Certification - October 2008 - (Page 34)

Voice technicians are primarily responsible for installing and testing VoIP networks, meaning they need in-depth understanding of how they work. Though installing new equipment is one of the VoIP technician’s most common job responsibilities, Ng said a person in this role also needs to be able to operate and optimize the VoIP network. “It’s not only putting in equipment and making it work within the legacy systems, but really demonstrat[ing] to employers and clients the value of these systems,” Ng said. Voice technicians also are faced with a number of short- and long-term challenges. “The largest challenge is the emergence of new threats, new end-user functionality demands like iPhones, BlackBerrys, etc., as tying directly to enterprise-wide, highly confidential data and information,” Ng said. “This technology is consumer-driven, [so people] experience the wonderful collaboration opportunities and the wonderful anytime, anywhere features in their home life first that they [then] want to bring to their enterprise life or work life, or to the government even,” she said. “[VoIP technicians are faced with the] challenge of keeping up with the consumer pull-through functionality.” Another significant challenge for voice technicians is the risk of security threats to the network, Weiller said. “An open network is a bit more difficult to protect than an isolated network,” he said. “So the voice professionals need to either become knowledgeable or be very much in sync with their security CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE October 2008 colleagues to make sure that when they do something for voice, they’re not opening up the network to vulnerabilities.” It also is important for voice technicians to ensure their security colleagues are not breaking down the voice quality when they implement new security policies or devices, Weiller said. “At airports, the more security you have, the slower the traffic,” he explained. “It’s the same thing for voice — the more security you may add, the more voice traffic will slow down. And voice is a real-time application, so the voice specialist [needs to] be working as part of a team and really be in the know of what’s going on. “It’s really moving from being in an isolated team type of environment to being part of a bigger team, not only on the user side, but also internally,” Weiller added. It is for these reasons that Weiller said soft skills — such as communication and project management skills — are becoming increasingly important to this job role. A Bright Future The advantages of working as a VoIP technician are manifold, Weiller said. For example, the previous nationwide telephone system was analog, and though it was connected to the public telephone system, it was still very isolated. Now, since it is connected to the network, there are benefits such as the integration of applications, Weiller said. Ng added that the functionality of VoIP technology provides other advantages that weren’t possible with the old analog system. For example, Cisco is working on technology that will encrypt individual phone calls so that a company could, for instance, encrypt only calls made by the CEO, she said. This would allow the network to maintain acceptable performance and high availability. “If you did that with every phone call, there would be a large performance issue, [but now] you can be selective,” Ng said. “These are functionality benefits that the old analog system could not allow, so we know that voice technicians and voice associates need to be aware of this and at least be able to monitor it and report issues with performance. That’s a [good] way to broaden that role to policy-based functionality.” 8 – Deanna Hartley, dhartley@certmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Certification - October 2008

Certification - October 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Data Stream Virtual Village Tech Careers Dear Techie Troubleshooting Academic Connection What We Like Look Ahead Elect IT: Technology and the Democratic Process Managing Relationships in the Nonprofit Realm Interface VoIP Technician: Answering the Call of the Network Inside Certification Ad Index Endtag

Certification - October 2008

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