Critical Links describes the EdgeBox as a multiservice business gateway appliance, which provides a full-fledged VOIP/IP-PBX and a host of data and IT services in a single device. The EdgeBox replaces up to eight specialized solutions with a single integrated device, providing SMB customers with a complete networking infrastructure that is simple to install and configure, and easy to maintain and upgrade, and can be managed remotely.

Critical Links offers three versions of the EdgeBox, an EdgeBox Office appliance that supports up to 40 users, an EdgeBox Business appliance that supports up to 100 users and the EdgeBox Enterprise appliance, which supports as many as 300 users. In regard to functionality, the three appliances are the same, to the extent that moving from one appliance to another takes little more than copying all of the data and settings across.

The EdgeBox does so many things so well that it is difficult to pick what the most important features are and what feature set a solution provider should lead with when selling the unit.

Arguably, the lead feature is the IP-PBX, which is based on open-source software and supports a variety of VOIP providers. The EdgeBox covers most, if not all, the telephony features a small business needs. The system features call conferencing capabilities, call parking and forwarding, IVR (interactive voice response), LCR (least cost routing), ACD (automatic call distribution) and fallback to PSTN. A recent upgrade to the PBX software adds follow me/find me, call twinning, direct inward access, e-mail push, voice mail transcription, PDA synchronization, remote worker access, Fax2Mail and a host of other features that clearly place the EdgeBox into the realm of a fully fledged unified communications server.

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