Today, telephony and communication is as much about software as it is hardware. Indeed, even the hardware is managed and dependent upon software.
For a modern telephone system this has massive and increasing implication. As systems become more and more software dependant, the requirement to keep these systems safe, fluid and bug free increases in time, cost and complexity. This is having a massive impact on telephone system manufacturers and systems service providers.
Many moons ago telephone system manufacturers provided their customers with free software updates on the rare occasion that they might provide a bug fix or add a new feature. Sheer weight of work keeping software cyber safe, secure and bug free now takes a massive toll on manufacturer resource and cost. We all remember the heartbeat virus and are familiar with regular news stories of famous mobile phone manufacturers and other generic OS (operating systems) being hacked or plagued with yet another new virus. Well, the problem is exactly the same today for telephone system manufacturers as they battle to keep software and device firmware up to date and secure.
In order to fund this, manufacturers now separate out ‘Software Support & Assurance’ or ‘IP Office System Support’ as an optional and annually renewable chargeable item.
Evoke Telecom always recommends keeping your software support contract up to date.
So, what happens if I let my SSA lapse or even choose not to renew?
If your manufacturer software support has lapsed or you have chosen not to renew you are no longer able to update your software levels on your telephone system.
This means three things:-
- You cannot get updates to new services, new products, and firmware updates for your handsets
- You will not get bug-fixes to help with software glitches that can sometimes develop in complex integrated IT/IP environments
- More importantly, you will not get access to new security patches, as these are released, to help to protect you from cyber-crimes such as, hacking, ransomware and toll fraud, to name but a few of the more common criminal activities.
Finally, it is often cheaper to renew at point of renewal than it is to renew a lapsed contract as manufacturers often back date and in some cases add an administrative overhead for systems that have been allowed to lapse.
The choice is yours, but in our opinion the choice is clear – don’t lapse and always renew. In today’s modern digital IP society security 1st is always the safest way.
If you are unsure, need guidance or just want to ‘shoot the breeze’ – then why not give us a call?
