Essential Technology: A GCS Blog

We've long been fans of Sonicwall firewalls at GCS. Advanced features, easy web-based configuration, low failure rates and low cost make it a very compelling option for many clients. With the rollout of the new product lines Sonicwall offers the Enhanced Firmware features (most notably WAN Failover and Load Balancing) as a standard item on every product. My small office clients can now get WAN failover in a device for less than $400. This is a real cloud enabler. For a few grand you get WAN failover plus a High Availability configuration on your firewalls.

Today Avaya released a KB article describing how to configure Sonicwalls to prioritize voice traffic between sites. With the rise in popularity of MPLS and managed routers, we are seeing far more Ethernet handoffs than T1 handoffs these days. The Sonicwall NSA 240 is a great device to terminate that MPLS circuit and appropriately manage the traffic.

Today launches a series of posts targeted at new businesses including boot-strappers and those with more financial resources. I'll review the many technology tasks required to launch your new business from selecting an accounting system to building out your first office. I'll talk about options you have at each stage and when it's appropriate to consider the more expensive options.

Password List: Before you do anything else download and use PasswordSafe. Many of the tasks below require you to setup new accounts. Most businesses lose this account information in the first months of operations and waste hours of time later proving they should have access to the accounts.

Domain: Acquiring a good domain name is a challenge as most of the prime domain names are no longer available. Find a detailed discussion about choosing a domain name here. A low cost provider, such as GoDaddy, offers the same product with a fine level of service. Do make sure that if someone is buying the domain for you it is registered in your name. Use an email address that you WILL ALWAYS have access to. This is a common frustration for young companies.

Email: Most companies begin life with a low cost form of email known as POP3 or rely strictly on a web-based provider. Hosted Exchange and Google Mail offer far superior options to regular POP3 email with relatively similar costs. Hosted Exchange is available from many vendors. You'll get better mobile device support, improved email/calendar/contact sharing and reliable data backup.

Telephones: Who needs a phone anymore? You will. Relying on cell phones becomes an extremely expensive proposition. While undoubtedly the tool of choice early on you will need phones on desks before too long. Hosted Voice over IP solutions have highly variable call quality, advanced feature sets and high recurring monthly costs. An in-office phone system is the choice of most businesses once they reach five or seven employees. Modern systems, such as the Avaya IP Office, offer advanced integration to mobile devices, telecommuters and remote employees. Advanced functional needs such as call center, call recording or specialized auto attendants may demand a phone system before staff capacity does.

Website: For a few thousand dollars you'll get a basic marketing page advertising your business. This should include several unique pages, a custom design and some ability for you to change site content without calling the design company. Expect to have to generate the text yourself.

Website Hosting: This will probably be provided by your design company. Expect to pay $15 - $30 per month for basic level hosting. Advanced sites featuring high traffic volume,
e-commerce or custom development may have hosting costs of a few to several hundred dollars.

DNS Hosting: DNS hosting is rarely mentioned by hosting companies other than they'll provide it. Many hosting companies, ISPs and technology service providers have low quality DNS systems. If DNS fails it will affect your email, website, remote access and more.

It is especially apparent at this late stage in VoIP adoption just how far off some early VoIP predictions were.  The mobile, free, ubiquitous connection that early VoIP proponents espoused is only marginally closer than it was 10 years ago. In fact today the generation-old PSTN provides more of these features than modern VoIP systems.

The remote VoIP handset still suffers many problems. Without point to point connectivity QoS can only be ensured at the endpoints. As many Vonage subscribers can tell you, this leads to dropped calls, distorted voice and static. Many vendors still require VPN connections between sites for these remote handsets to 'function.'

The Avaya IP Office has supported remote VoIP handsets, with an embedded VPN  client, for years. Recently they have improved their mobile solutions with 'old' technology - the PSTN and mobile phone network. New telecommuter features allow a home phone (PSTN, or otherwise) to receive calls directly while providing advanced telephony features through a remote connection to Phone Manager Pro (Avaya's premium telephony app). Great quality, advanced features and very reliable - that's tough to beat. In addition the Twinning functionality supports multiple endpoint connections. Call my DID to ring both my work phone and cell phone. By pushing the call across the 3G network I get a very good quality call that can reach me through my DID. Neither of these advanced voice features require an IP connection (excepting the remote connection to Phone Manager Pro).

Where is VoIP a fit? That might be the next blog post!