World-leading analytics company, Frost & Sullivan, recently released its latest study on the Unified Communications and Collaboration environment, the "Global UCC Industry Outlook 2019" report. The research looks at the rapid evolution of UCC technology as businesses move from an on-premises environment, into the flexible space of technology delivered over the cloud.
As everything as a service (XaaS) and cloud-based communication tools grow increasingly popular for today's agile businesses, we caught up with Frost & Sullivan Principal Analyst, Digital Transformation, Rob Arnold, to learn more. Rob works primarily within the "Connected Work" segment of Frost & Sullivan, which concentrates on the unified communication and customer experience spaces. He shared his thoughts with me about the changing ecosystem and what UCC means in the current landscape.
Are People Feeling More Comfortable with XaaS?
Arnold told me that his team at Frost & Sullivan examine who's currently winning in the UCC market, and what kind of technology is most important to the evolving consumer base. The most recent analysis conducted in the Global UCC Industry Outlook report suggests that businesses are getting more comfortable with the idea of "as a service" offerings in the market, which means that they can move beyond the search for reliability and flexibility.
"The quality of as-a-service offerings has improved a lot in recent years. Because of this, companies are beginning to feel more comfortable exploring richer features in their UCC offerings, like enhanced mobility features and disruptive technologies in team collaboration"
Frost & Sullivan has noticed a significant improvement in willingness to implement new applications delivered through hosted environments. Even things like software-defined networking (SDN), AI, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are beginning to affect purchasing decisions in the UCC space. With XaaS, companies have the freedom to consume advanced technology more flexibly and affordably.
Are We Entering a Hybrid Era?
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Robert Arnold[/caption]
While there's certainly a lot of appetite in the UCC environment for the cloud, most companies are still running their technology predominantly on-premises. There's a long road ahead before we're living in a situation where everything is cloud-based, but according to Arnold, adoption is already happening at an incredible pace.
"We're already seeing improved adoption of the cloud. For larger companies - particularly organisations in the private enterprise - it is a bit of a slower process, because these businesses have their strategies to consider when it comes to growth philosophies and controls. The hybrid era for these companies means that larger enterprises can continue to access the control they need in certain places, while still unlocking the freedom and flexibility of the cloud for other requirements."
Rob told me that businesses are approaching the age of hybrid in different ways, depending on their size and needs. Some people see "hybrid" as a combination of different cloud products. Others think that hybrid is the connection between cloud and on-premise tools. It all depends on your position in the current industry, and how adaptable you can be.
How do You See the Value of the CSP Changing?
Interestingly, as hybrid cloud and as-a-service solutions become more appealing to the modern marketplace, there are still many major CSPs in the industry that offer only cloud solutions. These pure-cloud offerings may be useful for some companies, but service providers that fail to provide a hybrid alternative could be missing an important opportunity in today's market.
