What is Cloud UC, and how is it different from managed or hosted services?
From VoIP to UCaaS to SIP to UC there are lots of terms and options being talked about in the market right now, it’s no wonder many CIOs, IT Managers, and other decision-makers are confused about which communications model to choose for their enterprise.
The exodus to the Cloud for telephony is accelerating and happening now. But what does the term Cloud UC even mean?
At its core, Cloud Unified Communications (Cloud UC) is an Internet-based phone system, with a few big advantages over hosted and managed services.
Hosted and managed services are fixed, contracted solutions that a company commits to whether their need for the services increases or decreases over time.
Hosted voice solutions deliver
- Full PBX functionality
- Advanced call management tools
- Some Unified Communications features as well
If your company pretty much just needs a dial tone – that is, you simply want to make and receive phone calls – then switching to a hosted or managed system is probably the way to go. But, if your company requires communications over and above just voice conversations, that’s where you want to explore Unified Communications (UC) or Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS).
Unified Communications (UC) is commonly defined as the integration of real-time enterprise communication services with non-real-time communication services like unified messaging (email, fax, integrated voicemail, and SMS).
Cloud UC solutions deliver
- Audio, video, and web conferencing
- Desktop sharing
- Instant messaging or chat
- Mobility features
- Presence
- Voice over IP (VoIP), and more
Unified communications cloud services (Cloud UC) provide elasticity and agility, which means a company can scale the number of services they need up and down when they want, and they can add new features and functionality when they need to.
So when considering whether hosted voice is sufficient for your organisation; or, whether you should take it a step further and add Unified Communications or UCaaS, remember that hosted voice can provide your company with improvements like better voice quality, lower costs, and infrastructure savings.
If you determine that additional collaboration tools are required – over and above the advanced calling features offered with hosted voice, like conferencing, email, instant messaging, mobility, and presence – then maybe UC or UCaaS is the correct decision for your enterprise
While most companies and small business are still using traditional PBX systems, the shift to cloud UC has already started and by 2020, there will be just as many (probably more) new-breed cloud communications deployments in operation* as regular PBX systems. This trend is partly due to bandwidth upgrades, making cloud a much more realistic prospect.
However, the move to cloud UC involves significant change, which will present challenges for businesses that must transform their way of working for the digital world.
We’re here to help. To find out what we can do for your business, call us today on 1300 851 993
