Howto:MyApps Cloud - FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

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Applies To

This information applies to

• innovaphone myApps Cloud from version 13r1 and higher
• innovaphone myApps Cloud STANDARD and PREMIUM

The purpose of the myApps Cloud

Virtualization via highly available and redundant cluster systems are creating a variety of new opportunities when providing efficient IT services. Therefore innovaphone AG provides the myApps Cloud service, as a flexible UCaaS platform. Consequently, the innovaphone myApps Cloud allows certified partners to offer and integrate such services without investing in an own infrastructure.

The service is available in two different service variations - the STANDARD and the PREMIUM version. The following table reveals the differences:

	innovaphone myApps Cloud STANDARD	innovaphone myApps Cloud PREMIUM
Datacenter:
Geo-Redundancy:	active-passive	active-active
Recovery time:	hours (manual interaction needed)	minutes (fully-automated)
Autonomy time on power failure:	1 day	5 days
Service delivery:	within 24 h	within 24 h
Fixed contract term:	none	none
Infrastructure-Support-Service:
Acceptance:	during business hours (optional enhancements possible)	24x7
Reaction time:	best effort	2h

FAQs

System, Services and Features

• Question: What are the typical application scenarios for the above product versions?
  Answer: The myApps Cloud STANDARD was designed for customers with average requirements (typically between 5 and 100, max. 250 ports, up to approx. 5 SIP trunks per PBX and with a moderate IVR usage and call volume). The PREMIUM platform was designed for large systems with customized or explicitly high requirements (load sharing mechanisms, availavillity, recovery time, e.g. for contact center scenarios, or similar).
  
  

• Question: What exactly does the extended 24x7 service of the myApps Cloud PREMIUM include and how does it differ from standard cloud support?
  Answer:
  • in the frame of the myApps Cloud STANDARD a technician is available per email during normal business hours, Monday to Friday between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
  • As part of the myApps Cloud PREMIUM, innovaphone offers the extended 24x7 infrastructure supporte hotline.
    • This is an emergency service that can be used by certified innovaphone technicians.
    • The hotline operates outside normal business hours, on weekends and on public holidays.
    • The service is aimed exclusively for cloud instances in operation.
    • This support is limited to problems in the areas of infrastructure and virtualization platform (i.e., no installation and configuration support in this time-frame).

• Question: In which languages is the cloud support and hotline available?
  Answer: This service is available in German and English.
  
  

• Question: Where (geographically) is the service being produced?
  Answer: Both product versions are implemented in different data centers in Germany. The two data centers used for the myApps Cloud PREMIUM are approximately 10 km apart from each other.
  
  

• Question: Are there any special requirements to access the myApps Cloud, e.g. from a standard home Internet connection or Home Office?
  Answer: There are no specific requirements. In most cases a standard Internet access will do fine. Specific considerations in regards to bandwidth consumption, please see below.
  
  

• Question: Is Let's Encrypt supported in the cloud?
  Answer: In the myApps Cloud we work with 'purchased' *.innovaphone.com certificates - therefore Let's Encrypt is not necessary there. In addition, no Let's Encrypt App should be started on the myApps Cloud instances. This would change the default values for the cloud and cause massive registration problems.
  
  

• Question: How much bandwidth is being consumed through the different services?
  Answer: Bandwidth consumption always depends on a series of different factors. Below, we will provide some rough estimations, and a link to further readings.
  • Voice - Mainly depending on the codec in use and packet size. The average data rate should not exceed 70kbps. Further readings here.
    Note: All innovaphone devices support the ICE protocol, which is a technique to find the most direct way for two devices to talk to each other. If properly applied, this technique allows to maintain network internal calls inside the LAN. Therefore, no external bandwidth must be considered, for such cases. Further readings here.
  • Video - Mainly depending on resolution and frame rate. The average data rate should not exceed 350kbps. Further readings here.
  • Application Sharing - The maximum data rate should be 500kbps. Further readings here.
  • Idle Bandwidth - The average data rate, including the synchronization of presence information should be below 1 kbps, and therefor negligible in most cases. Further readings here
    
    

• Question: What protocols are used, to access the myApps Cloud, what ports are used?
  Answer: The myApps Cloud is relying on standard protocols. Phones and the myApps Client are using the following protocols to access the cloud (those should be usable through the local NAT router):
  • http/https with ports 80, 443
  • SIP/SIPS with ports 5060, 5061
  • H.323 with ports 1720, 1300
  • LDAP/LDAPS with ports 389, 636
  • STUN/TURN/ICE Phones generally use this mechanism to discover its public IP address, when it is located behind a NAT/Firewall.
    
    

• Question: What is the max. upper limit of supported ports / amount of branch offices / number of SIP trunks for a myApps Cloud installation?
  Answer: The myApps Cloud concept is based on innovaphone’s highly modular technology. Therefore, it can easily be adapted to very large projects or highly specific requirements - especially when using the PREMIUM plattform. Thus, a “hard” upper limit does not exist. With default configurations on the STANDARD plattform, the myApps Cloud instance is set to serve installations with up to 100 users. For installations larger than this, the responsible reseller may discuss specific project requirements with our presales department.
  
  

• Question: Is it possible to use FAX on the myApps Cloud PBX?
  Answer: Yes, you can use FAX on the myApps Cloud platform, however it should be clearly understood to what degree the SIP provider does support T.38 (Suggestion: Clearly ask your SIP provider, if his network will convert an audio fax to T.38).
  In general, we distinguish between two cases:
  • Audio Fax: In case the SIP carrier does not convert faxes to T.38, an additional hardware DSP is needed to do this job. Therefore, the use of one of our hardware devices with fax interface and a DSPs must be physically available (meaning, purchase or rent the respective hardware device, e.g. IP29-x). Further, the necessary licenses shall be configured via the Devices App > Software Rental:
    • Fax License (or UC License, which already contains Fax License), according to the number of users.
    • PBX Port License is needed.
  • T.38 through SIP provider: In Case a FAX call is converted to T.38 through the SIP carrier. This method is supported by the FAX interface of the myApps Cloud PBX without additional hardware. In this case, the following licenses shall be configured via the Devices App > Software Rental:
    • At least one PBX Port License is needed
    • Fax License (or UC License, which already contains Fax License), according to the number of users.
      
      

• Question: Which SIP trunks do you support in the cloud?
  Answer: In principle, we support all certified SIP provider, for which a profile is available in the innovaphone PBX. For your reference, please check here.
  Further, just verify:
  
  • Termination - The SIP trunk is generally terminated directly on the Cloud PBX. Therefore, it must be ensured that the SIP provider is willing to terminate the trunk on the respective data center (at this moment locations in Germany only).
    
  • Authentication - It must be ensured that the authentication to a SIP trunk is done with registration via username and password (not through IP address).
  • Workaround - In case of issues with the above topics, a SIP trunk may be terminated locally, at the customers premises, through a gateway. In the simplest case, the termination might be done on a innovaphone FAX gateway, such as for example the IP29-2.
    
  • Exceptions - Some SIP trunks have special behaviors in a hosted cloud environment, which we describe in the following, according to our knowledge:
    • Deutschland-LAN - Due to security reasons, the provider has limited the product to the use of a maximum of 5 simultaneous TCP sessions from a single IP address, such as our cloud platform (see product description, section 11.3). Therefore this product is not suitable for such kind of hosting scenarios and therefore is not supported by the myApps Cloud platform. Alternative products are available from the same provider.
      
      

Order-Process and Pricing

• Question: Who can order a myApps Cloud Instance?
  Answer: Basically, cloud instances are only ordered and operated through certified partners. This means that an end customer should place an order through a certified partner. The partner then places the order at innovaphone. There are some special cases in which exceptions are made - with the partner's involvement.
  
  

• Question: Is there a minimum contract term required to operate a myApps Cloud Instance?
  Answer: No, none of our cloud products requires a fixed contract term.
  
  

• Question: How is the order process, specifically for myApps Cloud PREMIUM?
  Answer: The ordering process corresponds to the standard ordering process of the myApps Cloud service and is done through our contract portal. All you have to do is select the PREMIUM contract, when ordering. The installation link is usually provided Monday to Friday within 24 hours.
  
  

• Question: What is the price for the myApps Cloud Service?
  Answer: myApps Cloud installations are calculated according to price list.
  • on the PREMIUM environment the 24x7 infrastructure support license must be included (mandatory) and SMB licenses are excluded.
  • on the STANDARD plattform, the 24x7 infrastructure support is optional.
    
    

Install and Provisioning

• Question: How does the Installation of the myApps Cloud work?
  Answer: After innovaphone received an order for a cloud instance, the configuration will be generated and the partner receives an URL for the installation process. Further readings here.
  
  

• Question: How does the regular, day-to-day access to the myApps Cloud work?
  Answer: There are many ways to access and work with the myApps Cloud platform. Below a small selection of possibilities:
  • Phones - after the installation, innovaphone desk phones will connect automatically through a corporate LAN and the internet to the myApps Cloud. No specific actions from the user are required.
  • myApps Communication Client - This software does exist as a native client for various operating Systems, such as Windows, iOS, Android, etc. Once installed and under normal operation condition, the application opens and connects itself automatically to the cloud platform. The myApps Client might be started through standard browsers as well. In this case, the user has to identify himself through username and password (and Two-factor authentication by email). Further readings here.
    
    

• Question: Can phones be connected (rollout) to the myApps Cloud PBX without using the innovaphone provisioning process?
  Answer: No, specifically in the Cloud, the provisioning of devices (phones, gateways) has to be realized trough the innovaphone provisioning process.

Operations

• Question: Is it possible to generate a backup of an entire myApps Cloud Instance?
  Answer: The configuration of a regular backup to an external storage is possible and can be configured easily, through the Devices App.
  • It is highly recommendable, to generate such a regular backup on an external storage device. The innovaphone GTC refers to this issue as "Customers Obligation" in chapter 7.6. here.
  • Please do not store backups on the App Platform of the respective Cloud Instance, but on an external storage. Thus, in the unlikely case of an instance failure, the backup is most probably accessible.

• Question: Is there a Disaster-Recovery-Plan and what Recovery-Time is expected?
  Answer: Yes, we have a High-Availability-, Backup- and Disaster-Recovery-Concept, with the following specifics:
  • High-Availability / Multi-Server redundancy trough Operational-Datacenters in Germany - currently based on vSphere™ technology from VMware®.
    
  • System backups to a remote Backup-Datacenter in Germany.
    
  • The expected Recovery-time is depending on the used product version:
    • In case if STANDARD, a Recovery-Time of 4-5 hours is expected.
    • For PREMIUM, with a fully automated recovery, we are expecting a recovery within seconds.
    • General information on this can also be found in our GT&C. here
      

External connection through standard interfaces

• Question: Can we use SOAP to connect to the myApps PBX platform in the Cloud?
  Answer: Yes, this is possible. As underlying transport mechanism SOAP is generally using HTTPS (further readings here). In case of the myApps Cloud service, HTTPS is the only option to access the PBX. We recommend to create a specific account to give the SOAP application (limited) access to the system (In most scenario’s a User Object / User account in the PBX with delegated rights - for security reasons as less as possible - is preferred and will fit, depending what will be done through the SOAP application).
  
  
• Question: Can we use TAPI to connect to the myApps PBX platform in the Cloud?
  Answer: Yes, same as with an on-premise system, the myApps Cloud PBX supports a TAPI interface. Call control via the TAPI interfaces is possible. Details, please check here
  
  

Tracking and Tracing inside the myApps Cloud

• Question: Is it possible to write Wireshark / PCAP traces to an external URL?
  Answer: Yes, there are basically three options:
  • you can write PCAP trace to a specified, external URL. Details, please check here and here. The URL is expected to be a folder on any standard WebDAV drive.
  • it is possible to store the trace files on Files App, on the respective App Platform. Please keep in mind, that this App is not a file server. File size should be limited to the available storage.
  • Please do not save traces on local Flash Disk of the PBX, as this can lead to a trap of the PBX, when the local Flash disk becomes full.

Regulations and compliance

• General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) 2016/679: Designed to harmonize data privacy laws across all the EU member countries as well as providing greater protection and rights to individuals. Details, please check here
  • innovaphone is taking great care for the privacy of your data. Details please find on our website here. Further, please check part K of our general terms and conditions.
    
    

• Directive (EU) 2018/1972: Adopted by the European Union in December 2018 to set-up a European Electronic Communications Code (EECC). Details, please check here
  • No phone lines or SIP Trunks are part of the myApps Cloud service. Thus, each innovaphone partner is obliged to verify jointly with the selected SIP provider, if this regulation fully applies.