Many organisations find that the challenges of moving to cloud-based Unified Communications (UC), and cloud communications services are centred as much around finance as they are technology. Often, the questions are: "Will a hosted solution save me money? What features will I lose? What's the risk?"
Cloud communications is more flexible, and more capable of helping companies to scale naturally, allowing for the easy implementation of new technologies and new users. Public cloud UC services and private cloud PBX solutions are now growing more popular. By 2020, one in two sales across the globe will be located in the cloud. Beyond that, cloud is likely to win the market share.
"Cloud PBX and UCaaS deployments are growing by 8.5% per year globally, on-premise PBX deployments are declining."
Analysts suggest that the traditional PBX is no longer be the platform for productivity. A UC platform that offers video, voice, team collaboration, and available API is underpinning the cloud market growth, and enterprises are no longer asking the question "if", but instead "how and when" they're going to move to the cloud.
Combining UC and cloud communications is, after all, a winning formula for organisations in seek of true business agility.
PBX versus Cloud: Is it Black and White?
As traditional revenues for PBX continue to decline, there's a massive PBX versus cloud debate on the horizon, though it may not be as simple as one versus the other. Many telecoms believe there's still a place for IP-PBX on-premise solutions, and market trends are supporting it. Indeed, the majority of phone system sales in the UK are still on-premises.
Cloud, of course, will continue to nibble away at the 'on-premises' market share. What we're seeing now, is a period for hybrid solutions to make their mark. SMBs are naturally ready to move cloud telephony faster than large corporates, and most cloud solutions by 2020 will be found in the SMB market. However, as large enterprises deploy hybrid solutions over the coming three years, their cloud seat figure will soon overtake.
Where Does This Leave the IP-PBX?
It does make sense to host and own your IP-PBX and UC solution. If you're in a static business with static requirements, then it's simply more cost-effective than a subscription cloud model. For sectors like the financial industry, it's a much longer game due to security risks that need to be approved by regulatory bodies and IT departments.
What's more, cloud solutions today are still catching up with PBX features, so if companies have already invested in integrating communications with critical systems and processes, then it might be a compelling reason for them to stay with what works, at least for now.
