A Complete Insight about Cloud Telephony

About this document This document will completely provide you an insight about how this new technology works. It will also help you understand why Cloud Telephony is considered beneficial for your business needs. We live in a highly competitive society, where businesses are constantly searching for methods on how to cut down expenses, refocus functionalities of IT staff, as well as eliminate multiple communication providers and vendors. As a business owner, you may also want to make sure that your employees are given the capability to have access to your main system regardless of device and location. It is high time for you to get to the bits and pieces of this new technology and discover new ways on how to enhance the overall functionalities of your business in order to meet the constant demand in the society. Introduction Cloud Telephony works well with businesses that require the existence of innovative solutions in terms of phone technology. As a result, they can also estimate the responsibilities, costs, as well as risks of ownership from traditional and premise based telephone systems. Since it offers flexibility which is more than the traditional system, cloud technology often turns out to be the quicker, easier, and more affordable option for any business size.

Internet connection is very important in order to access files from the cloud. Therefore, if the connection is slow or it fails from time to time, it will ultimately affect the productivity of an employee. With Internet in Cloud telephony, data packets are transmitted, in contrast to the typical analog voice

signals transmitted through regular telephone lines. This ensures a faster and more reliable connection for all employees working for a business. This component in Cloud Technology is the science of integrating different telephone services into the computer networks. Therefore, it has the capability of converting the analog voice signals to digital signals. Then, the resulting signal is transmitted, and converting them again back to its original form. The most common Internet Telephone service available nowadays is VoIP (Voice over IP). Statistical Data

Figure 1

In terms of numbers, the global VoIP services market — which includes both residential and business VoIP services, grew nine percent in 2012 to hit $63 billion. The market is expected to continue its growth over the next few years to hit $82.7 billion in 2017. VoIP services market, including residential and business VoIP services, totaled $63 billion in 2012, up 9 percent from 2011 The combined business and residential VoIP services market is forecast to grow to $82.7 billion in 2017.

Figure 2

Massive demand for enterprise cloud-based services drove hosted VoIP and unified communications services revenue growth for a 17 percent increase between 2011 and 2012, the most growth seen from any segment. Growing demand for enterprise cloud-based services, hosted VoIP and unified communications (UC) services revenue grew 17 percent in 2012 from 2011.

Figure 3

NTT retains its leadership as the world's largest residential VoIP service provider in 2012, with 7.6 percent of global subscribers, followed by Comcast and France Telecom.

The SMB Market On-Premise Vs. Hosted Phone Systems There are some advantages and disadvantages of each phone system depending on certain factors. Here are some of them:

Cost On-Premise It offers potentially low ongoing costs and no risk of increases on fees. On the other hand, it may tend to have a higher cost for setup, and an unknown maintenance costs for long term use. Hosted Phone Systems It comes with a lower cost for setup and no costs for maintenance. However, it can have a higher cost for your ongoing service provider.

Future Expansion On-Premise There is no problem with expanding in the future. You are given the complete flexibility and control over the solutions available. In fact, you can even switch them, or mix and match. On the other hand, as the expansion increases, the complexity of the technology also increases, and you have to manage it accordingly. Hosted Phone Systems Since it is hosted, then the provider will be the one to shoulder all the possible risks, complexity, as well as work. However, they may not be able to implement changes quickly, and they may not be able to match your requirements.

Benefits Of Cloud Telephony Security Threats Here are the top 3 threats to cloud telephony: 1.] Data Breaches 2.] Data Loss 3.] Service or Account Traffic Hijacking With Cloud Telephony, unmatched security can be expected. As a matter of fact, this technology has introduced an extensive protection against emerging as well as advanced threats. Since it relies heavily on 100% multi tenanted cloud architecture, it presents the capabilities of a proactive, reliable, and real time security that manages equipment, software and employees. It also has the capability to secure and scan every byte of each web transaction, both outbound and inbound. Tips to Prevent the Threats Here are some tips to prevent the top 3 security threats mentioned above:

• Data Breaches Technically speaking, is not an assurance that a 100% control can be done over this type of security threat. However, in order to reduce its impact, you may enable encryption on all data transfers. Also, you may keep offline data backups in order to, at least, minimize the breaches in data.

• Data Loss

There are several reasons why data stored in the cloud may be lost. Some of the reasons may even be other than intentional attack by malicious users. Therefore, it is very important to provide a backup on all your data before allowing them to be transported over to the cloud for storage.

• Service or Account Traffic Hijacking

The first approach to the prevention of this security threat is accurate knowledge of it. After all, this threat is considered a new one. As of the moment, the most common form is stolen credentials, thus compromising integrity, confidentiality, as well as availability of data. As part of prevention, an organization should religiously implement a rule prohibiting the sharing of account credentials between services and users. If possible, they can also leverage a strong two factor technique for authentication.

Cloud Telephony Service Providers A cloud telephony service provider offers different cloud telephony services to individuals, as well as businesses who are interested in making sure that sensitive data are protected and transported accordingly across different devices, equipment and employees. Checklist before choosing a Cloud Telephone System Service Provider Is the provider’s term of service and security, as well as their privacy policy clear in stating full

details regarding your agreement, and contract, if any? Are they clear in explaining about data protection, reporting an incident, and other issues? Does the service provider have access to your data? If so, how can that access be restricted? Can the services be terminated at any given point? After termination, is data retained and can

be recovered? Does the service provider follow the principles for data protection under the Personal Data

Privacy Ordinance? Conclusions In this fast paced society that we are living in, new technologies emerge here and there. Cloud telephony is one of the newest, and by far, the most reliable methods of data distribution. This technology will surely help your business expand by making sure that all functionalities are taken care of. With this technology come different services. With accurate knowledge and proper guidance, cloud telephony will surely prove to be the key to achieving your company’s goals.