Why Businesses are Turning to WAN Consolidation

Although the nation’s economy is slowly improving, companies everywhere are still trying to highlight some of the biggest challenges in IT consolidation and realizing enterprises across the country are increasingly turning to Wide Area Network (WAN) consolidation to solve those problems.

As a result of acquisitions or rapid growth, companies often get stuck with a collection of disparate IT systems. Local businesses everywhere are turning to full-service IP service companies to simplify complex infrastructures and reduce IT costs.

While the benefits of WAN consolidation are numerous, here are the top seven to consider when evaluating IT needs:

1. The cost of maintaining Internet security and firewalls at multiple sites is eliminated. Generally, a firewall is only needed in a data center since it's the only point where a business is exposed to the public Internet and not at multiple locations.
2. It brings all locations together on one centralized, private network and users can pass information freely back and forth without exposure to the public Internet.
3. Usage between multiple locations is free. Since a business has established a private network between sites, use of Internet bandwidth to pass information back and forth between locations is at no charge.
4. A business can consolidate all of their phone lines from each location to the data center and purchases only the adequate lines needed for the business using a centralized network. Instead of the traditional phone system, where each location has a set number of physical phone lines, many companies provides a number of concurrent phone lines for a business as a whole, thus creating a huge cost savings.
5. It allows businesses the flexibility to grow should more phone lines need to be added or the amount of dedicated Internet increased. One call, two clicks, and services are upgraded. There are no long lead times for adding additional phone lines like a traditional phone company.
6. Provides improved redundancy for equipment and locations.
7. Business owners can rest easy with a 24/7 monitoring system, and data centers backing up throughout the country, each able to ensure maximum uptime for business telecommunications.

Companies can certainly expect better-connected office locations, increased IP productivity and reduced monthly costs by up to 40 percent when bundling their IT needs with a WAN consolidation package. Strengthened security and support are also two major benefits of WAN consolidation with a well-respected IP services provider. Companies and employees can reap the benefits of utilizing WAN consolidation in the workplace.