Unified communications apps like FaceTime and Skype can potentially help organizations reduce costs, but may also pose security threats.
“Without full control over the security and compliance policies, these free apps increase risks of cyber-attacks or service outage should the platforms fail or be sabotaged,” says Ben Elms, EVP for Asia Pacific, Vodafone Global Enterprise, in an interview with Networks Asia. “This in turn exposes organizations to unnecessary security threats that are difficult to manage, which may ultimately compromise business operations.”
Elms says organizations should consider unified communications, especially one that is delivered via cloud. He reveals why in the following excerpt of the interview:
NWA: How does unified communication (UC) work in the cloud? Is it a form of SaaS, IaaS or PaaS? Given its nature, it should cross over a few solution types so how does it fit into the cloud?
Elms: By putting UC in the cloud, employees can work effectively wherever they are without the risk of missing important calls or messages. Another advantage of cloud technology is that it allows UC to be delivered across all lines of business, especially when organizations have operations in multiple locations. We do not define UC as a form of SaaS, IaaS or PaaS, but UCaaS (UC as a Service).
By uniting the various communications devices and methods into a single, intelligent and completely configurable service, cloud-based UCaaS also allows organizations to simplify the management of a dynamic IT workload through a single plane of control for their communication needs.
Furthermore, Vodafone’s cloud offerings involve hybrid and private cloud solutions, which are connected to our global MPLS network.
NWA: What makes it better than a dedicated UC&C suite from Cisco or Microsoft, life-size or Shoretel? If someone is already on Amazon or Google cloud for example, how does UC in the cloud fit into their cloud strategy?
Elms: Vodafone’s One Net Enterprise UC solution not only integrates fixed, mobile, telephony and video communications, but also delivers collaboration and desktop instant messaging tools with the options to integrate with Microsoft Lync or Exchange. In addition, the Cisco solution is embedded into the Vodafone service infrastructure enabling us to offer a platform agnostic solution. One Net Enterprise was introduced to create a deeper and stronger One Net portfolio for all enterprises, delivering a single plane of control and supporting everything that happens in the mobile network.
The combination of Vodafone’s fully-owned network and strong partner alliances provides our customers with the consistency, reliability and service quality to run the most critical operations.
As well as a Voice centric UC&C service, Vodafone is expanding the availability of its Hosted Microsoft Lync and Exchange offering which provides enhanced reliability, security and PSTN voice access for those customers choosing a Microsoft collaboration centric service.
Vodafone is used to providing integration services with third party solutions to build different UC&C services. For example we have worked with a car manufacturer and a retail outlet to integrate Google Apps for Work with our UC&C service. The Google service delivers document creation and sharing, while Vodafone provides voice and video capabilities.
NWA: What are the benefits of UC in the cloud?
Elms: The benefits of UC in the cloud include greater flexibility and scalability on resources as required, which ultimately enables organizations to be more adaptable and responsive to the changing business landscape.
UC in the cloud also allows users to access their voicemail, instant messaging service, video to the desktop, and contacts across their fixed line, smartphone, desktop, laptop and tablet through one single geographic number. This greatly simplifies the process and gives users the complete control, as well as the ability to customize how and when each call, SMS, voicemail or instant messages are delivered to them.
Additional enhanced call management capabilities also support more advanced work groups and integration with customer relationship management applications. Therefore, not only benefiting an organization’s internal processes and operations, but also help improve customer service with queries being answered in a more timely and efficient manner.
Increasingly, cloud services are embracing a wide range of collaboration tools. These include audio, video and web conferencing, bolstering collaboration among employees and enabling them to share information and use applications like white-boarding across all fixed and mobile devices. These also extend to more advanced social media services that enable geographically disparate teams to work together far more effectively than has previously been possible.
NWA: What about the cons? One concern with the cloud is accessibility, so how will this factor into UC in the cloud?
Elms: Accessibility of the cloud is dependent on a number of external factors, such as the use of appropriate web standards, government policy and effective infrastructure – these effectively support an inclusive cloud. Consider – for instance – the ongoing debate that Government decision makers and regulators have about Cloud in the matter of citizen data storage. Some Governments insist that call records are kept in country and not in a remote server for example.
If a service provider hosts all their calls in a call control in Singapore, for example, they might not be able to sell this service to an Indonesian government department.
However, the great thing about cloud is that it increases the potential to work anywhere and actually increase accessibility. With duplicated servers and network devices, availability is increased. The Vodafone fixed and mobile network also provides increased choice for organizations and employees. Vodafone sees that the market demand for cloud based UC&C is increasing at a faster rate than on-premise services, suggesting that the market is prepared to seek the benefits of moving to scalable services delivered from the cloud.