10:00am US Pacific Time August 30th, 2007

iSociety says: Today's Fireside chat topic is Voice over IP (VoIP) and features Roxanne Reynolds-Lair - CIO for FIDM and Mike Rousseaux - Worldwide System i5 Collaboration Offerings Manager for IBM.

FIDM have recently installed VoIP on System i with much success. Since then, Roxanne has been presenting VoIP sessions for various conferences and webcasts.

We are privileged to have Roxanne and Mike here today.

RRLair says: Hi from Roxanne at FIDM.

Mike Rousseaux says: Hello everyone and welcome.

iSociety says: On the iSociety IP Telephony forum, you can find an IBM case study: http://iSociety.common.org/groups/view/sig/?sigid=IP+Telephony+

Here are some excerpts:

“Transform how students, staff and alumni communicate with the college; lower costs and improve services through a much greater use of self service; integrate voice into Web portals for richer interactions.”

“VoIP telephony delivers significant telecommunications cost reduction - Routing voice traffic over an intercampus IP network cut WAN costs significantly compared to the previous network, which has resulted in a payback period of just two years.”

iSociety says: Let's begin..

Question from Anne Lucas: What was the #1 challenge?

Question from John Cherian: What are the biggest challenges in the implementation of IPT environment and going live?

RRLair says: The biggest challenge is ensuring that your network is ready for VoIP. There is so much more involved than just the System i... The System i was the easiest part of the implementation

Question from iSociety: What carriers are supported by the System i IP Telephony solution?

Mike Rousseaux says: For the most part it is helping a customer understand the importance of the network before implementing. We are independent of the carrier layer. The best solution that meets your requirements for carrier connectivity can be used - that is true on the network layer also.

RRLair says: The carriers FIDM uses are ATT and Sprint

Question from Anne Lucas: How reliable has the system been?

Mike Rousseaux says: The importance of the network is that it meets the QoS (Quality of Service) requirements for voice.

RRLair says: The system has been extremely reliable. Our only problem was with a hiccup in our network switch.

Question from John Cherian: The most serious threat to VoIP is a distributed denial of service (DoS) attack. How could we handle this problem?

Mike Rousseaux says: It would be handled by installing network devices to block these attacks. That means the voice packets get priority on the network. They are key to your overall connectivity strategy.

Question from FredP: You mentioned the system i was the easiest part, what was the most difficult? Please give an example of one of the challenges.

RRLair says: The biggest challenge was the coordination of all the vendors. ATT and SBC merger was our biggest problem.

Question from Andremc: How much of a role does the VoIP service provider play in the voice quality of the service?

Mike Rousseaux says: Since the 3Com solution is independent of the network layers then it becomes a best of breed selection.

Question from iSociety: How easy is it to integrate this with business applications?

RRLair says: We are working with 3Com on the beta SDK and SameTime integration.

Question from iSociety: What software is required? Is there additional hardware that was required? Other than the System i?

Answer from Mgordo: 3Com IP Telephony+IP Messaging Software, P5 hardware, V5R3M5/V5R4

Question from Llewis1957: How many locations are you connecting?

RRLair says: We have 6 locations.

Question from Alucas: How many VoIP users do you have?

RRLair says: We have approx 600 VoIP users.

Question from iSociety: Roxanne, what was the business benefit from implementing this solution?

RRLair says: Benefits included huge cost savings. Other benefits were additional functionality like the Telecommuter module. More benefits - simplified infrastructure and ease of admin.

Question from Rodrigs1: One thing I don't like is that this requires a Linux partition; was it considered to implement in the PASE environment, which can run AIX or Linux applications so that a Linux partition is not necessary?

Mike Rousseaux says: The 3Com software runs in it's own hardened Linux partition. No need to purchase Linux distribution - it is included in the installation.

Answer from Mgordo: You can run only certain Unix apps in PASE (and not sure about Linux apps). But you're limited in system management ('cause it's not a full-blown Unix LPAR) and mostly performance... you have a whole another layer now, PASE to go through.

Question from Llewis1957: Do you use the 3Com gateways to connect to the local phone service?

RRLair says: We do use the 3Com gateways to connect.

Question from John Cherian: What additional Technical and Service Support will we need?

Mike Rousseaux says: As part of the offer 3Com provides the technical expewrtise to install and implement the solution. Other certified service providers can also provide these services.

Question from John Cherian: We will need to effectively address quality of service (QoS), which means bringing a focus to the major contributing factors to QoS.

Mike Rousseaux says: Exactly .. all your network segments need to be analyzed to meet the QOS requirement .. this service is provided by our certified partners.

Question from Llewis1957: We currently have a partial VoIP solution using a gateway in one location made by the same company as the ones from 3Com.  Our QOS is horrible in that location, and our current phone vendor blames the gateway.  How can I be sure 3Com's would be better?

RRLair says: 3Com does a voice readiness assessment before and after. The voice readiness assessment is critical to understanding QOS issues.

Mike Rousseaux says: I would advise doing a Voice Readiness assessment which will look at the network to determine what changes are needed .. especially if you are having trouble today.

Question from John Cherian: How fast you can switch over completely from PSTN to VoIP(SIP)?

RRLair says: We did the actual switch for all 6 locations and 600 phones in one weekend. The full planning process took 5 months - the biggest delay was ATT added 2 months to the process.

Question from FredP: What issues did you have with your network... did you need to enhance your network with more capable equipment?

RRLair says: We needed to enhance both LAN and WAN equipment to take advantage of the cost savings from ATM to MPLS. We also added POE switches.

Question from Tami_Deedrick: What kind of feedback are you getting from your users?

RRLair says: We are getting very positive feedback, especially on the additional functionality - like the Telecommuter module, directory and call log.

Question from John Cherian: What are the typical VoIP integration scenarios - current and future?

Question from iSociety: How easy is it to integrate Telephony into business applications

RRLair says: We are looking to integrate voice into our student portal and our websites - plus integration for our internal staff productivity for SameTime integration. We are in the process of working with 3Com and IBM on the beta of the SDK (software developer kit).

Mike Rousseaux says: 3Com provides an SDK for free that is based on Web Services. So it can integrate into any application capable of writing to a Web Service.

RRLair says: we are testing 5 scenarios with SameTime integration

Larry Bolhuis says: How do you address: "I found this open source VoIP solution and stuck it on a pair of PCs. This was HUGELY cheaper than the 3Com/i5 solution!”?.

RRLair says: Larry - cheaper is not always better, the system i offers integration and reliability etc.

Mike Rousseaux says: Typically these solutions work for small installations but do not scale very well. In some cases they do meet the most basic features required but the burden tends to fall on the customer for over all value to the business.

Question from Tami_Deedrick: What is the Telecommuter module?

RRLair says: The Telecommuter module allows us to have a remote office act like part of our network. We have a single user office in georgia and we can communicate via a 4 digit extension.

Mike Rousseaux says: The Telecommuter module is an additional module intended to support your mobile workers allowing a remote SIP phone or soft client to connect to your corporate telephony system in a secure manner.

RRLair says: The Telecommuter module saves us time and money, we have 6 other sites that will use the Telecommuter module.

Question from iSociety: Will Telephony run on all models of System i?

Mike Rousseaux says: Telephony will run on any Power 5 or above system.

Question from FredP: What model System i are you running this on and what is the number of extensions (capacity)  your system can handle?

RRLair says: FIDM is running on a 570 with a 520 HA IP telephony backup.

Mike Rousseaux says: The 3Com solution is built on a carrier class architecture that will scale to tens of thousands of users.

Question from FredP: What sort of bandwidth is required for a large number of users?

Mike Rousseaux says: this will depend on many factors: the codex selected for compression as well as the features being used like Voice, Unified messaging and SameTime integration .. during the design phase all these factors are taken into account.

Question from iSociety: Do I need additional software to integrate with business applications?

Mike Rousseaux says: The SDK if offered for free from 3Com and provides a Web Services interface ... we will also be publishing a white paper with examples.

Question from iSociety: Will Telephony run on the 515 and the 525?

Mike Rousseaux says: Absolutely ... all models of the product line .. depending on your usage we have benchmarked the 520 2-way to support over 1,000 users.

Question from iSociety: How many phones does the Telecommuter module support?

Mike Rousseaux says: I am not aware of an upper limit but it would be limited to the number of users accessing the gateway.

RRLair says: FIDM is using the Telecommuter module for very small offices - from 1 to 3 people.

Question from John Cherian: Are there any downsides to System i IP Telephony when compared to solutions on other boxes?

RRLair says: At FIDM we don't see any downside to IP Telephony on the system i, only positive and unlimited potential for integration.

Mike Rousseaux says: Only advantages ... the one big advantage is being able to run a complete telephony solution on one box.

Question from John Cherian: Based on your experience, what are the negatives you find VoIP has against PSTN?

RRLair says: Again, we haven't seen any negatives for VoIP as long as your network is VoIP ready.

Mike Rousseaux says: I agree with Roxanne .. the Network can make or break your success with this technology but the business benefits far outweigh the changes needed to make your network ready.

Question from FredP: Based on your telco savings, initial cost of new equipment, like, routers, switches, user stations, and new maintenance costs, etc, in your estimation how long will it take before the savings are realized?

RRLair says: Our FIDM ROI is two years.

Mike Rousseaux says: What I hear from our first customers is they expect to pay for the solution with long distance phone charges and network cost reductions.

Question from Nroehrig: Mike - what is your network bandwidth?

Mike Rousseaux says: Mine is maxed out. (Ed note: Mike works for IBM)

RRLair says: At FIDM we have 1 gigabit LANs internal. We didn't change our outbound, we continued to use the same capacity we had with the old PSTN solution.

iSociety says: Mike - do you have some more details from Mike Gordon about the Telecommuter module?

Mike Rousseaux says: Up to 600 sessions on a x306 type 3250. Of course you can add additional servers. It currently does not run in an LPAR on i5 - it has to be stand-alone.

Question from iSociety: How much technical assistance was required from the local business partner in order to get Telephony up and running in the beginning?

RRLair says: Key Information Systems is FIDM's business partner. They worked with 3Com to install the linux partitions. Key's portion seemed to us the simplest and least complicated.

Question from iSociety: Are there trained partners around the world to assist others implementing IP Telephony?

RRLair says: Let me clarify, the quality of the Key Information systems is what made it simple. They are great to work with.

Mike Rousseaux says: IBM has been working closely with our partners to educate them .. in addition 3Com provides assistance to the BP to augment their skills and provide skills transfer over time.

Question from FredP: Can you use a software client on your PC/Laptop... for mobile or remote staff?

Mike Rousseaux says: Yes ... There are many options here ...  most SIP compliant soft-clients will work .. 3Com provides one and SameTime has full integration for click to call and click to conference

Question from Anne Lucas: What do you wish you had done differently?

RRLair says: Since we were already in the planning for a more phased in approach with a different vendor, FIDM should have allowed 3Com to do a network assessment based on the IBM System i IP telephony solution. The system planning guide and the site survey would have been helpful - we were a bit naive.

iSociety says: Thanks to everyone for being here for our VoIP Fireside chat today. If you have more questions about the FIDM implementation, you can post them to the iSociety SIG at:

http://iSociety.common.org/groups/view/sig/?sigid=IP+Telephony+

Note from Tami_Deedrick: Roxanne's story about being the first US installation of the IBM IP Telephony solution will be featured in the October issue of IBM Systems Magazine, i5 edition. You can pick it up at the COMMON Focus conference or visit www.ibmsystemsmag.com for a free subscription.

iSociety says: Thanks to Roxanne and Mike for their participation.

Mike Rousseaux says: Thank you everyone for your time today ...

RRLair says: Thank you. FIDM is really happy with this solution, so talk to more on the iSociety SIG.

Mike Rousseaux says: I appreciate the great questions, and thank you Roxanne for your support.