As with many legacy technologies, advances and development across the industry results in their inevitable retirement. In the U.S., the latest technology to get their scheduled extinction are fixed landline lines and legacy services known colloquially as traditional Plain Old Telephone Service (“POTS”). This has been slated for some time, but finally that inevitable day now soon approaches.
Per the FCC – in their Report and Order, Declaratory Ruling, and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking – the aforementioned POTS and fixed landlines will be phased out and replaced with next-generation services such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
The Clock is Ticking
For individuals, this does not change a lot: most are already equipped with high speed connections and VoIP services. But for companies, it is a different scenario. Whether they want to or not, enterprises are now forced to change or adapt countless devices and complex infrastructures in order to allow them to operate over IP. It may go under appreciated, but these legacy technologies are critical to many lines of business. One particularly vital technology whose functionality relies on these POTS lines is fax.
Whether its law firms or legal departments, HR, the healthcare industry, real estate, finance, or even retail, fax remains a vital means of communication for both efficiency and legal enforceability. It is therefore the preferred channel for sending and receiving important documents. In many instances and for most companies, email is not legally acceptable for official documents. But fax is. As a result, companies rely on fax and its integration throughout their ERP, CRM, and various other applications and networks that send and receive critical documents, orders, invoices, and reports.
Cloud Fax to the Rescue
The ways in which fax is fully integrated into many enterprise’s business processes is a large part of why they still haven’t migrated away from legacy infrastructure. Until now, there was no pressure to move away from POTS lines. Be it prioritizing other projects or the lack of a fully inclusive strategy to replace/upgrade their systems, the deadline is now here and companies must not delay if they want to ensure their fax capabilities will be fully functional once POTS lines are no longer an option.
Moving away from these legacy technologies may seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, moving a company’s faxing to the cloud can be carried out smoothly, without requiring any installations, or incurring major expenses. An additional benefit of moving to the cloud allows a business to no longer needs a fax server or a fax card in multifunction printers.
At Retarus, we are not surprised at this inevitable retiring of legacy technology. We are constantly looking towards the future, both for our product development and our customers’ needs. The foreseeable need for companies to migrate their POTS lines is the perfect occasion to move into the digital age.
Switch to All-IP and NGN with Ease
Retarus Cloud Services render traditional on-premise fax servers obsolete. The switch to All-IP – as a result of the end of life for POTS lines included – is a way to simplify, secure, and consolidate communication infrastructure. Scalable and reliable at all times, Retarus allows companies to reduce up to 70% of their fax-related expenses. The Retarus Communications Platform ensures the sending and the receiving of all faxes via a single point of access, secured, private, compliant – hosted in the cloud.
Easy Implementation of Cloud Fax
Retarus Cloud Fax is simple to implement. It requires no development, no installation, nor any changes to the company’s infrastructure and is based on standardized, secure protocols (REST, SOAP, SFTP, MQ, SMTP, RFC, BCSMTP). Don’t see the retirement of POTS lines as the end, but rather the beginning of improved communication and a future with Retarus Cloud Communications.
