The VAR Guy

For those of you who remember the early days of networking, you’ll recall LANtastic — the peer-to-peer networking system that allowed DOS, Windows and OS/2 PCs to share files without a central server. It was pretty cool for its time. The VAR Guy was immediately reminded of LANtastic when he saw a nifty peer-to-peer IP phone system for small businesses from Avaya.

Basically, when you plug the peer-to-peer phones (called Avaya Quick Edition) into an Ethernet switch, the devices discover each other and instantly coordinate their activities. If one voicemail inbox fills up, messages can automatically be stored on a peer phone. The devices sound like a nifty solution for VARs who target very small offices. The phones are designed for offices with 16 or fewer employees, branch locations or ad-hoc networks set up in homes or a backup office location.