In an enterprise environment, voice and video over IP (VoIP) significantly reduces long distance telephone charges by transferring all long-distance voice data over the Internet connection. It also provides a means for rich multimedia applications converging video, voice and data in a single session. Since VoIP shares the Internet connection with other forms of traffic, it must compete with other applications for network bandwidth. In order to make VoIP a viable business application for this scenario, the quality of VoIP should be equal to the traditional PSTN/ISDN voice and video services.

A typical corporate network environment carries a broad mix of data traffic with different bandwidth needs. Bursty data applications, such as email and the web, have variable and unpredictable bandwidth requirements while streaming real-time applications such as voice and video demand consistent bandwidth allocation and minimal delays. While a 250 millisecond delay in an email or a Web page will probably not be noticed, a similar delay in a VoIP phone conversation or video conference would make conversation uneasy and cause callers to talk over each other.

Streaming applications like VoIP and videoconferencing require performance guarantees to ensure that they do not suffer from bandwidth contention from less critical applications and Internet traffic (e.g., non-critical Web browsing, large FTP file transfers, and P2P uploading/downloading of digital music files). A policy based quality of service (QoS) solution can ensure that your voice and video applications receive the bandwidth they require.

So what’s the solution??

First….ensure your network is optimized for sufficent bandwidth….with room for expansion when/if necessary. For businesses with frequent multimedia applications such as videoconferencing….a minimum of DS3 Bandwidth is necessary. Perhaps OC3 for large companies with extensive multimedia load pressures on their network.

Second….allocate your network resources based on business priorities. A commercially available monitoring device will help you monitor and manage network and application performance. This allows you to prioritize traffic traveling over your WAN/Internet connection and guarantee bandwidth for timing-critical, real-time applications like VoIP and videoconferencing. Through such a device specific voice, video and multimedia traffic flows can be identified and the following actions can be assigned: minimum and maximum bandwidth; priorities; guaranteed rate (CBR); fairness; and control over the number of sessions allowed through the network.

Take control of your Internet and WAN resources to optimize the performance of your business-critical applications, VoIP and video traffic. Ensure sufficient bandwidth in your network for near term and expansion needs….and implement a monitoring system to manage the daily operations and priorities.

That’s simply smart business.

If you are a businessperson, you are always looking for ways you can promote your business, creating a stable clientele and therefore maximizing your profits. Apart from conventional methods of marketing, the internet is today the new and exciting frontier of marketing and networking. Internet marketing is now considered a major means of advertising and promoting your business. The advent of social media websites has been at the forefront of this drive.

Having said that, time management is a key aspect when using social networking websites. You will need to balance the time you spend on promoting your business and actually running the business. The fruits of your effort when implementing may take time to be realised and more so if you have minimal experience. Overall, the effectiveness of these tools depends on your knowledge of how to manipulate and utilise these powerful marketing tools. If done well, the benefits can be gratifying. However, the results of internet marketing can be very fruitful if the proper procedures are used; and among today’s most popular social networking sites, they do not come any bigger than Twitter and Facebook. So let us briefly look at each.

Twitter

Twitter allows you to build a social network of followers: a potential gold mine for businesses. In Twitter terms, followers are the people with whom you share common interests. They are technically your fans. With Twitter, and more so if you have a business-oriented objective, you can also follow other people who you consider potential clients. To attract a large following, you need to first create an attractive profile, which should preferably include your photograph.

Twitter has an advantage over other social websites in the sense that it is flexible and customizable. You may change the appearance of your Twitter page by including links, graphics and even changing the colour theme. It is advisable that you use a colour theme that is similar to your company website’s colour theme. Twitter allows you to change your Twitter Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address and this gives you the chance to include keywords related to your business. Including your company’s biography on your Twitter page may also increase the chances of numerous hits to your website but this largely depends on how you use your keywords. Within no time, major search engines may pick your website or Twitter page, as long as you used your keywords wisely.

Facebook

Having a Facebook page starts with you creating your personal profile. However, you should ensure that you separate your personal Facebook profile and your business page for the purposes of maintaining business integrity and personal privacy. Although Facebook is not as flexible as Twitter, it is still among the most powerful social media websites. It allows you to create a Facebook page for your business. Make your page as attractive as possible and at the same time devoid of unnecessary in-your-face sales-like links. This is because numerous links will give the impression that you are only interested in promoting your business rather than giving valuable information.