The cloud has been used for years to foster collaboration by allowing users to access and share information from anywhere, and increasingly businesses are turning to software-centric (i.e., cloud-based) carriers to deploy telecom services like voice and messaging.
Many businesses are frustrated with their dependence on legacy telco carriers to deploy and manage their communications services. Alternatively, IP (or cloud)-based communications gives developers direct access to, and control over, telephony resources such as phone numbers, inbound and outbound call routing, SMS and MMS through a self-service portal or APIs.
A survey of more than 1,000 business owners identified several factors influencing their decision to adopt cloud-based communications services over traditional, on-premise telephony systems.
These included a lower total cost of ownership (38 percent), the ability to scale quickly (19 percent) and greater system resiliency (15 percent). Respondents also noted the ability to add new communications features via the cloud as “easier” in comparison to an on-premises system.
However, many businesses still need education based on some common misperceptions around cloud communications, particularly in areas such as security, complexity, costs, reliability and call quality.
Below are some of the (unfounded and inaccurate) concerns that some businesses cite when it comes to migrating to a software-centric, cloud-based carrier:
1 - The call quality just isn’t as good in the cloud
Voice quality is often number one on the priority list when evaluating cloud-based service providers. Businesses (and their customers) simply cannot afford dropped calls or degraded service. The reality is that concerns over quality issues such as latency, jitter and packet loss are largely unfounded with today’s modern IP-based carriers as well as the availability of always-on broadband connections and built in redundancy. Notably, some software-centric service providers are certified as CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers), giving them direct access to telecom resources that can ensure carrier-grade clear, reliable and high-performing voice connections 24/7.
2 - Landlines are more reliable
The reality is that today’s software-centric carriers can resolve network outages faster than legacy telcos because of their unique ability to reroute IP-based traffic. This means that when a company experiences a local access or network path outage, instead of calling the phone company and waiting for a fix (sometimes for hours), technology known as adaptive call routing can quickly bypass the disruption so the business can quickly resume normal operations. Similarly, if companies are experiencing degraded service, adaptive call routing can reroute the traffic over another secure partner network to ensure capacity, uptime, and quality.
