Throughout most of the evolution of VoIP and UC, the primary implementations have been as a premises-based solution. However, as mentioned in the last newsletter, it’s probably time to consider a adding this to your cloud strategy.
As promised in the last newsletter, we’re going to be sharing some top-level commentary and excerpts from the “2011 Sourcebook for VoIP and UC Services“, which was produced as a joint effort of Delphi and Webtorials.
As noted in the report, “Moving to a cloud/hosted solution for communications is the next big thing for CIOs to consider. The cloud/hosted solution offers rapid expansion capability, flexibility, cost control and expense reduction.
“There are cloud/hosted IP Telephony (IP PBX), Unified Messaging (UM), call center and Unified Communications (UC) services. The services can also support backup and recovery for remote offices and deliver business continuity at a lower cost. Acquisition and support costs can be significantly reduced. Service levels may even be improved. Think of a cloud/hosted solution as Communications as a Service (CaaS), communications in the cloud.
“The value of CaaS or hosted communications is that the enterprise accesses the services through the Internet (about 96%) or other network access technologies to gain use of managed technology services. The enterprise does not necessarily buy hardware (though in reality the enterprise needs endpoints, like IP phones, and some internal network to access the services) or software. The use of a pool of servers, either dedicated or shared at the cloud/hosted site, is a form of virtualization shared by multiple customers.
“The services, e.g., communications, are delivered as a common set of features and functions. The enterprise subscribes to the features and functions desired. The financial arrangements for access can be by the seat, the feature, usage or unlimited usage and flat fee. At this time there is no standard agreement on the service pricing model. The pricing models are still being evolving. This makes it somewhat difficult to compare cloud/hosted provider’s charges. The promise of lower cost to the enterprise is the major attraction when considering cloud/hosted communications services.”
As previously noted, the Sourcebook is available on a complimentary basis at Webtorials, and further consulting services for consultation and access to the entire database is also available.
