ISDN is nearing its end, as evidenced by end of life announcements from major telecom providers such as BT. Many applications still exist that are using modems in industry. Those industries such as Health Care, Oil and Gas, Industrial Automation and Security all rely heavily on equipment and endpoint devices that use modems to communicate. For a variety of reasons, these cannot be replaced. This may be due to infrastructure limitations, the fact that the modems are built into the endpoint, the cost of replacement or regulation.
Those who are currently using ISDN for PSTN access to their modem servers will need a new solution. SIP based VoIP will be the replacement for ISDN and removing ISDN lines saves money, but connecting standard box modems to VoIP service has been problematic with regard to reliability and performance. Integrating the modem infrastructure and the SIP infrastructure becomes more and more necessary. Ideally, running modems on the cloud server, connected to SIP infrastructure, is best.
Using a Cloud Modem Server, such as VOCAL’s SIP Analog Modem Server (SAMS), allows a business to get the benefits of the SIP infrastructure, without having to replace the legacy pieces of their systems that they cannot afford to replace. The server can run in the data center, where all of the company’s other network facing services reside. Combining services at the data center saves money. Removing old hardware and replacing it with software saves money. By the controlling application, the SAMS server is seen the same as any other modem. The remote modems can call the SAMS server from the PSTN (or be called) as they always have. The SAMS server behaves as a bank of modems connected to ISDN would, all while running on off the shelf hardware or any standard virtualized environment.