Gotta love ZDnet. Sensationalism sells... We all know this but are they taking it too far? They ran an article recently titled, VoIP: Has the dream of convergence failed? I am not sure what the point of the story is except to reiterate what everyone knows -- that data networks aren't as reliable as voice networks yet. Sure convergance is not perfect but I think using the term "failed" and "VoIP" together may be a bit premature.
Of course, the reliability of any given network doesn't just depend on the technology. It's as much if not more a function of network design. The more redundancy and fail-safe features you build in, the more reliable it will be.
But that comes at a price and obviously the more you spend on a network, the less attractive the cost-benefit analysis becomes - as saving cash was the reason for converging your networks it in the first place.
To an extent, it's more a question of psychology than science. Putting all your eggs in one basket just feels unwise, particularly if that basket is as shaky as the average enterprise data network.
Ian Cox, principal analyst at research firm TelecomView, says: "If you talk to an IT manager about a network with five-nines' reliability, they would look at you strangely."
Siemens' Bishop says: "We have clients whose network design allows for two separate networks. For some of them there are security concerns. They want to protect their voice network from everything that is going on over their data network."
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