SIP PBXes stake a claim

The HiPath 8000 also has a new graphical management utility that's reasonably intuitive and easy enough to use in most datacenters. Although the dial plan is still pretty well set in the telephone company mindset, most of the management is not: You won't have to hire a telephone wizard to use the HiPath 8000.

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ZulltysMX250

Think of Zultys as the Little PBX Company That Could. The company bravely agreed to jump into the ring on very short notice, bringing its updated MX250 into this test with almost no time for preparation and facing off against a pair of vastly larger competitors.

We set up the Zultys MX250 ourselves -- there wasn't time for the company to send an engineer to Hawaii -- and discovered that this device sets new standards for ease of implementation. Part of this easy setup is due to SIP, which makes all of these products comparatively easy to set up, but the rest is due to Zultys' intelligent design and well-chosen defaults. It was so easy to set up, we found ourselves, along with the engineers from Ingate and Spirent, wondering if that was really all there was to it. (Happily, it was.)

The MX250 is a significantly smaller PBX than the others in this test. Our test unit, which was based on a dual-processor PowerPC-based system running Linux, came equipped with a dual T1/E1 gateway and a POTS gateway. Recent upgrades have improved performance and added memory, and the test unit included RAID storage.

Each MX250 device can be used by no more than 250 users at one time and will support no more than 1,000 registered users. You can network as many as 32 devices for about 10,000 users total. So although it won't handle phone calls for the entire planet, the MX250 is plenty big enough for most small to midsize enterprises.

Adding to its SMB attraction is the ease with which the MX250 is set up and managed, all via a Windows-based GUI on a workstation. Zultys designed its PBX to conform to current interface design and GUI standards, so managers used to working in a graphical environment will feel right at home. It was one of the easiest-to-manage products we've run across lately. For example, you can create your user list by using Excel or anything else that will create a CSV file, and then simply import the file into the PBX.

The MX250 is designed to be used in enterprises with about 8,000 users or less, assuming you networked 32 of the devices. Most users won't try that. What they will try is using the MX250 as their company PBX, probably without a lot of other telephony support. Keeping that in mind, the MX250 contains its own router and firewall, and it supports NAT and DHCP.

It also comes with a wealth of services. Voice mail is included, and each user can define as many as eight phones, including desk, cell, and home phones. Like the other PBXes we tested, the MX250 works with any standards-based SIP phone or softphone.

We found the MX250 as easy to administer as it was to install. The management GUI is the standard means of operating the PBX, and it's easy to use, intuitive, and complete. As befits a PBX aimed at SMBs, the MX250 won't require you to hire skilled employees or retrain your entire workforce, although you must understand basic telephony concepts to manage it.

The MX250 won't scale to huge numbers as the others in this test will, but its capacity is just fine for its target market of small and midsize enterprises: It handles the low end better than the other two PBXes in this test. However, this PBX offers the same support, feature for feature, as its larger competitors. It handles SIP perfectly and will fit within the capabilities of smaller IT departments.

Three's a Crowd

Each of these telephony solutions is a solid choice, depending on your company's needs. For example, Avaya's PBX may be complex, but it's competitively priced, and if you have a legacy phone system of nearly any type, the combination of CM and CCS will work with it nicely. Avaya's solution will also handle the various connection demands (digital, POTS, and so on) rampant in any large company.

Siemens, meanwhile, could apparently provide phone service to the entire planet, if its marketing literature is to be believed. Take that as you may, but we did find that the HiPath 8000 is an example of SIP at its finest. It supports everything we tried that uses SIP, and the HiPath 8000's flexibility demonstrates what can be done when a company really tries to follow the standard.

Zultys' MX250 is a significant PBX for the smaller enterprise. It does nearly everything, including a few tasks not normally seen in a PBX, such as serving as a firewall and providing DHCP and NAT services. The MX250 was InfoWorld's 2004 IIP PBX Technology of the Year, and this updated version maintains that tradition with its crisp management interface and an "easy, too easy" installation.

These products will deliver more than you might expect. The fact that they all support SIP means your company is ready for the future, regardless of where you're coming from. Just because you have a PBX from one vendor does not preclude having phones, media gateways, or application servers from others. It means your phone system will grow in whatever direction your company may go.

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