Cloud Computing: Sending the PBX into Extinction?

Nothing is hotter than the cloud right now. No other topic in tech could possibly attract more attention aside from the recent death of Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple (News – Alert). From the big boys up at Microsoft down to the smallest start-up, cloud computing seems to be dominating the mouths and minds of technology’s forefront thinkers, and those at LiveVox (News – Alert) are no different…

While the explosion of the cloud has fueled the creation of new communications technology, perhaps it has also contributed to the extinction of some. LiveVox proposes that this unfortunate technology is the PBX (News – Alert).

For the contact center, the cloud presents unique benefits and challenges, and as contact center solution providers work to address new concerns of the contact center, they witness the old hardware falling by the wayside.

“The cloud brings several benefits to contact centers but a crucial one is its ability to deliver a simpler and better operating model to what can be a very complex environment. A big example of this is the ability to sunset an expensive chunk of hardware whose time has gone the way of the engine crank—the PBX,” wrote LiveVox in a recent blog post.

In a nutshell, the cloud makes the PBX obsolete. Nearly gone are the days of “buying more than you need” for effective call center operations. Gone are the days of heavy maintenance requirements and network upgrades.

LiveVox explained, “The PBX at its root is a phone switch to deliver dial tone—to connect your center to the greater PSTN. Cloud switching eliminates this issue through direct access to carrier backbones. Site-based switching adds multiple layers to a contact center’s network, while cloud switching flattens those layers and delivers more flexibility.”

With a recent announcement about additions to its cloud-based contact center suite, LiveVox continues to maintain a forefront spot on the cloud computing developments for the call center. Read more about the company’s innovations here.