How can businesses improve the performance of their IP telephony environments?   Unlike traditional time division multiplex solutions (TDM), IP telephony runs over the data network supporting other applications as well.  There are many different components that must work together for the network to perform optimally.  Failure of any single component can lead to degradation of voice quality in a converged network.   The network management platform from Consolidated Technologies, Inc. (CTI) can provide real-time monitoring of IP telephony applications, the supporting data network, and other key elements of the communications environment; such as Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP) and lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) as a single environment, not separate elements.  The platform uses behavior models of both voice platforms and the data network to correlate seemingly unrelated alarms and performs a root cause analysis to quickly identify the real issue that needs to be resolved.  The Enterprise Service Platform also monitors security incidents.  This proactive correlation of events, root cause analysis and security monitoring helps improve the security, reliability and availability of the IP telephony environment.