[Asterisk-Users] a bit frightened, guys

[Rich Adamson]

> > > So here's my humble request.
> > > Can someone who has implemented a live production Asterisk deployment,
> > > preferably between two sites (HQ and a branch office, connected over the
> > > internet) spare the time and contact me here, or to my email directly?
> > 
> > As a lurker, I would very much appreciate if this conversation could be kept 
> > on-list.  Not only does it help more than just yourself then, but it also 
> > gets to be part of the archive which search engines can access.
> 
> Certainly, I too am trying to push for an Asterisk-based solution at my workplace
> rather than a proprietary one, and some real-world cases would be a great boost
> rather than just saying to management 'yes it's worked well in loads of places' - 

A couple of items to consider (in addition to the technical * implementation
issues) are:
1. end-to-end connectivity (within each location) as most corp hubs/switches 
   are not on ups, shared devices located under someone's desk where the
   power cord is kicked, an employee's space heater trips a breaker.
2. legal issues (what happens when an employee needs to call emergency 
   personnel and the phone system doesn't work for whatever reason)
3. how will you deal with QoS issues when they pop up? (someone decides to
   backup their fixed disk across the local net; the latest virus/trojan is
   consuming all available bandwidth; user drag/drops very large directory
   or files.)
4. your ISP decides to block a range of ports and didn't tell you; what's
   the backup plan and how quickly can it be operational
5. are there requirements for a primary & backup * system, and should this
   be configured with some automated failover process or left to support
   personnel to handle manually
6. should you have a formal change control process and how does it apply
   to downloading cvs updates that break production * boxes
7. are there any business requirements for backup support personnel should
   you get hit by a bus on the way home from work
8. its not uncommon for infrastructure personnel (eg, switch, routers) to
   reboot, swap out, upgrade, etc, stuff for various reasons. Is there
   a need to treat those support requirements different when mgmt is
   accustomed to phone systems being operational 99.999% of the time?
9. should your plan to implement * include a phase-in approach where
   only a small part of the business is impacted before moving to the
   next phase?

All of those can be easily handled but often times they are not addressed
or properly researched up front. Impress your mgmt.