Value-A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, “Who would like this $20 bill?”

Hands started going up.

He said, “I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this.” He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up.

He then asked, “Who still wants it?”Still the hands were up in the air.

“Well,” he replied, “What if I do this?” And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.

He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. “Now who still wants it?” Still the hands went into the air.

“My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.

We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.

Call Trivatech Group for your free initial Telecom and Data consultation.

Have a great weekend.

Trivatech Group.

888-352-6563

www.trivatechgroup.com

livingtreasure.com

The challenge of telecommunications – like many technology-driven markets – is keeping up with the pace of change. Most IT departments have many fish to fry, and nowadays most are increasingly focused on their customers and the end-user experience. A focus on telecom comes and goes with the flow of internal IT priorities.

Often, over the course of time as companies grow, change and evolve, telecom services are bolted on. Services become disparate and outdated. The result: your infrastructure is not optimized and communications costs have escalated. So what should you do now? Here’s a three-step road map to get you on your way:

Get a firm understanding of your current services. 

If you have a multi-location network, be sure to inventory all sites for all services. Compare all services with your current invoices and contracts for discrepancies. If you have a relatively complex network, you will likely find services you’re paying for, but don’t have. Get a bandwidth utilization report for each location and conduct a performance and capacity review. Identify any billing mistakes, overlapping services, and over-under used services.

Get a firm understanding of your contractual status with all carriers.

It is imperative to understand all existing contracts inside and out. What are your commitments? Do termination fees apply if you simply change services? What are the contract end dates for all things telecom whether it be voice, data, mobility, or your VoIP phone system.

Develop a formal contract and telecom service strategy.

Now that you understand your current state, what do you want your future state to be, and what opportunities exist – within fiscal reason – how do you get there? Can one provider do it all, or is mix and match better suited for your needs? Within a multi-location network, some sites may have limited carrier options and sub-optimal pricing points. Sometimes mix and match can get you the best price and the most functionality. If one provider can give you what you want and you know you have the proper price point, is one invoice appealing, or is it easier to apply services to the proper cost center and therefore have multiple invoices?

Of course, solution identification and procurement is the next step, but this is a good start to help achieve many benefits such as:

Value creation within telecom can be elusive in the face of complex technologies and varied choices. Needless to say, it can be frustrating and time consuming. However, we can help you realize significant savings, increased productivity, and a well-defined business plan for peace of mind.

The Telecom and Data landscapes are always changing. Let us walk through those changes with you.

Trivatech Group.

888-352-6563

www.trivatechgroup.com

leadcincinnatidotcom

“All hockey fans grieve the loss of the incomparable Gordie Howe,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “A remarkable athlete whose mastery of our sport was reflected by the longevity of his career and by his nickname, ‘Mr. Hockey,’ Gordie’s commitment to winning was matched only by his commitment to his teammates, to his friends, to the Red Wings, to the city of Detroit and — above all — to his family. His devotion to Colleen through her illness and the fact that he extended his playing days into a fifth decade so he could play with his sons are only two examples of that true priority in his life.

“Gordie’s greatness travels far beyond mere statistics; it echoes in the words of veneration spoken by countless players who joined him in the Hockey Hall of Fame and considered him their hero.

“Gordie’s toughness as a competitor on the ice was equaled only by his humor and humility away from it. No sport could have hoped for a greater, more-beloved ambassador.

“On behalf of the generations who were thrilled by his play and those who only know of his legend, and on behalf of all the young people and teammates he inspired, we send heartfelt wishes of condolence, comfort and strength to the Howe family and to all who mourn the passing of this treasured icon of our game.”

Lanny McDonald, chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, said, “Gordie Howe is a true legend who not only inspired so many people by his achievements on the ice, but to all of those who interacted with him throughout his life. He represented our game with great dignity and always had time for his legions of fans. On behalf of the Hockey Hall of Fame and all of our Honored Members, I would like to extend heartfelt condolences to Mark, Marty and the entire Howe family, and to express our gratitude to Gordie for the treasured memories and legacy he is leaving behind for all to celebrate. Thank you ‘Mr. Hockey’.”

Howe’s 801 goals were the most in NHL history until Wayne Gretzky passed him in 1994 and remain the most by a right wing. Howe finished his NHL career with 1,850 points, another record that stood until Gretzky broke it, and was the first player in League history to play 1,500 games. He remains the oldest player to skate in an NHL game (52 years, 11 days); no one else in NHL history has played past the age of 48.

Howe’s list of achievements leaves him head and shoulders above his peers. He finished in the top five in scoring for 20 straight seasons, helped lead the Red Wings to an NHL-record seven straight regular-season championships (1948-49 to 1954-55), was a member of four Stanley Cup-winning teams, won the Hart Trophy as NHL most valuable player and the Art Ross Trophy as the League’s top scorer each six times, and was given the NHL’s first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.

“The Howe family would like to thank friends and fans for their love and support,” the family said. “Gordie had a special connection with Red Wings fans and was always touched by their commitment. We are celebrating the life of a devoted husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and a friend to all.”

In 1979-80, Howe had 15 goals and 41 points as a right wing for the Hartford Whalers in his final NHL season. Those numbers are hardly paltry, but they were certainly well below the standards Howe set for himself during his NHL career. Then again, Howe turned 52 years old in the final week of the regular season.

As a result, Howe was for many years the personification and the essence of hockey. His accomplishments, longevity and goodwill as one of the game’s great ambassadors were legendary.

His impressive displays of skill and strength at ages when many former players spend their days fishing were matched only by his toughness; Howe’s lone 100-point season in the NHL came in 1968-69, when he turned 41 and when he was assessed 58 penalty minutes.

Such a unique set of accomplishments and a hallowed place in history is more astounding considering Howe’s early years. Mr. Hockey was born on March 31, 1928, in Floral, Saskatchewan, an unincorporated village so small its last operating post office closed 4 1/2 years before Howe was born.

Floral was not large enough to contain Howe, who was one of nine children, or his family, which moved to Saskatoon shortly after his birth. His humble beginnings in a farmhouse in the small western Canadian outpost wouldn’t hamper his future, nor would the mild dyslexia he suffered from in his youth, or the long hours doctors had him spend hanging from a bar to prevent his spine from curving as a result of a bone condition.

None of these issues was enough to prevent him from becoming a hockey player renowned for his toughness. Howe accumulated 1,685 penalty minutes in his NHL career and had more penalty minutes than points in 11 of his 26 seasons. The Gordie Howe Hat Trick — a goal, an assist and a fight in one game — has become a common term in the language of hockey, though Howe had a mere two of them during his career.

That isn’t to say he was opposed to dropping the gloves. In his book “Gordie Howe: My Hockey Memories,” he said that at a young age his father taught him a sense of quiet tenacity, telling him, “Don’t let anyone throw dirt on you, because they’ll just keep doing it.” Howe fought so frequently in his rookie season with the Red Wings that coach Jack Adams famously told him, “I know you can fight. Now can you show me you can play hockey?”

He could.

As longtime rival Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens once succinctly put it, “Gordie could do everything.”

In Detroit, where Howe teamed with Sid Abel and Ted Lindsay (then with Lindsay and Alex Delvecchio) on the famed “Production Line,” he remains the Red Wings’ all-time leader in goals, points and games played, and is second in assists.

Amazingly, Detroit nearly lost Howe’s rights because he was not properly listed as Red Wings property when he played for the Omaha Knights of the United States Hockey League in 1945. Canadiens executive Frank Selke noticed the error and, having a good relationship with Adams, sent the word along that Howe should be moved to the Red Wings’ protected list. It’s a brief incident that could have dramatically changed the course of Red Wings and NHL history.

That year in Omaha, Howe earned $2,500 for the season. In 1946-47, his first season in Detroit, he was paid $7,000, the NHL minimum.

His iconic No. 9 jersey was a product of almost accidental fortune too. Howe wore No. 17 in his first season with Detroit, but when future Hockey Hall of Fame member Roy Conacher, who had worn No. 9, left Detroit for the Chicago Blackhawks after the 1946-47 season, Howe snatched up the now-famous digit. His reason was more practical than stylistic: A lower number gave him a lower Pullman berth on train trips.

The road to that number, which no Red Wings player will wear again, and its Pullman berth was at times a tough one for Howe, who got his first ice skates at age 5 through random chance. A woman trying to make ends meet during the Depression knocked on the Howes’ door offering a bag of clothing for sale. Inside, young Gordie found a pair of second-hand skates that were several sizes too large; he wore extra socks to make them fit.

Howe struggled in school, but hockey was always a constant. He played for the King George School in Saskatoon in the early 1940s.

Howe was invited to a professional tryout with the New York Rangers in Winnipeg at the age of 15, the first time he saw formal hockey equipment, but New York opted not to sign him. He would leave Saskatoon to pursue his career a year later when he was signed by the Red Wings and assigned to a junior team in Galt, Ontario.

Howe had 48 points in 51 games as a 17-year-old with Omaha in 1945-46, then 22 points in ’46-47 with Detroit. His breakout season came in 1949-50, when he scored 35 goals and had 68 points, third in the League. But in the Stanley Cup Playoffs that spring, Howe sustained a fractured skull and a broken nose and cheekbone when he and Toronto Maple Leafs captain Ted Kennedy collided into the boards. The injury required emergency surgery to relieve pressure on Howe’s brain.

Howe returned for the 1950-51 season and won the NHL scoring title by 20 points.

Toughness was a hallmark of Howe throughout his career, not just in his ability to return from injury (he received more than 300 stitches during his career), but in his enthusiastic reputation as a player who worked in the corners and kept his elbows out as a warning to anyone who got close. So well-known was his stance that some came to call him “Mr. Elbows.”

“If you play a little rough, you get respect,” Howe said. “And with respect you get just a little bit more space on the ice.”

Howe announced his retirement after the 1970-71 season because of chronic wrist issues. He declined an offer to serve as the first coach of the expansion New York Islanders, took a job as a vice president with the Red Wings instead, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972. A year later, Howe was offered the opportunity to play with his sons Mark Howe and Marty Howe on the Houston Aeros of the World Hockey Association. Gordie had wrist surgery, led the Aeros to the WHA championship, and won the league’s MVP award.

“Once Gordie got drafted by the Aeros, everybody forgot how young Marty and Mark were, how good they were,” Gordie’s wife, Colleen, wrote years later in “and … Howe!: An Authorized Biography.” “Suddenly the story is ‘Gordie’s comeback.’ It was as if Marty and Mark were tagging along with Gordie instead of Gordie tagging along with them, which is what really happened.”

Gordie, Marty and Mark, who was inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011, all moved on to the New England Whalers in 1977. They played together for two more seasons in the WHA before a merger between the leagues brought Howe back to the NHL with the renamed Hartford Whalers, for whom Howe played his last full season in 1979-80.

In “and … Howe!”, Gordie and Colleen revealed his last season in the NHL originally was not intended to be the final one. Howe claimed he approached Whalers general manager Jack Kelley about playing one more season while serving as an assistant coach. According to the Howes, when Kelley declined the offer, a frustrated Gordie quit on the spot and the team called a news conference to announce his retirement the next day. Howe did take one shift with the International Hockey League’s Detroit Vipers in 1997 at age 69 to extend his streak of playing professional hockey to six decades, but for all intents and purposes, his playing career ended in 1980 with Hartford.

Howe previously was told he would have a place in New England “till the roof caves in,” which prompted a frantic demand by Howe to renegotiate when the roof of Hartford Civic Center collapsed in January 1978.

The way his career ended did not sit well with Gordie and Colleen for years, because they felt he was forced into early retirement and because Howe left himself few options.

“So he robbed himself of controlling one of the most monumental moments of his life,” Colleen wrote. “I always felt personally robbed of feeling good about the last time Gordie would put on a pair of skates. … He’ll always regret what happened, because he did not want to quit that year.”

Colleen Howe might have been the most famous wife in hockey history. She and Gordie met in a bowling alley in 1950 and were married in 1953. During Gordie’s career, and those of his sons, she represented all three of them. Her assertiveness and fierce protection of her family’s financial interests provided a counterbalance to Gordie, who despite his rugged on-ice persona was relatively quiet away from the rink.

Howe was extremely supportive of his wife’s influence on the business side, once noting, “Girls have more time to think. They’re not whacking each other over the head.”

By the time Colleen died in 2009 at the age of 76 of Pick’s disease, “Mrs. Hockey” was nearly as beloved as her husband.

In addition to his on-ice accomplishments, Howe will be widely remembered for his active participation in numerous charities. The most notable is the Howe Foundation, which Colleen founded in 1993 with the aim of improving the lives of children and helping underprivileged youth learn about and play hockey. They were active in building rinks in Michigan and raising money and awareness for more than 150 nonprofit and charitable organizations in North America, according to the couple’s website, mrandmrshockey.com. Their efforts included a 65-city tour in honor of Gordie’s 65th birthday in 1993, during which the Howes thanked fans for their support and raised money for charity, ultimately pulling in nearly $1 million for various causes.

Such tireless work has ensured that Howe will be remembered as much for his off-ice efforts as for what he did in his playing days. Those playing days were immortalized in 2007, when a bronze statue depicting Howe taking a slap shot was unveiled at the entrance of Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. The statue is 12 feet tall and weighs about 4,500 pounds, but it will never cast a shadow quite like the man himself.

I am a Red Wing fan and have been playing and idolizing Gordie Howe since I was six.  I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Hockey on several occasions and I have a photo of me and two of my kids in front of that statue. Being close to Detroit he showed up at some of our practices, and games but I’ll never forget this giant of a man bending down on torn up knees to shake my sons hand and my daughter hugging him and him just smiling, patting her back and telling her she made his day.

We should have a Hall of Fame for generosity and kindness and people Like Mr. Hockey should hold the key.

Trivatech Group.

888-352-6563

www.trivatechgroup.com

nhldotcom

What is an Independent Telecom Consultant? It has variations as Agent, Consultant and Specialist, but at the end of the day the Independent Telecom Consultant is hired by the customer to find them the best solution available for their business.

At the heart of our business is the vision that our clients will be with us for life. Unwavering Customer Care, doing what’s right for the client, and immense product/industry knowledge are what we have used as the foundation of Trivatech Group.

Here are the Top 3 Reasons to use a Telecom Consultant..

One, it’s one-stop shopping which saves you time and money! We have contacts with many carriers/vendors which means we can quickly acquire the quotes and information that you need – without you having to request them yourself by filling out online forms and repeating the requirements over and over.

Two, product and industry knowledge. The sales rep from Company A isn’t going to tell you that it has excessive billing issues and Company B’s rep isn’t going to tell you that the network in your area sucks or that the product is so new (or old) that delivering it to your satisfaction is not going to happen. Trivatech Group has that information.

If the customer cares about speedy delivery and less cost, then the we can eliminate looking at the operators that don’t own network there or who have provisioning hurdles.

Three, we have the right tools to provide you with the right solution for now and later.

We ask all the right questions to elicit the necessary information to choose not the expected answer, but the best solution.

Trivatech Group.

888-352-6563

www.trivatechgroup.com

Every search for the right communications solution for business seems to come complete with a side of alphabet soup these days.  IP-PBX, PSTN, PRI, VoIP, SIP, ISDN – it’s no wonder buyers can become confused.  To make matters worse, those in the industry tend to use some terms interchangeably, even when they have very different technical meanings that matter.  VoIP and SIP are good examples, although they accomplish the same goal of connecting calls via the Internet, they are not the same thing.  So, let’s explore the differences between VoIP and SIP.

What is VoIP?

The term VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol.  It is a broad term that covers any phone calls made over the Internet, as opposed to traditional telephone lines, otherwise known as the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). Other terms that are used interchangeably with VoIP include, IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over broadband, broadband telephony, IP communications, and broadband phone service. They all describe the fact that the Internet is used to digitally transmit the voice signal to another telephone or endpoint.

The term encompasses a group of protocol technologies, including propitiatory ones like Skype Protocol and open standards, of which SIP is an example.  VoIP is typically deployed in conjunction with an application, such as Skype or Google Talk, with IP enabled PBX hardware or via a hosted VoIP service.

Protocol

A protocol is a system of digital rules for message exchange within or between computers, phones or other digital devices. In order for one device to communicate with another, developers must use well-defined formats for exchanging messages. A protocol defines the syntax, semantics, and synchronization of communication. In order to be effective protocols have to be agreed upon and used by the developers of each connected device or application (often called endpoints).  For this reason, protocols tend to evolve into industry standards, making it easy for multiple vendors to create endpoints that can communicate with each other.

What is SIP?

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a communications protocol that is widely used for managing multimedia communication sessions such as voice and video calls.  SIP, therefore is one of the specific protocols that enable VoIP.   It defines the messages that are sent between endpoints and it governs establishment, termination and other essential elements of a call. SIP can be used to transmit information between just two endpoints or many.  In addition to voice, SIP can be used for video conferencing, instant messaging, media distribution and other applications.  SIP has been developed and standardized under the auspices of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Deployment

When most people hear the term VoIP, they imagine a hosted VoIP solution where the vendor hosts and operates the PBX functionality that manages call handling, voicemail and other applications.  The customer’s IP enabled phones connect to the Internet and ultimately to the vendor’s servers and software.  This, however is just one type of VoIP deployment.

Sip trunking delivers telephone services and unified communications to customers with SIP-enabled PBX and unified communications solutions.  In this case, call management, voicemail, auto attendants and other services are provided by the PBX.  The SIP trunks provide the connection between the PBX and the public telephone network, replacing the need for legacy telephone lines or PRIs (Primary Rate Interface).  This gives businesses the ability to select the IP-PBX hardware and software that works best for them, while freeing them from the expense and inflexibility of traditional phone lines and carrier relationships.

So there really is no such thing as SIP vs. VoIP. SIP is an industry standard method of achieving VoIP.  Businesses looking to improve their communications and save money by moving to VoIP should carefully consider each of the ways it can be deployed, including SIP trunking, and select the one that provides the greatest benefit for them.

We can break down the differences and explain the features and benefits of either. Contact us today.

Trivatech Group

888-352-6563

www.trivatechgroup.com

sourcesipus

Its a little lengthy but a good read.

Until recently few small businesses could afford the feature-rich telecommunications systems used by their larger competitors. But much has changed in the past few years — most important, the development of technologies that send voices as packets of data via the Internet.

As a result, even the tiniest businesses not only have access to all the features of a fancy private branch exchange, or PBX — extensions with transfers and direct internal dialing, conference calls, and auto attendants, to name just a few — but can fully customize them as well. More than that, VoIP makes available elements of so-called unified communications: Branch offices can now be incorporated directly into the phone network; a branch can be anywhere an employee has a computer and high-speed Web access; a call can be directed to ring on an office, cell, or home phone, a laptop, or all these simultaneously. Employees can dial in for voice mail or find those messages stored in e-mail.

Be forewarned: The options are dizzying — and ever-changing — and the choices are made more complicated by the industry’s unrestrained use of jargon and abbreviations.

Calling the VOIP Way

1. Know Your Options

Before plugging in, it helps to understand how the technology is changing the market. For starters, both traditional and VoIP providers now refer to what they sell as a PBX, meaning a system dedicated to a single business customer.

Old-school PBXs use traditional technology — known as circuit-switching or TDM — and are often called proprietary, because they are usually owned or maintained by your phone company. Circuit-switched PBXs remain common with big companies; small-business versions are less robust.

Now there’s VoIP. Here, the phone system piggybacks on the computer network’s cables and routers; an Ethernet cable from a wall jack connects to the phone at each workstation. Calls among far-flung offices will be routed through the Internet and your IP PBX, meaning you escape telephone charges. The features are mostly functions of software, not hardware. As a result, VoIP lets small businesses get big-time features. And if the sound isn’t quite landline quality, it’s improving fast.

2. Choosing Among VoIPs

Within the VoIP universe are two basic options, each with its advantages and disadvantages. Use the dollar figures below as general guidelines; prices can vary dramatically, depending on the provider and when you enter this changing market.

Hosted VoIP A hosted VoIP system is housed and managed off-site by an independent company (which may be a traditional telephone company playing in the VoIP arena). Your company connects to the host via the Internet.

Cost This can be an inexpensive arrangement, not least because there are some 700 companies in the U.S. alone competing to sell hosted VoIP systems. And it costs hosts little to add incremental clients to their networks, because they usually route outbound calls over the Internet, which avoids the telephone network’s origination and long-distance charges.

Most commonly, the host charges per extension and by the amount of external calling time. Plans can also be tailored for unusual call patterns, such as frequent international dialing or faxing. It’s important to analyze your call patterns before selecting a plan. (The list of features — caller ID, on-hold music, advanced voice-mail capabilities — doesn’t vary much among plans.)

In addition, there are usually one-time fees for installation, licenses, and network equipment; depending on a company’s size, the cost can exceed $2,000. Plus, you will need to buy special IP phones, sometimes available only from the host. These start at around $150 per phone. (You can often rent the phones as part of a monthly package, but this is seldom cost-effective in the long run.) Bottom line: After the start-up costs, a company can expect to spend at least $30 to $40 per extension per month for a basic system with unlimited domestic calling.

Pros Hosted VoIP has relatively low up-front costs and fast start-up. Most hosts frequently upgrade their service, which may protect you from technological obsolescence.

Cons After you have bought phones and sometimes a service contract, it’s not easy to switch providers to get a better deal. It can be difficult and expensive to obtain specialized applications, such as those for call centers, from a host. Also, a hosted phone system puts you at the mercy of your Internet connection. “If that goes down,” says Mike Zygiel, a network consultant in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, “you’re down.” Finally, the industry hasn’t stabilized; companies come and go and offer varying sound quality and reliability.

Note Some providers offer a scaled-down hosted service called vPBX, which allows a very small company with remote branches or employees to receive inbound calls at a single phone number, at which a virtual receptionist passes the calls to the appropriate landline or cell phone. These services generally begin at about $15 a month for a limited amount of inbound minutes. However, you will still have to rely on your carrier for outbound calls.

Private VoIP Your company can buy its own VoIP hardware and software, which manage internal communications such as calls within and among offices. External calls are typically sent over phone lines, but now you have the option of using a technology called SIP, or session initiation protocol, to route them over the Web, with cost advantages similar to those of hosted services.

Cost A proprietary VoIP PBX, designed by a network consultant, runs about $500 to $800 per extension. Add a maintenance contract, and you will pay $10 to $16 per extension per month (amortized over five years), plus phone service charges.

Pros Besides being much more customizable, private VoIP will probably be cheaper than a host over the long run.

Cons There are high up-front or financing costs. You will need to maintain the system, which requires in-house expertise or a service contract nromally around 10 percent of the initial purchase. And private VoIP is generally unsuitable for very small companies.

Note Some consultants will install a network at your facilities but maintain ownership of it. They will manage it on your behalf, charging a monthly fee — a sort of hybrid of hosted and private. This typically costs from $45 to $55 per outbound line per month.

3. Get a Line to the Outside

Whichever system you choose, you will need a hardwired connection to the outside, either to the phone company or to an Internet provider. Phone companies often bundle phone and data services. Any VoIP platform that sends calls over the Web, even to a host, will need substantial bandwidth. A T1 line, says Ott, can carry up to 15 VoIP conversations at a time and costs $300 to $600 a month, plus up to $90 for what’s called quality of service.

It’s a good idea to have separate Internet services for voice and data, to serve as backup should one go down. “I always recommend redundancy, because now, if you lose your Internet access, you lose your voice and Internet,” says Ott. “Most businesses can afford to lose one — but not both.” If your proprietary system relies on SIP, consultants recommend that you build in telephone network redundancy as well.

Pick the Host With the Most

Ask for redundancy Choose a company that has prepared for an emergency by investing in redundancies, suggests Don Briggs, who operates Advanced Communications Technology, a hosting service and network designer based in Dexter, Missouri.

Insist on quality Make sure your provider offers quality of service, which is a technical term that refers to a protocol that gives priority to voice packets over data packets. Sound quality and customer service vary widely among providers, and undercapitalized carriers often seek ways to cut corners.

Focus on the metrics “Uptime,” the percentage of time the network is running, is important, says consultant Tom Wales. So is bandwidth. “Make sure that they’re providing at least 64 kilobits per second for each voice conversation,” he notes. “They’ll say you need less, but that’s the least you should have.”

Get it in writing Wales recommends requiring hosts to address these issues in a “service-level agreement” that consummates your telecom deal.

Put our expertise to work for you!

Trivatech Group

888-352-6563

www.trivatechgroup.com

incdotcom

The floodwaters ravaged a widespread region in Louisiana, causing Governor John Bel Edwards to declare a state of emergency. He has asked residents to remain in safe areas and to not travel out just to sight-see during the dangerous flooded times. The flooding was called a truly historic event — with videos like the above highlighting just how quickly a car could get swallowed up in the floodwaters and put its occupants in danger of drowning.

The video is being replayed many places online, on TV and being shared a-plenty on social media. The men can be seen on a boat first approaching the vehicle in the beginning of the dramatic video. The woman can be heard crying out that she was going to drown, but the men on the boat reassure her that they will rescue her as they scramble around for knives and any tools that will help them get to the woman in the sinking car.

With the death toll from the flooding around Louisiana rising and having caused thousands of people to need rescuing across the state, the woman in the viral video is no doubt grateful that she was in a convertible car with a roof that could be more easily accessed, since she didn’t break a window from the inside to get herself out of the sinking vehicle.

At the end of the video, Phung is shown having also rescued the dog — a small white dog who shivers and shakes and kicks excitedly in the floodwaters — and is apparently alive. Many people besides the woman in the viral video have found themselves in need of rescue after heavy rainfall hit southeast Louisiana.

All life is precious.

Trivatech Group.

888-352-6563

www.trivatechgroup.com

inquisitrdotcom/wafb

The Internet of Things (IoT) is set to become a major driver of digital business initiatives. Gartner estimates that, by 2020, there will be 25 billion connected things. Organizations are starting to evaluate how to embrace and exploit the opportunities provided by the use of the information collected and shared by such a massive network of interconnected things. (For definitions of IoT, “things,” operational technology [OT], etc.

Current IoT initiatives vary widely in nature. Projects developed by industries such as retail, healthcare, education and agriculture, as well as services targeted at consumers, are often based on highly standardized, interconnected things embedded in consumer goods. These initiatives will increasingly rely on an ecosystem of things included in any common object in use. Industrial and enterprise initiatives in verticals such as mining, oil and gas, utilities, telecom and transportation will involve the use of less-commoditized technology. OT equipment may require more complex design and testing, and it will have longer life cycles.

Large numbers of system integrators (SIs), service providers and technology vendors are likely to be engaged in the delivery of the elements of an IoT project. A number of vendor categories are involved in helping enterprises discover and develop IoT business models and opportunities. No single class of vendor can fulfill all the services required on its own, so partnerships, subcontracts and OEM relationships are inevitable. Players include semiconductors vendors; OEMs; infrastructure and gateway providers; communication service providers; analytics, platform and middleware vendors; IT and OT professional service providers; and SIs.

Through 2018, there will be no dominant IoT ecosystem platform. IT leaders will still need to compose IoT solutions from multiple providers. This challenge is acute, because IoT solutions are not clearly understood and are relatively immature. IoT standards either don’t exist or are still immature, and vendors are taking advantage of this “Wild West” moment in IoT adoption to advance their own agendas and points of view.

Ultimately, despite these differences, the cost structure for IoT initiatives of any nature will include a predictable list of cost elements, as described below. As organizations envisage ways of engaging in IoT projects, they need to understand whether (and in what time frame) the costs of such initiatives will be offset by the anticipated value from increased revenue or reduced costs.

Let us help you increase you revenue and reduce your costs!!

Trivatech Group.

888-352-6563

www.trivatechgroup.com

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When networks go down, even for a brief moment, thousands of dollars are in jeopardy. Can service providers afford sacrificing carrier-grade reliability and risk facing downtime?

I’ve been examining the technical requirements for carrier-grade reliability in telecom networks quite a bit in recent weeks. One blog post discussed the differences between “high availability” and “carrier grade,” while a subsequent post outlined some of the key challenges that make it so hard to implement true six-nines (99.9999%) reliability in a telecom platform.

Given both the technical challenges and also the licensing costs associated with delivering carrier-grade reliability, sooner or later a smart finance person is going to ask whether the benefits actually outweigh the expense. Isn’t high availablity good enough? Why go to the additional expense of carrier-grade reliability? So it’s interesting to look at some numbers that unequivocally tell us the real question is not “Can you afford to implement carrier-grade reliability?” but rather “How could you possibly afford not to?”

Let’s start with the numbers that no one can dispute. The traditional standard for telecom network reliability, measured at the service level, is six-nines or 99.9999%, which translates to an average 32 seconds of downtime per year, per service.

The standard reliability guarantee for enterprise solutions is three-nines (99.9%), which implies 526 minutes of downtime per year.

So as a service provider, what will 526 minutes actually cost you, compared to 32 seconds?

One report estimates the cost of downtime as $11,000 per minute, per server. This represents the revenue that’s lost as a result of service level agreements (SLAs) with customers (mostly high-value, enterprise users). If each server is down for 526 minutes per year, that’s an annual cost of $5,780,000 per server. We’ll call that $6 million per server to keep the math easy.

Now, how many servers do you have in your data centers, delivering the services that your customers depend on? If you have 1,000 servers then your total annual cost of downtime is 1,000 x $6 million, or $6 billion.

Can you afford to loose $600 let alone $6 billion? Let us help!!

Trivatech Group

888-352-6563

www.trivatechgroup.com

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