The cloud computing tornado we’ve been caught in hasn’t lost momentum. In fact, if anything, additional pressure has been placed on IT to develop a cloud strategy. However, moving an inefficient business process to the virtualized cloud just perpetuates the problem. It was only a few years ago when the movement to IPbased communication systems led us to ride the unified communications wave all the way to efficiency nirvana. Now that virtualized cloud services have emerged as the top prospect to reduce capex, expedite delivery of new applications, improve business agility and minimize IT support costs, we need to explore the impact these services have on existing technologies. In this session, attendees will learn how to prepare for the use of cloud services while extracting the maximum value from existing equipment and solutions by utilizing ideal case studies on how to make the most of existing investments while also leveraging the best the cloud has to offer.

Did you know that on average, employees spend roughly 50 percent of their work day on necessary, yet unproductive tasks, including routine communications and filtering incoming information and correspondence? It’s no secret that integrating a unified communications system for your business not only streamlines the process, but provides a number of benefits for your business’s internal communication system. Deploying a cloudbased UC platform takes the process a step further by enhancing cost savings, scalability and the opportunity to access important data from just about anywhere. This session will share best practices, address strategic opportunities and show the positive impact UC in the cloud can have on a business, no matter its size.

The world has been revolutionized by the advent of Web 2.0 with its apps, APIs, realtime data and mashups. The world has also been revolutionized by the Telco 2.0 shakeup with new business models, cheap and ubiquitous communication possibilities and innovative companies and services. What if you could build something that merged the best of Telco 2.0 with Web 2.0 and run the entire thing in the cloud? This session will discuss the technologies and opportunities created by this potent combination and the strategies necessary for building these “2.0” voice + web applications that can run entirely in the cloud.

In a world where everyone is connected to everything your organization’s infrastructure has no boundaries. Successful companies are doing business in motion. The challenge is managing and securing an infrastructure that connects an endless array of intelligent devices and sensors that are outside your control. Learn how to create a Mobile Enterprise fundamentally changing and creating new value for customer, supplier and employee interaction. In doing so, new data and transactions and analytics workloads provide value and insight with the peace of mind that the security and management discipline required are future ready.

The widespread adoption of smartphones, tablets and other cloudbased services is driving higher levels of entertainment access to the enterprise. Soon cloudbased entertainment delivery systems will become deviceagnostic, and adapt to video streams based on available bandwidth. This means the segregation of “business” devices and “personal” devices will be an arbitrary distinction at best. In the meantime, enterprise IT managers are having nightmares about how to manage it all.This session will address the challenges that players in the mobile ecosystem must overcome to meet consumer needs and demands as video and other bandwidthintensive applications become increasingly important to the mobile user within the enterprise. It will also outline the options enterprises have for cloudenabling their applications, from private cloud deployments to hybrid and public clouds, the challenges that realtime communications in the cloud can present, and how enterprises can work with service providers to deliver on the strategy of the enterprise.

Rich media communications and social networks may be all the rage for consumers today, but are they ready to deliver value for today’s businesses leaders looking for smarter ways to drive revenue and improve relationships with customers, employees, investors and other core audiences?When these services are coupled with a cloud delivery model, the answer is yes. Communications services delivered through the cloud provide an easy, affordable and highquality route for businesses looking to benefit from new Unified Communications services – including advanced voice, video, IM, and SMS without breaking the bank. This session will provide insight into the basics of a cloudbased communications delivery model, including a review of the benefits of nextgeneration peertopeer, SIP trunking networks.

While discussion of a paperless enterprise leads some to predict the death of fax, the fact of the matter is fax is one service that many can’t afford to sacrifice. As many enterprises move towards a complete cloudbased unified communications system, fax over IP is emerging as an increasingly critical need for businesses of all sizes. Integrating and automating fax in IP environments saves enterprises money and streamlines operations while securely delivering business information from nearly any application through email, fax, print devices and the Internet. This session will demonstrate the best ways to ensure fax is a tightly integrated part of your UC environment without sacrificing the security you’re used to with a traditional fax platform.

As more and more enterprises are moving towards mobile environments the reactive approach becomes increasingly risky and ultimately results in service issues, outages and lost data. This session will cover the impact on the mobile operators, including abuse of network resources, denial of service, increased customer support costs and customer churn and the risks enterprises face particularly as BYOD becomes more popular in the workforce. Attendees will learn how service providers and endusers can leverage cloudbased security technologies to protect themselves and examine how networkbased malware detection systems can provide operators with more protected networks, more revenue and reduced customer churn.

How are organizations able to take advantage of the cloud, where infrastructure, platform and software are commodities? The answer is to protect its data; to ensure that its data cannot be accessed by the cloud provider or compromised in any way. As many companies are currently looking for a way to streamline business operations, users can leverage hosted email platforms like Office 365 to simply share documents; view calendars, contacts, tasks and notes; and dramatically cut costs while saving invaluable time. With the option of being fully customized according to individual needs, hosted email is an efficient alternative for companies looking to efficiently communicate at a much higher level. This presentation will discuss recent cloudbased technology developments, as well as its important business and regulatory implications to cloud providers and businesses that are contemplating using Cloudbased services such as hosted VoIP, hosted email and other cloud based unified communication solutions.

After years of marketing the benefits of unified communications, vendors have found a friend and maybe a foe in their push to have corporations integrate disparate systems and devices for the purposes of streamlining the communications and collaboration processes of the business. The continued consumerization of IT, as it is now commonly referred to, forces enterprises to embrace or at least tolerate BYOD. This results in numerous process complexities and security risks. The advent of additional UC applications, the proliferation of mobile work devices, along with exponential growth in realtime modes of communications SMS, IM, Voice, Video is accelerating the need to normalize these disparate devices/services. Properly addressed, BYOD can lower IT costs and increase productivity. However, left to run amuck it can result in a landmine of security risks and lead to a state of enterprise anarchy.

Video surveillance or video security solutions are typically onpremise solutions. So today, all the hardware including cameras, sensors, digital video recorder and security software are scoped for specific locations like doctors’ offices, retail establishments, airports, etc. With this come custom requirements for the security integrator OEM to consider when installing and supporting these solutions at each of their customers’ locations. This model requires high upfront costs and ongoing support programs on the backend. However, recent trends suggest this traditional approach is changing. This session will explore why original equipment manufacturers OEMs in the video surveillance market should look at how they deliver their solutions today, the opportunities it may be costing them in the long run, and the benefits of a cloudbased business model.

The cloud inspires companies to use breakthrough technologies without breaking their infrastructure or their IT budgets. It is the scalability of the cloud that positions SMBs for rapid growth with limited resource requirements. The cloud vendor accepts the responsibility for security, five nines uptime and QoS issues while the SMB management team focuses on attracting prospects and revenue. One such nextgeneration functionality is seamlessly sending visual content to mobile device users callers while talking to them. It’s a solution for improving communications with mobile callers, where growth is exponential and unprecedented, beyond even the most optimistic predictions. This session will explore how using cloudenabled can provide a robust communications experience for enhanced mobile communications and customer experience.

Cloudbased phone solutions are generally an attractive choice for growing businesses because of scalability, flexible cost structure, and enhanced features. Typically, fiscal ROI is immediate, for at the onset of adoption of a VoIP system, small business owners find that they save up to 80 percent compared to traditional, analog phone bills. And though a business can operate immediately with a preloaded VoIP system, integrated addon features are often available to suit niche requirements such as call recording, or voicemail transcription. The true ROI of VoIP phone systems moves beyond just a lower monthly bill – cloudbased VoIP technology provides immediate cost savings, allows employees to work faster and smarter through software integrations, saves business owners with preloaded Fortune 500 features, and provides invaluable insights into the analytics of voice traffic.