Manufacturing

You do not need to accept the slow broadband speeds. A specialist provider can install a dedicated fibre optic connection for your business, also called a leased line. These connections are capable of 1Gbps speeds and do not suffer from the same reliability issues as broadband connections. While a step-change in performance compared to broadband, it’s also a step-change in cost. However, resolving slow broadband speeds that can hamper the ability of a company to grow and take advantage of modern cloud-based systems is often far less costly than having to move to a different location.

Yes. The fixed public IP address associated with your fibre leased line is in most cases provided by your ISP, which owns certain blocks of addresses. So, when you move to a new ISP your static public IP will change. Unlike a telephone number, you can’t “port” an IP address to a different provider.
In most cases, the transition between providers is simple and usually involves your IT team simply updating the Domain Name System (DNS) records. But if you have concerns about the disruption an IP address may cause, we’ve put together an article about what you need to do to manage the change:

Read the article here

Costly internet outages can be avoided by choosing a reliable ISP with a proven track record and using a resilient network design. Your ISP should be able to tell you what the service level agreements are for fixing faults and how they can meet them. This can involve the infrastructure being held in multiple data centres, that can cope with power cuts or hardware failures.
At a facility or office level you can avoid disruption by using a provider that installs multiple connections using different technologies. Should a problem occur with a primary connection it automatically switches to the backup while the fault is being resolved.
With any resilient network design the provider should be able to explain under what circumstances it prevents disruption and what the limitations are. For example, a network fault may cause problems with a lease line fibre connections, but not broadband or mobile data networks. Where as a large scale power cut may take down everything.
Another factor if you’re considering multiple connections is your IP address, you should ask your provider if the IP address will stay the same when using the backup connection. If they aren’t able to preserve your same IP address then some systems and remote access will no longer work.

When multiple sites all need to access centralised data and systems over the internet, a high level of security is required as the data is passing through the public internet. While there are established technologies to secure data in transit, such as VPNs, it involves investment in hardware and often reduces performance. Network hardware, such as firewalls and UTMs will also be required at each site, increasing costs as well as the complexity of management and support.
The other approach is to connect the sites in a private network connecting back to the central systems. The private network removes the security concerns at each site as there is no direct public internet access, plus only a router is required rather than firewalls. The internet access each site needs is provided from the central system, with only one main firewall / UTM required. This reduces hardware costs and simplifies management and support. If there is a change required or a security patch to implement, it only needs to be carried out once.

Not necessarily. Modern phone system replacements come in various shapes and sizes and use different VoIP based technologies. While all will use the internet, some need new hardware to be installed, at a not inconsiderable investment. These systems usually are based on SiP trunks, the VoIP equivalent of ISDN channels. The more SiP trunks you have, the more concurrent calls you can make, but this is usually lower than the total number of users.

However, another approach is a hosted or cloud phone system. Rather than having a physical phone system at the office or warehouse, each handset connects directly to the provider’s platform over the internet (and in fact, many people choose to use mobile phone apps or softphones on computers rather than traditional phone handsets, or a mix of the both). In this case, no phone system hardware is required, reducing the investment cost and the associated lifecycles.

When you’ve decided to move your fibre leased line connectivity to a new provider, you’ll want to keep downtime and disruption to your business to an absolute minimum, especially if you’re running a 24/7 operation. But when managed correctly, you can have a smooth and seamless transition. In this article, we take you through four points of the cut-over process for minimal disruption.

Read the article here

By controlling who and how the intellectual data is accessed, having a robust backup process and network security measures to prevent hacking or other cyber security incidents.

Only the job roles that require access to sensitive data should be allowed, this can be controlled by user-profiles and Active Directory. A process for removing access when a member of staff leaves is also an important part of these policies and processes.

To mitigate threats from outside of the organisation network security such as firewalls, VPNs or private networks will securely restrict access and can be further enhanced by MFA. To prevent the most severe effects of a cyber security attack, such as ransomware, having encrypted offline backups stored at a different location allows for a rapid rebuild of systems. The gold standard of backups for business continuity is servers being replicated to a data centre, allowing to switch to backup systems almost instantly.

Companies that operate the highest information security standards hold the ISO accreditation ‘ISO27001’.
By choosing an ISP that holds this certification, you ensure that the services they provide meet stringent standards and is often a requirement of the defence industry supply chain.
Network security is a very specialist area and one that is evolving all the time. Any provider you work with should be able to listen to your unique requirements and design a solution that includes the appropriate level of security, including firewalls and UTMs (unified threat management). Once installed, the provider should be able to offer ongoing management, security updates and patches, and meet swift service level agreements for change requests.

If you’ve been told that ISDN is being switched off and wondering what that means for your business or planning when you will need to take action, here’s what you need to know. New orders for copper lines stopped in September  2023, with the eventual aim of turning off the entire copper network in January 2027.
Although you do have time to plan and implement the necessary changes, it’s possible that as time goes on those still using ISDN technology will notice support starting to dwindle as less ISDN – trained engineers are available to fix faults and the availability of parts will decline.  The quality of the network will without doubt decline, whilst moving to IP enhances the sound quality of a call, making it a better experience for your customers.
If the telephone is essential to your business, it will be worth not leaving the switchover until the last minute. Use the time to make a considered switch that may bring benefits to your business and make sure that the supplier you choose has the stability and technical expertise to support you.

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