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IPComms "Weathers" the 2014 Ice Storm.

Early January 2014 covered the Southeast in a paralyzing blanket of snow and icy mixture that left the majority of the region frozen, stranded and in the dark.  It proved to be one of the worst storms ever inflicted on the South. The dangerous conditions immobilized Atlanta and surrounding areas which is the home base of IP Communications.  Our primary data center is located on Marietta Street in the heart of Downtown Atlanta and our main office and call-center is located North of Atlanta in the nearby city of Kennesaw.

While many surrounding businesses were left stranded and inoperable, IPComms, our network, and most importantly our customers, remained uninterrupted and operational.  This is primarily due to SIP Trunking and its ability to offer a high degree of business continuity and fault tolerance. So, as our city remained in a state of disaster, our network and our staff was able to continue serving thousands of customers without interruption. 

Like our customers, IPComms' data center and network operations center operate on IPComms VoIP network for its internal communications. Because of this, we were able to make use of our own business continuity features such as load-balancing and automatic fail-over.  In addition, our internal PBXs are also based on VoIP technology which is, by nature, ubiquitous - allowing our staff the ability to work remotely as they would in-office.

 

So, how did we do it?

 

VoIP phones were taken home.

As the storm approached, IPComms dismissed its staff and they were asked to work from home during the upcoming storm.  Since our office operates on VoIP phones, many of our staff were able to simply take their phone with them and plug into their home broadband connection.  From there, they worked just as they would if they were in our call center.

Mobile Softphones Apps were used.

Other employees simply used their mobile phones to seamlessly continue working from home.  Softphone applications allowed those without VoIP phones to maintain all the business phone functionality just as if they were at their desk.  Callers were unaware that they were working remotely.

Trunks were ready to automatically fail-over to alternative routes.

In case the worst were to happen, our network offers Fail Over Routing which could provide the ability to instantly and automatically redirecting calls to an alternate service locations in the event our primary service location experiences an outage or failure.  Thankfully this was not necessary, as our network remained fully operational.

 

Lesson to be learned?  Preparation pays big!

Its easy to think it will never happen to your business.  But, with all that could happen, its important to be prepared.  All of IPComms SIP Trunks offer free fail-over routing and load-balancing of calls between multiple office locations. So, with IPComms and a small bit of pre-planning, you can rest assured that your company and it's communications will be able to withstand even the worst of disasters.