In our previous tutorial, we kicked off this ongoing series by introducing the concept of the hosted PBX, or hosted telephone system, in which the switching function is moved from the customer’s premises to those of an application service provider (ASP), which then takes on responsibility for a significant share of the network implementation and ongoing management functions.
We also reviewed some of the predecessor technologies to hosted PBX applications, including hardware PBXs (on-premises switching), Centrex service (central office switching), and IP PBXs (software-based switching). In this tutorial, we will examine some of the architectures and benefits associated with hosted PBX technology.