As we become more mobile in how we conduct business, the desire to lighten the load of equipment we need to carry is growing.  With the availability of a large number of dual-mode (cellular and WiFi) smartphones now, it is a reality to be able to leave the office without a laptop and still remain connected and productive.  In fact, we can be more productive than ever by being connected, enabling us to be reached and being accessible on our enterprise phone number regardless of location or network (office, cellular, home and hotel WiFi).  With solutions such as Agito’s RoamAnywhere Dual Persona™ which enable you to maintain both personal and enterprise contexts on a single device this even allows you to eliminate the need to carry multiple cellular phones, or a cellular phone and a VoWLAN phone, to maintain both identities.

The initial drive has been to extend enterprise applications such as Citrix, Oracle, Salesforce.com,  SAP, Sybase and others to mobile devices.  There is a great report that was released this month from InformationWeek( http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/smartphones/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210605369) that highlights how these business applications are being mobilized on multiple smartphone platforms.  Now with solutions such as the Agito Networks RoamAnywhere Mobility Router, one can also mobilize enterprise voice to leverage the office PBX.

As echoed by organizations that were contacted by the InformationWeek article writers, security is a key concern for extending enterprise information to mobile devices.  Agito has recognized this need and developed an architecture to support Secure Remote Voice  to provide a best-of-breed security solution that leverages tried and true SSL that has been optimized for application-layer voice transport.

When I go on the road for short business trips or local meetings outside the office, I no longer bring my laptop.  Yet I can still access my email, enterprise applications and my office phone over cellular or WLAN networks.  When I want to call a co-worker I simply dial their 4-digit extension to reach them or lookup their number with the secure enterprise directory query capability from my phone.  I can also easily initiate a conference bridge on my handheld phone, leveraging services from our office PBX.

With the availability of enterprise applications and Fixed Mobile Convergence now available on today’s wide range of smartphones in a secure manner you no longer need to be tethered to your computer in order to be effective.  Learn more about how Agito can mobilize your enterprise PBX and leverage enterprise and non-enterprise WiFi to extend and secure your mobile voice while providing cost savings for your organization in today’s economic environment.

Christian

Read about the Agito RoamAnywhere Mobility Router
Agito Offers the Broadest Handset Support

“Can calls be made over WiFi with a dual-mode phone from 35,000 feet on a cross-country flight?”  This was a challenge one of my peers proposed recently so we decided to test it out on a recent flight between San Francisco and New York with the in-flight WiFi service as you can see in the video here.

It is quite amazing how far the technology has come to be able to enable high quality SSL-secured calls over in-flight WiFi service to place a call to a coworker.  Since use of the cellular radio for placing phone calls is currently banned by the FAA, before having access to the WiFi on a handset, there was no way to place a call without pulling out your laptop.  Now you have the ability to disable the cellular radio from your phone and leverage the WiFi connection for applications such as secure voice.

As for the future of in-flight calling, that is unclear with Bill H.R. 5788

currently being considered, which if passed would ban voice communications on any device in-flight.  We aren’t sure either if we want our neighbors on the plane chatting through a long flight.

What is clear though is that the technology is available today to make secure and simple VoIP communications over the WLAN even with today’s handsets and challenging WLAN environments.

To find out more about Agito’s Secure Remote Voice, visit www.agitonetworks.com/Mobility_Router_SRV.php for an overview and request a demo.

Pej