The days of having a desk phone are slowly dying. As the world embraces digital transformation, IP Voice is at the forefront when it comes to critical applications. Voice has always been a minefield, and while Cloud adoption is generally beneficial, it’s not a one size fits all solution. Inaccurate or ill-fitted solutions can result in unreliable service that cause shockwaves through a business, creating a ripple effect for customer and employee experience.

This article will explain my viewpoint, as a Voice Solution Sales Specialist for Timico, of both Private and Public Cloud offerings for Voice, and how to determine which is right for your business.

The Benefits of Hosted Private Cloud

If your business is looking for the benefits of Cloud applications while still maintaining an intimacy and level of confidentiality, the Private Cloud is for you. This option allows Voice hosting in a virtual environment with a greater level of insight and control over the visibility of information and whereabouts of your data. This is especially important given the widespread focus of strict regulation around storage of personal and sensitive data in the Cloud. Three key benefits of a hosted voice solution on Private Cloud infrastructure, are transparency, cost and scalability.

Transparency

With Private Cloud, you know exactly where the equipment and telephony are being hosted. In this way, one of the benefits of Private Cloud is transparency. You are not left out of the process, you are informed of how the disaster recovery works, and where to go to make changes. This is often provided by a trusted partner, such as Timico, who will own and operate their own data centres, meaning they can tailor their disaster recovery solutions to suit your business, and to make sure redundancy is in place.

Private Cloud also provides the ability to leverage private/core networks by delivering Voice over that network, with the benefits of outsourced networking and security. You still maintain your control, and maximise the return on your network investment.

Cost

For many businesses, cost reduction is the key motivator to embrace digital transformation. By choosing to use Private Cloud, we can be agile with our pricing, offering CAPEX and OPEX options to suit each customer.

At Timico, we own our own data centres, allowing us to bypass the costs of external VDC space or racks, and to absorb the management and staffing costs that a customer would have for an on-premise solution they manage in-house. This enables us to provide hosted Voice at a competitive price for our customers.

Scalability

Private Cloud solutions provide increased scalability and an ability to regularly update technology as needed. Private Cloud leverages a managed change control and has the ability to provide edge services (something that isn’t within the core offering but enhances your experience or use of it, such as being able to take payments securely, or embed voice onto webpages) to a core Voice solution – allowing business to integrate new or improved features to their Voice applications. As tech evolves at an ever-quicker rate, this level of adaptation becomes essential. Scalability is key when it comes to private cloud, allowing new users and features to be added with speed and agility.

The Benefits of Public Cloud

The Public Cloud, such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS), also remains a popular choice for hosted Voice. While some companies require the visibility and control of Private Cloud, others prefer a solution where they are not responsible for the management of a data centre cost, low maintenance, and rapid deployment.

Cost

Cost reduction is also an important benefit of Public Cloud. Here, expenses will be on a “per seat” basis and normally in an OPEX model, allowing your expenses to be tailored to your organisation and consumption.

Low maintenance

A key benefit of using Public Cloud, is the responsibility of data centre management being with the hosted solution provider. Your data is stored in the provider’s data centre, and the provider is responsible for management and maintenance of that data centre.

Rapid Deployment

Public Cloud comes in to its own when rapid deployment is essential. Being able to deliver Voice packets over existing infrastructure (FTTC, DIA) is a huge benefit when sites need to be deployed quickly and there is no need to build the application out in a data centre, which makes the process much faster.

Arguably, Voice is the most critical application for businesses today. By moving to the Cloud, whether it be private or public, you are making the right choice. Reducing risk and taking equipment off site has proven to be the way to go when it comes to not just Voice, but all applications that can be relocated to the Cloud. Choosing the right partner is always difficult, but a partner with options that are tailored to your needs, is a safer choice. A partner who can offer Private Cloud solutions and a clear path from A to B for your business, whilst also having a strong supplier partnerships to deliver robust Public Cloud offerings, would be the smart choice.

The future of Voice is digital: feature-rich, cost effective, less about a physical handset and more about mobility and flexibility. However, within the digital sphere, there are still decisions to be made. Understanding your business objectives will help in making the decision about what is the best Cloud solution for your business.

As a provider of converged managed services, Timico offer both Private and Public Cloud solutions to be tailored to your business requirements. For more information on how we can improve your organisation’s voice and cloud solutions, contact us today.