Weighing Cloud UC Options and Costs

Grazed from NetworkComputing. Author: Michael Finneran.

Cloud computing is all the rage in the IT industry, and UC is no exception. While it’s hard to find a concise market projection on the UC as a Service (UCaaS) market, there are a number of telling signs regarding its health.

For instance, UCaaS provider 8×8 saw its revenue increase 33% year-over-year. ShoreTel Sky (formerly M5) saw its revenue go up 27% while seat count increased 36%. The company is carrying a backlog worth $550,000 in revenue because it can’t keep up with installations. Broadsoft, which makes the UCaaS platform used by a number of providers including Comcast, Megapath and Verizon (which also sells Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution or HCS) saw its revenues increase by 13%…

In reality, much of what is being sold as UCaaS is, in effect, a voice service, possibly with unified messaging thrown in. "Hosted IP PBX" might be a more descriptive moniker for this market. To my mind, UC starts with voice, but also includes IM, presence, Web conferencing and desktop sharing. Some of the offerings mentioned above, such as Cisco’s HCS, include those features, but they are typically sold at an extra cost. Basic telephony is driving much of the action, particularly among small and medium-size businesses where companies don’t have the staff to maintain telephony or UC systems…

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