Internet phone service is slowly usurping traditional landlines, and customers are cutting the cord as they experience the many benefits of VoIP. On a similar note, cloud computing makes software and hardware resources available dynamically over the network without the need to store the data on physical devices. A recent story on Internet news site Voxilla notes that “VoIP and the cloud are a perfect team” and together can provide many great benefits for businesses.
Enumerating the benefits of a cloud-based VoIP phone system, it was noted that the VoIP-cloud combination is a powerful one that merits consideration.
Cost has always been a factor when using new technology and this happens to be one of the primary reasons that businesses are beginning to use cloud-based VoIP phone systems. Owning and maintaining a data center is neither easy nor inexpensive: upfront equipment cost, upgrading phone systems as and when needed, and hiring IT personnel to manage the whole setup are just a few of the headaches that VoIP providers constantly encounter. On the other hand, a cloud-based VoIP system eliminates all these pain-points and help save money.
And, if you're one of those that likes to carry the office along wherever you go, then an on-premise system is not for you. They are limited in nature and difficult to move.
A cloud-based VoIP phone system allows you to go where you want, when you want without standing in your way. If your company grows, you can add new users easily without ever having to worry about your business outgrowing your phone system's capacity. Even more important new features can be added to the phone system by accessing a centralized software platform that is located in the cloud.
VoIP phone service providers cannot risk outages, so reliability of servers is a big issue and disaster recovery plans are complicated and costly, but cloud computing services have extra backups to overcome any outages or critical crashes.
What is still more appealing about a cloud-based VoIP phone system is that it makes remote working easy and seamless. You can work from anywhere and make it appear as if you are in your office, and as phone calls can be transferred easily from one place to another, you can provide better customer service.
Though many VoIP providers are moving to the cloud, it will be a long time before all Internet phone services ride on it.
Different cloud-based VoIP phone services offer different features and capabilities and different service providers offer different features. Do your homework well before you choose your service provider.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson