For companies around the world, Unified Communications (UC) has evolved from a nice-to-have solution for workforce alignment, into an essential investment. In an era defined by distributed workforces and the constant quest for improved productivity, few things are more important than a synchronised landscape for communications.
However, developing a strong UC strategy is about more than just implementing the right platform. As companies continue to transition into the age of the cloud, working with huge streams of information on a daily basis, challenges are emerging. Specifically, companies need to determine how they can protect their data in the UC landscape, even with employees working across numerous different apps and tools, in a distributed environment.
Evolving regulations and compliance requirements are opening the door to new opportunities for service providers and partners to act as a crucial security partner for their clients. Recently, I spoke with Dr. Scott Allendevaux, Co-founder of the Allendevaux & Company to explore how UC data protection is introducing new opportunities for UC providers.
The Changing World of Data Protection
While the importance of data protection may be nothing new in the UC landscape, the risks and challenges facing businesses have evolved in recent years. Transforming threat landscapes have prompted the need for new strategies and enhanced efforts in data protection.
First and foremost, we’re now dealing with more data than ever before. Approximately 99% of the world’s data has been produced in the last 10 years, and it’s growing exponentially each day. All the while, we’re moving more of the data we produce into the cloud, to leverage a landscape that’s scalable enough to adhere to this massive increase in volume.
Scott told me while the cloud delivers benefits for businesses reliant on huge amounts of data, it has also become a target for hackers and criminals. Data loss, data breaches, and ransomware attacks have become increasingly common, forcing companies to rethink their security strategies.
“Managed service operators and UC vendors around the world are recognising that we’re all putting more of our lives into the online world. Protecting data is becoming just as important as protecting financial information or healthcare records.”
This increased focus on the value of data has prompted a significant change in the approach businesses take to managing data. In the past, a lot of organisations had rather limited strategies in place for data protection. Now, they can’t afford to go without the right strategies, particularly when the fines and penalties for data breaches can be astronomical.
“Security requirements have transformed, and companies are being forced to treat data with a higher level of care and respect. It’s not enough to just have a password anymore. We need to encrypt data, wherever it is, on whatever channel and keep private information private, and ensure we’re defending our customers.”
Due Diligence is on the Rise
The increased focus on data protection in the UC landscape is only growing as UC and collaboration services become a more commonplace component of the enterprise communications stack. Companies are becoming more focused on finding ways to stay up-to-date with the latest regulations and protections.
“We’ve seen companies performing a lot more due diligence in recent years. They’re working with us to develop a clearer understanding of what security they require, what privacy standards they need to implement, and where their most sensitive information lies. They’re thinking more about the security risks in the UC landscape, from the meetings they have with teams, to where audio recordings are stored and managed. The transforming UC space means companies need to think more holistically about the types of data they’re working with.”
As Scott noted, it’s not just a matter of protecting audio calls anymore. Today’s businesses need to think about everything from messaging and chat, to video meetings. There are even new challenges to think about in the use of generative AI and conversational assistants, and how they process the data they’re given for self-service interactions.
