Cloud vs Premises Enterprise VoIP Solutions: What Makes Sense?

News and advice about moving your enterprise voice and data communications to the cloud is everywhere. In fact, you would think that moving to hosted solutions for Voice over IP (VoIP), if you have not done so, is the only way to go. There is an implicit assumption for some that organizations should feel guilty about not having moved to the cloud already. The reality is that this is not a simple decision. The last thing you should be feeling is guilty -- there is a lot to consider.

The cloud is great for many good reasons, including moving from CapEx to OpEx, relieving stress on IT and obtaining anywhere accessibility. Plus, regardless of how it is provided, VoIP is not just a cost-effective means for making calls, but is a foundation for leveraging the value-added from unified communications (UC) and other real-time collaboration tools. It enables operational efficiencies and helps create sustainable competitive advantage. VoIP can and should be a part of, if not completely in, your future.

That said, when working with a trusted vendor, you need to be asking questions as to when, where, how, why and what is involved in migrating to VoIP and if it should be premises or cloud-based. 

You likely have an installed traditional digital PBX (News - Alert) that serves you well for pure telephony purposes. To know what your best option is going forward, you should understand the following:

1. Based on system age, endpoint capabilities and business requirements, you need to determine if the entire system and endpoints need replacement, or if you can incrementally move to next generation IP-based functionality at an incremental cost.
2. Since every customer has unique circumstances and requirements, you and your vendor need to determine if a cloud-based or premises upgrade is best for you.
3. Part of that consideration process is also understanding when evaluating cloud-based solutions, not all cloud systems are created equally. There are significant issues you need to inquire about. These include private and multitenant cloud solutions, hybrid cloud and public cloud. They each have distinct advantages. However, they should be looked at in terms of an assessment of your needs regarding reliability, compliance, network resiliency, quality of service (QoS), SLAs and security. What may make sense for internal communications, for instance, may not make sense for confidential interactions or external communications.
4. You also need to examine what to do next in terms of budgets, availability of IT staff, how best to handle branch location and remote worker issues, mobility integration, and what to do when about transforming your contact centers moving forward.

Vendor selection is critical when moving forward with either cloud or premises solutions. You need a vendor with the expertise to provide you with an objective evaluation of where you are and where you should be going. To make a recommendation about what is best for your organization you also need a supplier with a broad portfolio of premises and cloud solutions so you have a complete set of options they can help you select from. The goal is optimized performance, whether cloud or premises-based, at the pace you need to go based on aligning short-term and long-term business needs with capabilities. In addition, this should be done within the context of your budget, making sure that total cost of ownership (TCO) calculations match with projected life cycles.

In a world I have characterized as “The Age of Acceleration” —where the only constants are change and the speed at which change is increasing—having choices that enable you to be agile is paramount. Having a trusted partner that can assure you make the best choice is essential.  

Every organization has unique needs based on where they are and where they need to go. Cloud versus premises is not really a “versus” situation. It is about finding the right solution and path forward as well as working with a vendor with the portfolio and expertise to enable you to make the best choices right now. It is about having the options and support you will require to efficiently and effectively migrate to capabilities that make your organization responsive to whatever the future holds.

So, what makes sense? The answer is what makes sense to you, the customer, based on a thorough understanding of options and how they match all of your needs—functional and financial, short-term and longer term. VoIP, as noted above, should be part of your future. However, it needs to be deployed in a way that is optimized for the way you conduct business. Cloud or premises, to move ahead you need to be working with a vendor that can provide the flexibility that our rapidly changing world demands and help you make not just a choice, but the right one for you.