Answers You Need Before Moving UC to the Cloud

Many IT execs that I meet are actively considering deploying Unified Communications (UC) Cloud solutions for voice, video, conferencing, messaging, and collaboration services. Virtualizing your UC communication infrastructure provides an affordable option for upgrades and frees your IT staff to focus their attention on other critical areas. While Cloud UC benefits, such as cost saving, convenience and faster deployment, are attractive alternatives for premise UC solutions, not all service providers are equal in their service delivery. Before you move ahead with a vendor’s UC cloud proposal, it is important to fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of their cloud platform.
Although the final decision should be made by evaluating comprehensive RFP responses, some initial probing may help you shorten your list of potential providers. Key questions for potential cloud service providers include:

• Network interoperability. Ask the vendor to what degree its network can interoperate and integrate with other network services across multiple UC technologies.

• Database support. What level of database integration support is provided by the vendor? Does it meet your specific requirements and what are the connectivity costs?

• Survivability. What level of redundancy can the provider deliver, such as 4 9’s, 5 9’s etc. Determine the platform’s fault tolerance and its ability to instantaneously failover in the case of a disaster? Also, ask for the geographical distance between data centers that provide redundancy. Nearby redundant back up from the main center is not sufficient due to potential severe weather disruptions.

• Security. This is a major issue for many and involves several components to meet your company’s requirements. For example, has the vendor established secure encrypted SSL or dedicated network connections and how often are applications reviewed for security compliance? There are multiple types and layers of security and all need to be formally addressed in an RFP.

• Latency issues for voice and video. Without low latency the quality of voice and video diminish quickly. Determine the latency for voice calls and video sent over the network. Use industry standards to evaluate the vendor’s capability in this area. For example a one way VoIP voice connections needs to be <200 milliseconds to be acceptable.

• Hidden costs. Be sure you fully calculate all vendor fees that are addition to core services. Additional fees typically include all premise based hardware, such as telephones, headsets, mobile devices, recorders, etc. Added services may also incur extra charges, such as Direct in Dial or mobile integration. Vendors’ fees vary for professional services such as design, configuration and implementation.

Cloud UC solutions hold much promise but are relatively new compared to more mature cloud services for data connectivity. Voice and video are real time and have additional requirements to ensure quality of services. As you delineate your service requirements create a service level agreement (SLA) that is realistic and well-defined and reflects the more stringent requirements for real time UC.