With UC becoming more integral to enterprise operations with each passing day, security is paramount.
Of course, providers like Microsoft, Zoom, or Webex understand this, and therefore, all of their platforms have certain levels of built-in security to secure their customers and their data while using the platform.
However, in an age of growing cyber attacks, no longer is it enough to worry about your own safety solutions and procedures. It is now essential you keep an eye out for your UCaaS provider and how secure it is.
Think this is overblown? Think back to summer 2024, when cybersecurity company CrowdStrike sent out an update that caused computer systems across the world to go down for days.
Although it wasn't a cyber attack that caused it, it highlights downtime, for whatever reason, can be devastating. So understanding how your service provider is protected may be a key part of your enterprise's data resilience strategy.
One way to ascertain this is by looking at the data centres that underpin your service. It is here, that UCaaS provider Webex stand out.
Where Webex stands
HQ'd in California, USA, Webex is a comprehensive cloud-based collaboration platform developed by Cisco, designed to enhance communication and teamwork through video conferencing, messaging, and calling solutions.
Webex offers a suite of applications including Webex Meetings, Webex Teams, and Webex Calling, which facilitate seamless interactions for both remote and in-office teams.
As of June 2024, Webex Calling has over 15 million users in more than 160 markets and its CCaaS service Webex Contact Center seats surged by 75 percent in the same year.
The platform is recognised for its high-definition video quality, robust security features, and ability to integrate with various business applications.
The Global Network of Data Centres
At the heart of Webex's infrastructure is a strategically distributed network of data centres.
These facilities support Webex's global operations, ensuring seamless communication and collaboration for millions of users worldwide.
Although operated under a Cisco umbrella with multiple data centres around the world, Webex services recieves many dedicated decisions when it comes to its operation.
Just last winter, Webex announced it had opened a new data centre in Manchester.
Speaking at the time of the announcement, VP of Product Management at Cisco Amey Parandekar said:
“The continued expansion of the Webex platform allows customers to meet evolving regulatory and compliance requirements and demonstrates our commitment to driving continuous service enhancements for our global Webex Calling customer base.”
This was the second opened in the country, with an existing data centre already in London.
Equally, both UK data centres support multi-tenant and Dedicated Instance deployment models for Webex Calling.
The fact there are two data centres and both focusing on the same thing bring two things to its customers.
Firstly, it brings Webex services closer to end-users and strengthens the capacity to reduce latency and improve performance.
Secondly, it provides crucial redundancy, enhancing the platform's resilience against potential outages or disruptions.
In laymans terms, what this means is if one data centre goes down for whatever reason, the other one can remain operational and still provide services from the country.
Webex state that any failure of an individual server in a group initiates transparent routing of requests to other available servers within the WebEx Collaboration Cloud.
Equally, Blocklevel replication of data across servers and data centres speeds fault and disaster recovery in the event of system failures, power outages, and other events that can affect entire sites or geographies.
Indeed, when looking at Webex Calling data centres, this pairing contigency seems to be across the board.
There are two data centres in the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, and in the EU (Germany and Netherlands).
A Multi-Layered Approach to Security
Although the service offered is incorporeal, the data centres that keep Webex afloat are very much real.
Although not as often considered by the end user, the physical security of data centres is often considered a key component of security.
Cisco employs a multi-layered security model that encompasses physical site security, network-based protection, and data safeguards.
