The old days of SMB customers not being able to afford network assessments, verification, monitoring or troubleshooting tools are past.

Ensuring end-to-end QoS for VoIP and video services and networks is a challenge for both large enterprises and SMBs. Broadsoft acquired Packet Island in October 2009, to address the critical need of ensuring QoS, and quality of experience (QoE), for real-time communications. BroadSoft's expanded solutions portfolio will now enable service providers to offer enhanced QoS assessment and monitoring capabilities of their communication services. The PacketSmart solutions enable service providers to rapidly and cost-effectively deploy VoIP and video services with guaranteed end-to-end "carrier-grade" service delivery.Packet Island's lifecycle management solutions enable customers to:

* Assess networks before deploying VoIP and video services * Verify the deployments to establish a baseline * Continuously monitor and re-assess the service quality on a periodic basis * Provide troubleshooting tools to pinpoint problems in both the LAN and WAN

I had the opportunity to speak with BroadSoft PacketSmart Chief Technologist Praveen Kumar (founder of Packet Island). Praveen wanted to know about my background and I took him back to the painful days of 1999 and went fast forward. The key concern on my mind as in the past, was who's going to pay? I'll summarize what Praveen told me:

* Customers making demands using the SLAs may have the tools built into the package by the service provider * SMB/E's with multi-site networks expect to and are willing to pay for the tools * Low end SMB's that are all about cost don't want to pay but will pay for on-demand tools/services * QoS in today's cloud-based delivery networks, and the proliferation of SMB networks that lack VoIP/Video readiness require a lifecycle management approach that assesses networks before deploying VoIP and video

The old days of SMB customers not being able to afford network assessments, verification, monitoring or troubleshooting tools are past. With on demand services for about $30 a day--VARs, Interconnects, MSPs and service providers can deploy pay-as-you-go or build into the service the cost of the tools. What I like about the PacketSmart lineup is you can either pay-as-you go, buy a test kit and then bill-as-you-go, deploy the solution and bill under the monthly service or build it into the SLA agreement and cost of the contract and still benefit by having ongoing tools and services at your disposal.The old days of SMB customers not being able to afford network assessments, verification, monitoring or troubleshooting tools are past.