Attributes of Cloud UC and Associated Models

 
Recently Infonetics issued their 2013 UC Strategies and Vendor Leadership: North American Enterprise Survey and the report brought to light the fast growth emerging in the Cloud-based Unified Communications (aka Hosted VoIP, Cloud Telephony, UCaaS) segment.  Specifically, 22% of their survey respondents already have implemented portions of their UC architecture in a private cloud, and 19% have done so in a public cloud.   Further, their VoIP and UC Services and Subscribers report forecast a 32% growth of hosted PBX/UC seats in North America in CY13.  While the Cloud UC segment represent singles digits as part of the overall market the report from Infonetics calls for continued growth in double digits while premise-based solutions remain flat.  Frankly, I'm surprised that the Cloud UC market hasn't taken off even faster. The traditional pushback has been that telephony features are way too important to put into the Cloud. That is nonsense, what makes telephony any more important than personnel data, customer data, or financial data?  My belief is that companies like Success Factors, salesforce.com and NetSuite have paved the way for the emergence of a new Cloud-based model to take hold in the communications space.  
 
The most common driver in moving to Cloud UC is typically cost savings.  Early adoption has been driven by the smallest of small businesses as their barriers to transition are relatively low and the immediate impact of cost savings can be substantial versus traditional premise-based solutions.  As the market has matured over the last couple of years you now see more midsize and large enterprises starting to trial and deploy Cloud UC in controlled environments.  Sonus has a unique vantage point from which to observe the emerging Cloud UC phenomenon.  Specifically, we enable many of the markets leading Cloud UC providers - whether they are leveraging a BroadSoft platform, a Microsoft Lync platform, or an open source/Asterisk type platform.  My own career has spanned across Cloud UC as well as traditional enterprise PBX vendors so I will share my fair and biased opinion on the state of the Cloud UC market.  This is a large topic so I will break my blog post into four separate entries.  With today's entry, I will focus on attributes of Cloud UC and primary deployment models. In a few days, I will cover the cost savings component followed shortly thereafter by the added capabilities that Cloud UC solutions typically deliver. And finally, my final post on this topic will cover the common myths, mistakes and challenges of moving to Cloud UC.
 

Attributes Of Cloud UC

So what is Cloud UC?  Much like established cloud computing models, I believe Cloud UC is characterized by four key attributes:

1. SHARED RESOURCES - The first attribute is that the physical resources (e.g. network infrastructure, real estate, support) are shared.
2. ENDLESS ENDPOINTS - The second attribute is that network access will come through a seemingly endless spectrum of endpoints ranging from desk phones, computers, smartphones, tablets and so on.
3. DEPLOYED DYNAMICALLY - The third attribute is that resources are deployed and provisioned in a dynamic manner.  This approach allows for effective expansion and contraction of services as needed.
4. METERED USAGE - And finally, the fourth attribute is the notion that usage is metered, reported and billed in such a manner that customers have a clear view as to how much they're using and how much they will be charged, allowing them to manage expenses accordingly.

 
The traditional premise based UC vendors promised seamless features across voice, video and collaboration applications but to date the hype has not matched the reality as UC solutions failed to integrate and interconnect on many levels.  The move to a Cloud-based approach addresses the challenges of interoperability (and to be further discussed, resets the economics).
 

Cloud UC Deployment Models

Identical to cloud computing, there are three common Cloud UC deployment models:

1. PUBLIC HOSTED - The first is a public hosted model, most often used by small businesses with fewer than 20 employees where there desired economics and flexibility make them willing to share resources with similar entities. The key benefit of a public Cloud UC model is that it requires very little financial outlay compared to the more CAPEX intensive requirements that are associated with those options which move toward premise based solutions.
2. PRIVATE HOSTED - On the other spectrum is a private Cloud UC environment, which is maintained and operated for one specific company ot organization. Such a deployment can be managed in-house or via a third-party on premises. It differs from a pure premise-based solution from the perspective that the operational components the resources are still dynamically cloud-based.
3. HYBRID HOSTED - A hybrid model leverages a combination of public and private cloud environments as information and communications and data move seamlessly from one environment to another. This approach frequently serves mid to large sized enterprises where they have blended operational environments that require high degrees of control but also more flexibility in branch office or remote locations.  By the end of 2017, Gartner estimates that nearly half of large organizations will move to hybrid implementations (For more information, see these two recent Gartner reports: Hybrid Cloud: The Shift from IT Control to IT Coordination and Private Cloud Matures, Hybrid Cloud).   As a result, it would seem probably that Cloud UC deployment models would follow a similar trend-line.

 
So which Cloud UC approach is right for a given company?  The short answer is “it depends.” It depends on the need to have complete oversight of security and management of your system, it depends on the desired flexibility to deploy new features and services, and it depends on it depends on how a customer wishes to maximize their financial position as it relates to technology investments.  And specific to economics, in my next blog post on Cloud UC I will examine the potential cost savings of moving to Cloud UC .  Thanks for reading and I welcome the banter of active feedback.