Digital transformation is changing the way organizations operate and pressuring enterprises to adapt to the storm of new technologies. Businesses are tasked with making vital decisions regarding their digital strategies and how to innovate, especially when considering technologies that will reinforce business continuity and modern communications.
While many organizations are addressing these issues, some aspects of networking and communications are stubbornly hanging around—specifically Time Division Multiplexing (TDM), DS1 and DS3 Access solutions and copper-based services, such as primary rate interfaces (PRIs) and plain old telephone services (POTS). Relying on these legacy technologies undoubtedly leads to wasted spend, limited features and overall obsolescence. If you are still using these services, now is the time to start exploring modern-day connectivity options that will support the growing demand for cloud-based apps, achieve business continuity and avoid the risk of downtime and lost productivity.
At a previous point in time, these legacy technologies did present a reliable method of networking and voice communications. DS1s and DS3s were the access workhorse in the 1980s and 90s and the proliferation of carriers that offered these access solutions increased remarkably with the Telecommunications Act of 1996.1 This act was the first major overhaul of telecommunications law in 62 years, opening the playing field and allowing competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) to compete in the market with incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs).
TDM access technology—such as PRI T1s, traditional phone lines and data T1 circuits—predate the Internet. At the time, these carried the benefit of being readily available, offered by every telecommunications provider tested over the course of decades. Yet, most customers today using TDM access for Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) or voice services don’t have a failover in place; they’re single threaded and prone to outages.
In our current landscape—and particularly during times of uncertainty—modern networks require more agility to quickly adapt to ever-changing demands. With an estimated 25-30% of the U.S. workforce that will be working-from-home (WFH) multiple days a week by the end of 20211, it’s safe to say that WFH is here to stay. The reality is: legacy network and voice services are not enabling the remote collaboration and uninterrupted experience needed to succeed in today’s world.
A recent survey found that almost half of businesses network infrastructure assets today are aging or obsolete.2 Many major telecommunications providers have already gone as far as to stop providing TDM access to new customers; they have increased rates on the existing base and are planning how to best retire TDM altogether.
The disadvantages of sticking with TDM access technology prove to be both expensive and hazardous to any organization’s plans around strategic growth. The drawbacks include:
To steer clear of network obsolescence, organizations are turning to Windstream Enterprise to enable a rich, unified experience with UCaaS and SD-WAN leveraging Ethernet, broadband and wireless access solutions. By replacing legacy access technology with more efficient, all-IP-based access mediums, organizations will start to see the following benefits:
The need to shift from these legacy copper-based services have been coming for years—not just within Windstream Enterprise, but for the entire industry. These technologies are nearing end of life and can no longer be trusted the way they once were. Organizations that are moving to more agile, integrated modes of business connectivity and communications are finding greater reliability, bandwidth, cost savings and interconnectivity gains when switching to cloud-based solutions.
Windstream Enterprise has a wide portfolio of unified communications, next-gen network and security solutions, making us the perfect partner to help you create a custom migration path that will future-proof your infrastructure and lay the foundation for an ever-changing landscape. To learn more about our award-winning UC and SD-WAN services, visit our website to explore our solutions, including OfficeSuite UC®, UCaaS: Unified Communications as a Service and SD-WAN Concierge™.
1. Global Workplace Analytics. Work-At-Home After Covid-19. Accessed February 7, 2021. 2. FCC, Telecommunications Act of 1996. Accessed February 7, 2021.
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