A New Approach To Cloud Communication

By Author: Ruben Marcus
Total Articles: 18
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The cloud is exploding in popularity. Organizations of all types love the ability to treat software much as they do electricity — a service that they plug into and pay for monthly. The cloud model has been applied to all sorts of software — CRM, HR applications, sales force automation, and so on. The advantages of the cloud are obvious and include:

• Increased flexibility
• Faster deployment time
• Minimal upfront capital expense
• Reduced IT requirements

CaaS

With the advent of voice over IP (VoIP), this same cloud delivery model can be applied to various communication services including contact center automation and unified communications. This utility‐like model for communications is often referred to as Communications as a Service, or CaaS.

Unlike data services such as CRM, communications services have special considerations. Communications ...
... services are often considered more vital because they involve personal contact with customers. Temporary loss of access to CRM can be a major inconvenience, but an inability to take calls from customers can threaten the very existence of a business. The potential loss of voice capability is one reason why many organizations have been hesitant to trust CaaS providers with their critical communications. The disadvantages of CaaS for communications services include:

• Extreme business disruption in the event of a service outage
• Variable call quality that can make customers think they are dealing with a shoddy off‐shore operation
• Loss of control over valuable data
• Lack of security for both voice and data

Even the public power grid has disadvantages with its variable quality, intermittent spikes, and occasional blackouts, some blackouts being severe enough to last for hours or days. Organizations have learned to mitigate these problems with surge protectors, uninterruptible power supplies, and emergency generators. Clearly what’s needed is a similar hybrid model for communications services — one that combines the best of remote service delivery with local control.

CaaS with Local Control

Interactive Intelligence has found a way to offer organizations the advantages of Communications as a Service while providing the functionality, flexibility, security, reliability and control of an in‐house communications system. The approach is simple.
• Keep your current telecommunications vendor
• Attach your phone lines to a VoIP gateway that sits on your network
• Install an approved connection between your network and an Interactive Intelligence CaaS data center
• Deploy VoIP phones