Enterprise Connect General Session Summit – Cloud: Opportunity, Threat or Yawn

Marc Lindsey. 

Enterprise Connect – 

The chorus for moving your communications and collaboration to a Cloud/hosted model grows ever louder. Both familiar carriers and a new generation of service providers are singing the same song: Let us handle your call control, communications apps and ongoing management, we can do it better, faster and cheaper.

There’s no question that the APIs becoming available to enable a new level of integration between the service providers’ and enterprises’ networks and services. And with virtualization, the service providers can ride economies of scale to deliver a wider set of services to many more customers than ever before.

The Cloud has gained acceptance in small- and mid-markets, turf that has historically relied heavily on phone companies and other service providers. The enterprise has been a different story, because of the presence of trained staff, the benefits associated with ownership and equipment depreciation, as well as a perceived and ability to control information resources and assets.

But has the rough economic period we’ve been enduring changed the game? Have communications and collaboration services become utilities or are they an essential ingredient in the enterprise’s core competence? How do you find the right balance point for your enterprise on what to outsource and what to retain?

Eric Krapf and LB3’s own Marc Lindsey moderated this General Session Summit and tackled these Key Questions on the infamous Cloud:

• As it relates to enterprise buyers, what do Cloud providers need to deliver in order to grow?
• Does the combination of technology like WebRTC and Skype-like business models help or hurt the movement toward the Cloud?
• If a company planning to migrate to the Cloud, what role should SIP Trunking play in the enterprise’s architecture?
• Can Cloud providers ever meet the enterprise’s requirements for governance, security and compliance?
• Can service providers provide Cloud SLAs that meet enterprise requirements?

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