Because the type of cables used, T1 lines can be very costly, not to mention the durability of the service as a whole. As a result, fractional internet T1 lines have come. At a fraction of a cost, anyone can enjoy all the benefits and gain percentage of T1 line speed!
With this kind of internet connectivity, you don’t have to share the signal and wiring with other people in your location to be on line. Also, you can have the kind of internet service that would best fit for you. Since T1 fraction service comes in very flexible options that usually starts at 256 Kbps to 1.5 Mpbs. This enables the fractional T1 service good for both for small and large scale businesses.
Converting your conventional set-up to T1 line speed bring a more reliable and dynamic system for you to enjoy!
XO Internet Service Overview
Simplicity and ease of use with a huge potential for growth – that’s the basic premise of XO’s direct Internet access service. This belies just how powerful a tool this is for entrepreneurs, however, XO was designed to be more than just a service for just any business. The key factor in XO DIA is its growth potential. By maintaining a service that’s dependable and efficient without having to be too complex, they have managed to create a fast Internet solution that offers a service that doesn’t just stop with what it can provide you, but will instead grow with you throughout the years.
In all truth, the most important problem many start-up businesses face is creating a network of trusted allies. XO gives you the opportunity to form a bond early on in the game by giving your budding business the chance to experience an Internet service that can be tailored to suit your current needs, while still being able to adjust to the growth of your company in terms of the service they provide and the complexity of your network connection.
A reliable service with a solid backbone
Think of your network as a body. All the branches netting out throughout the various mini-networks all over the country are like nerves leading back to one central nervous server which is the network backbone. The stronger your backbone, the better data pulses throughout the network of nerves, and the better your Internet service is.
That’s the best thing about XO DIA – the backbone is a multi-10Gbps Tier-1 IP network. This state-of-the-art system is capable of connecting to and around large peering points throughout metropolitan areas. This connection of the XO network to virtually every other Internet provider throughout the country gives you an entire network service to utilize at the click of a button. One of the most impressive features of the XO backbone is that it is in full compliance with the nationwide IP network design, which set up redundancy routes throughout the networks.
What does this mean? A redundant system gives you a system of lines that your network can pass through. This is a big boost to businesses that deal with high-bandwidth Internet operations like voice and video conferencing, and network hosting. Should your own unique connection fail at any point throughout the network, the flow of data is rerouted through another one of the free lines connected to yours, ensuring that the flow of data from your end to the Internet is not lost.
Customize as you grow
XO understands that not all businesses need – or can immediately afford – network connections that deal with bandwidth levels that you’d expect from a T3 connection. With XO, you are given the option of setting up just how fast you’d like your initial network connection.
But just because you started out with a simple T1 connection doesn’t mean you have to stick to that connection. While your business grows, XO provides you with options to match the requirements of your network connection to the requirements of your Internet activity. It’s this scalable option that makes XO such an attractive option for startup businesses.
Features & Benefits
- High-speed access to the Internet, intranet and extranet sites
- Guaranteed bandwidth to meet heavy data demands
- Performance of the award-winning XO OC-192 Internet network backbone
- Reliability backed by industry-leading service level guarantees, including 100% availability SLA
- Network design that maximizes redundancy with no single IP point of failure
- 24×7 live support with world class customer care and continuous network monitoring
- Includes pre-configured router, DNS registration and IP number allocation
- Web Basics hosting package with email addresses, junk mail and virus filtering
- Web Basics create a web site, use email, manage DNS, or get email protection if you own your own mail server
Optional features include:
- Expanded CPE options and managed router options
- BGP Routing Protocol: improves efficiency and quality of end user access and allows for faster, more efficient network traffic
Network Address Translation (NAT): Allows for the conservation of scarce IP addresses. Any enterprise can connect to the XO network and communicate with others by leveraging NAT to perform the translation of the private enterprise internal network address to the publicly recognizable Internet address
Defining T1 According to its Local Trunk Group
Businesses requiring at least 18 or more voice-grade channels for local or long distance calls, or those with a bill of approximately $1000.00 per month should consider a T1. T1s offer major economic advantages over alternative means of access, especially when utilization is heavy or near full capacity for extended times.
In essence, there are two groups of local trunks based on how they transport traffic between parties. Accessibility is obtained as it consolidates the needs for separate local trunks and lines. T1 is capable of accommodating up to 24 telephone lines or trunks and can operate either as a one-way or two-way trunk.
Ancillary services such as OPS/DA, mass calling, and 911 can be established between a CLEC Tandem or End Office switch and an SBC- 13STATE Tandem through a one–way trunk group. They utilize Signaling System 7 (SS7) or multi-frequency (MF) signaling protocol, with SS7 signaling preferred whenever possible. CLEC will have administrative control of one-way trunk groups from CLEC to SBC-13STATE (CLEC originating).
Groups of two-way trunks for local, IntraLATA, and InterLATA can be established between a CLEC switch and an SBC-13STATE Tandem or End Office switch. This group utilizes Signaling System 7 (SS7) or multi-frequency (MF) signaling protocol, with SS7 signaling preferred whenever possible. CLEC will have control for the purpose of issuing Access Service Requests (ASRs) for administrative consistency. Two-Way Local Trunks feature free Local Calling, DID, E911, & Directory Listing.