IP may be a term that you recognize if you've spent any time around technology. The acronym stands for Internet Protocol. Simply put, IP is the most common methodology for packaging and sending information across a network. IP phones are phones that use Ethernet network cables to transmit voice signals across a network instead of using standard analog phone lines. Over the past few years many companies have adopted this hardware into their environment because of how easy it is to integrate into an existing TCP/IP-based network. IP phones generally connect to your computer and use the same network cabling and
port to connect to the outside world. One of the main benefits of the IP phone is better audio quality and a more reliable medium on which to transfer voice signals. The fact that IP phones share the same communications protocol as the rest of the networked devices (PCs, printers, etc.) makes them that much easy to manage.
The IP soft phone is a newer telecommunications technology that is quickly gaining speed. As described above IP phones are no stranger to the business environment. However, these are hardware devices. As the name implies, a "soft phone" isn't really a phone at all. In fact it is simply a software application that uses IP methodology to transmit voice signals over the internet just like a physical IP phone would. By the way, this is where the term VoIP or "voice over IP" comes from; a term you've probably heard or will soon hear if you follow technology trends.
So now
that I've given you a very generic explanation of soft phone technology, the big question remains. Why would a small business want to operate in an environment with no physical phones? Can a business realistically operate without phone hardware? For answers to those questions (and more) stay tuned for Part 2: Security & Cost Benefits.