There was a time when complex, highly automated telephone systems with smart features that bring a lot of functionality were the realm of corporate, large sized organizations. Today, even a one-man-band business can afford to benefit from the latest and the greatest in terms of automation and features, and this is not a statement made just for the sake of making a point.
Take solutions such as FreePBX, FusionPBX, 3CX, Wazo – to name only a few – they all have enterprise-level features and can be deployed either on hardware on the local network or in the cloud, by means of virtual private servers. And, in both cases, the performance is optimized using clever programming, with solutions accumulated over years of development, making use of highly performing solutions like Linux or Windows10.
Growing organizations no longer should fear that at some point they will have to invest tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars only to be able to cope with the growing number of users. Smart solutions such as PBX bridging, Session Border Controllers and others make sure the load can be distributed and the whole system operates as one, keeping up with the demand.
It is even possible to interconnect separate business telephony systems (as long as their software engines are the same or compatible in features) and enable free and direct calling between organizations, as if they were using a single system.
Perhaps the most important aspect in the VoIP revolution we are seeing around the world is the fact that business organizations now have a multitude of choices when it comes to telecommunication solutions, from state-of-the-art hardware (with the expected price tag they carry) to smarter, leaner solutions based on Open Source software or even commercial software that make use of the existing infrastructure (on-premise or in the cloud), therefore making scalability leaner and with increased performance available.
The price points of today’s industrial fan-less computers or cloud-based virtual servers has dropped dramatically, making possible costs in the region of $20 to $30 per month for powerful machines. The nature of the VoIP technology is that even a small mini-computer with a price tag of only $400 can run a complex and powerful phone system for a sizeable organization (10 – 20 users).
With the onset of cloud virtualization, one can start with a small or medium sized server in the cloud and – when the demand requires it – upgrade to a more powerful one at a click of a button.
NOTEWORTHY: Today’s computing platforms are built from day one to be flexible and allow easy path to upgrade – allowing companies to better manage their resources and budget, based on the actual usage or needs.