IP or Cloud PBX phone service may be the most popular choice for communication systems among businesses today.
TMCnet reports that out of the 3,000 global CIOs that IBM surveyed, 60 percent say that migrating to cloud phone service in five years’ time was part of their organization’s plan to gain a competitive edge and to grow their business. This is almost double the number of CIOs who planned to migrate to cloud computing two years ago
Cloud computing is not just popular among large enterprises. In the same article, TMCnet cites a Microsoft study indicating that 39 percent of SMBs are expected to adopt cloud phone services in the next three years.
But even with the rising popularity of the cloud, there are quite a number of businesses that are hesitant to migrate to cloud phone service providers. Two of the common concerns are the following:
Reliability
While many businesses may acknowledge that the cloud is the future of telephony, companies that are used to traditional phone systems are understandably hesitant to make the shift. Why fix what’s not broken, they say, especially if the alternative does not seem to be reliable? Last mid-April, Amazon experienced a multi-day outage during a regular upgrade effort. The outage took down social networking sites such as Reddit and Foursquare. The loss of even a day’s worth of phone service undoubtedly leads to a lot of customer backlash and halts business productivity, risks which no business wants to take.
Security
Another major concern is cyber security. FoxBusiness reports that the number of VoIP threats has increased over the last year. A quick Google search can lead crackers to accessible downloads of fake caller IDs and other internet phone cracks. While storing data in the cloud leads to virtually unlimited storage space and massive cost savings in the long run, it also makes your phone system vulnerable to phishing, malicious hacking, phone hijacking and information stealing.
Safeguards
While traditional PBX is “not broken”, any business wants higher productivity at less cost, and generally a better way of running things. IP telephony can provide these. To safeguard against reliability and security issues:
• Store, share and automatically back-up data in a secure web interface. This way, you can easily restore or delete information.
• Plan a back-up power supply, in case of ISP/cloud provider outages
• Implement tighter security measures for your most sensitive data. Network Master Consultant Cliff McGlamry doesn’t suggest across-the-board upgrades as this becomes self-defeating and counterproductive, leading to delayed booting times and performance loss.
• Choose established phone service providers
Any technology, old or new, is not completely failsafe. The reality is that cloud phone service has been proven efficient and cost-effective, as evidenced by the many businesses opting to make the shift. By safeguarding your IP system, you too can experience the complete benefits of cloud computing.