Are businesses really ready to move to the cloud? While the cloud has become increasingly popular, not every company needs it and definitely not every company fully understands it. There are personal clouds, developer clouds and business clouds. So which one is right for your organization, especially if you are still using your legacy PBX (News - Alert) system?
According to this ZDNet report, one of the largest providers of weather and climate observation networks Earth Networks, recently made the switch. Earth Networks, which also owns WeatherBug (News - Alert), completely moved all business communications from its existing on-premise service to a full cloud-based service for their PBX.
The provider, Internmedia, is enabling Earth Networks to deploy a hosted exchange along with conference bridges and a hosted PBX. This will allow for file sharing and collaboration, security, hosted mobility advances, fax via e-mail and back up. And, of course, all of these services will be courtesy of the cloud.
There are endless options for cloud-based solutions, even if the business is still dealing with a PBX. The biggest decision is selecting with cloud provider can meet the modern PBX demands that a majority of businesses require. Combing every component of service to the cloud just makes good business sense for employees and IT directors.
This is a very good work flow process for remote workers, too. It’s best to find a service provider that can handle multiple challenges such as bill payments, integration services and management solutions. Find a vendor that can tackle every company objective. It’s easiest to transition a PBX system to the cloud if it’s contained.
It’s obvious that the cloud is the more economic and flexible answer to most business questions. But those same companies should do their homework and know the risks associated with selected the right cloud-based solution.
Whether the need is for e-mail, accounting, development or conferencing, companies need to designate what they are looking for and the cloud might provide a solution. Solutions available in the cloud can offer an improvement to PBX features while reducing costs and adding security, mobility and reliability.
The business cloud is considered the most reliable and secure option for most small to large enterprises as the standard demanded of the cloud provider exceeds security options that may be in place for the company.
This business-grade option offers fully integrated solutions that are created with those needs in mind. Salesforce, Intermedia (News - Alert) and Microsoft office 365 are just a few companies that offer this service, extending benefits to customers and driving impressive results.
Edited by Carrie Schmelkin