It's safe to say that the communications environment is evolving, and that evolution is happening at a rapid pace. The way that people communicate inside of a business is changing, with collaboration tools and video conferencing, while outside of the company, conversations with customers are growing increasingly complex.
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Xavier Martin[/caption]
I sat down for a chat with Xavier Martin, VP, Market Development, Communications Business Division at ALE - a market leader in communications, to discuss how Hybrid Cloud technology is helping companies to bridge the gap between the past and the future. He told me that hybrid communications are the combination of services delivered from the cloud, and technology deployed on the ground.
"Organisations can use hybrid to get the best of both worlds, by connecting the ground to the cloud. They get to continue using their past investments while accessing new innovations with consumption-based subscriptions."
Is Hybrid Communications Popular Today?
I asked Xavier whether, from ALE's perspective, the hybrid communications world is popular today. He told me that there's been a lot of traction in the space because hybrid cloud technology is helping to eliminate the challenges that companies have faced in the past when it comes to embracing new technology.
"There are two major problems that hybrid communications are solving right now. The first in the Unified Communications space, where organisations have consistently been trying to provide employees with better tools, but haven't been able to afford costly, and difficult-to-maintain on-premises UC. Unified Communications as a Service (/unified-communications/ucaas) delivered in a hybrid environment allows companies to continue using their "on the ground" services while accessing the latest technology as a service."
Xavier noted that UCaaS allows for not only the adoption of UC&C tools but also the expansion of new solutions within organisations as communication silos start to break down in companies, participants from around the enterprise can collaborate in the same environment, without having to wait for a new upgrade to be installed.
"On the other side, we've got /unified-communications/cpaas, which is all about integrating business applications with the cloud. CPaaS becomes a digital hub in the modern environment connecting people, applications, objects, and everything a company needs to thrive. It helps you to understand your business processes better, reduce latency, and enhance decision-making processes."
Do You Think Hybrid is a Stepping Stone to the Cloud?
Some cloud-focused companies believe that hybrid technology is just a "mid-way" point in the digital transformation paths of today's businesses, helping people to get to an end-goal of complete cloud communications. Xavier told me that this view changes depending on the organisation and where they want to put their system.
"We usually see organisations that want to continue leveraging their past investments. They have no intention of putting their entire stack in the cloud because they want to be able to control their system on the ground and access the cloud at the same time."
"For these people, hybrid is the final destination. However, the route they take into hybrid can vary."
