The cloud communications industry has seen a lot of growth and transformation in recent years. While many experts predicted that the rise of cloud tech would be a disruptive force, it was impossible to foresee just how significant this flexible landscape would become.
Today, the cloud offers opportunities for innovation, improvement, and enhancement in almost every industry, and the technology continues to grow. Voxbone, one of the market leaders in cloud communication technology, recently conducted in-depth research into where this new space is heading.
In a recent eBook covering some of the emerging trends that Voxbone expects to see in 2020, the company combined its own analytics with information from several publicly accessible reports. The resulting guide highlights some of the key trends that businesses can expect to see in cloud communications this year.
1. Increased Adoption of Cloud Comms
The first trend that Voxbone expects to see this year, is a rise in the adoption of cloud communication infrastructures. Companies everywhere are moving into rapid digital transformation projects. According to reports, DX investments are set to exceed a value of $6 trillion by 2022.
For many companies, a considerable part of the digital transformation roadmap will rely on the ability to embrace the flexibility, cost-efficiency, and scalability of a cloud environment. Voxbone notes that heading into the years ahead, more than half of businesses are planning to use SIP trunks or are using them already. Tech-driven businesses are also exploring new opportunities in services like virtual phone numbers, messaging services, and Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS).
A large number of businesses are already deploying parts of their UC solution in the cloud, and the growth is expected to continue going forward. Of course, different companies will have different challenges to overcome as they make their way to the cloud.
2. The ISDN Switch-Off
Around the world, Voxbone also notes that ISDN is beginning to lose traction, with many carriers already in the process of moving into an all-IP landscape. This year, the UK will be switching off ISDN, with BT announcing that businesses can no longer purchase the technology from 2020 onwards. The pressure to move to SIP is, therefore, greater than ever. In 2020, communications are expected to account for around 36% of IT budgets, and switching to SIP will be essential to keeping communications stronger.
For service providers, this means that it will be time to re-think how they provide voice services to their customers. There are huge opportunities available for those who are willing to embrace the IP environment. For businesses, the change is likely to have a major impact on how they operate. Around 2 million companies in the UK alone are apparently still operating their telephone system over ISDN. Companies need to start making a change – and fast.
3. The SD-WAN Takeover
Another crucial trend that Voxbone recognises in its latest report, is the rising demand for SD-WAN solutions to enhance user experience and business productivity. The ability of SD-WAN to leverage a wide range of transport services unlocks new applications for the industry. In 2020, this technology will soon be everywhere, with most companies using it in some way.
It’s difficult to know for certain what sort of impact the SD-WAN revolution is going to have this year. However, it seems as though the technology is moving a lot faster than a lot of other tools in the technology space. SD-WAN helps to implement a commoditised environment that’s cheaper and easier to implement. Additionally, this technology ensures that hardware and applications can be connected in a way that works better than ever.
For Voxbone, the biggest benefit of SD-WAN is the potential that it brings to companies that are currently held back by legacy investments.
4. The Modularisation of Comms
Bring Your Own Carrier, and BYOX solutions are quickly becoming more popular in the communication landscape. Separating services into their various modular parts is a trend that is growing in both the comms and the IT environment. For communication specifically, this solution brings new opportunities to businesses and service providers alike.
In the past, setting up a cloud communications solution with the smallest deployment time required an investment in UCaaS or CPaaS. That’s one of the reasons why those two technologies are so powerful. However, with BYOC on a platform, service providers have a new way to instantly deploy their offerings to new markets via integrated Sip providers. This means that rather than worrying about finding providers in different countries and dealing with regulatory requirements, providers can start building new opportunities faster.
5. Collaboration Software Innovations
Collaboration tools are now a critical component of the communication environment, driven into the limelight by trends like remote working and business evolution. According to Grand View Research, the global market for team collaboration tools is poised to reach a value of $16.6 billion by 2025.
The rising demand for conferencing and communication solutions among enterprises is likely to drive the market going forward, alongside the increasing requirement for flexible working. According to Voxbone, although Slack and Microsoft Teams are leading the market in many areas, there’s still a lot of opportunity for growth and innovation from new companies too.
One particularly interesting consideration is how collaboration software innovation going forward will drive the arrival of new UCaaS solutions, featuring better integrations with other software platforms. Open APIs would allow for more innovative collaboration technologies as and when they emerge in the industry.
6. The Rise of IoT
According to Gartner, there are currently 14.2 billion things “connected” in the landscape as of 2019. By 2025, that number is expected to accelerate to 25 billion. This level of integration opportunities delivers new benefits for the cloud communication space and how it interacts with other technology areas. In the June 2018 mobility report Ericsson said that cellular IoT growth will lead to a total of 3.5 billion connections by 2023.
The growth of the Internet of Things allows companies to have better access to data in day-to-day operations, as well as making informed decisions about the future. As an example of the impact that Voxbone believes that we can expect, they reference a Forbes Insights survey. The study reveals that half of all companies surveyed are using IoT to improve customer experience initiatives.
The introduction of real-time IoT data in business landscapes allows companies to respond to problems as soon as they arise, in any environment.
7. AI Uptake
Artificial Intelligence is another trend that’s definitely gaining a lot of traction right now. By 2022, experts estimate that the AI market will exceed $2.9 trillion in value. There’s a lot of discussion on how, with increased use of cloud communications, AI will be able to expand into new territories.
One particularly significant example of the AI trend comes in the evolution of smart assistants like Amazon Alexa and Microsoft Cortana, which offer more support and information with business leaders. Companies in all environments are already spending a lot of time and money looking for ways to optimise customer communications.
From offering chatbots to simplify customer service experiences for customers, to implementing artificial intelligence assistants into the back-end, there are plenty of amazing opportunities in this space for companies that want to expand and grow.
8. Serverless Computing
Serverless computing is another important trend that Voxbone sees playing a part in the growth of the communication landscape. Serverless architecture or function as a service is a method of building software that allows people to deploy code without having to worry about the infrastructure underneath. Usually, when applications are launched, you need to pay for a fixed amount of server bandwidth.
While serverless solutions do still run on servers, you get your services from a vendor that allows you to scale your capacity according to your usage. This ensures that virtual machine OS solutions, physical hardware, and server management tools are managed by third parties. This could present a number of big benefits for all companies, including quicker turnaround, simplified coding experiences and enhanced scalability.
9. Mainstream 5G
Finally, Voxbone believes that 2020 will be the year that we begin to see the arrival of the fifth generation of wireless in a more meaningful way. By the end of 2020, 5G will hit the market and transform the way that we communicate and connect on the go. By 2021, there should be anywhere up to 200 million active 5G connections out there.
Under the current periods of high usage and demand, the 4G networks that we rely on today simply don’t have the power to manage package prioritisation as the network becomes overwhelmed. This means that latencies are increasing. 5G will solve the latency problem for companies of all sizes, creating a foundation for smart cities, VoIP adoption, smart devices, and IoT integration.
Timir Patel, Head of Product for Network Services at Voxbone, said:
“From our position within the cloud communications industry and working with the biggest providers, platforms and enterprises, we’ve witnessed first-hand how the trends outlined in this new report are disrupting the landscape in new and exciting ways”
“Arguably the thing that underpins them all is a growing drive among communications providers to identify tools and solutions that will give them an edge in delivering superior experiences to even more customers spread ever further apart. It’s the realisation of this ambition and reach that is perhaps the biggest ‘trend’ the cloud has helped to unlock. ”
To learn more about Voxbone’s predictions for cloud communications in 2020, you can download the company’s complete report.
