UCaaS Sales Grow as Enterprises Embrace Communications in the Cloud

Sandra O’Boyle

Summary Bullets:

• According to our recent analysis of global IP telephony and unified communications service providers, UCaaS is a key component of their cloud investment and rollout plans.  This is typically based on the Cisco HCS platform and/or Microsoft Lync and sold on a per-seat basis with a choice of feature packages.
• All major carriers are investing in UCaaS, as the cloud and network are important for providing end-to-end service and SLAs.  According to our research, IT service providers and system integrators are slower off the mark with UCaaS platforms such as HCS and tend to focus on private cloud solutions.

Unified communications as a service (UCaaS) provides customers with instant messaging, presence, audio, video and Web conferencing, and enterprise voice on a monthly ‘pay-per-user’ basis.  Typically, customers have a choice of feature packages that can be tailored to different users. 

Overlay Networks Are the Answer to Slow-Moving Service Provider WANs

Mike Fratto

Summary Bullets:

• Network operators are competing with enterprise technology for value-added services.
• Enterprises, being more nimble, can bring up new services faster regardless of their service provider.

One day in 1994, I called my local telephone company about getting a foreign exchange line to a nearby city so that I could stop paying local long distance.  I was told the install would cost $1,500 and the monthly charge was $500.  I asked why it was so expensive, and the representative said that the prices covered the cost to run the line 30 miles and a monthly right-of-way rental.  My next question – “Can I see the crew run the line and do I get to keep it when I am done?” – was met with silence and then a “no.”  That was my first run-in with the rigid IT and archaic processes at a large telco, and it illustrates a problem IT faces today.