Streamlined operations and the promise of a lower cost are driving a number of business owners to consider the cloud. And while many already embraced the opportunity to unify communications years ago, the opportunity to move this element of the business to the cloud is not as clear cut. Unified communications as a Service (UCaaS) can appear too risky for those businesses that need security and reliability.

Still, the benefits afforded with UCaaS are too powerful to ignore. If you want to ensure your competitive standing in the marketplace, you have to consider the opportunities presented in the cloud wherever they make sense. The first step is to understand the environment and the options available to you. The current unified communications environment is segregated, but a digging down into a comparison between cloud and multi-tenant UCaaS can help you become more informed.

It’s first important to understand that much of the segmentation in the market is due to the fact that every business is different. Each one has its own physical infrastructure and networking capacity to run unified communications applications. That means your unique solution set and user demands have to move into someone else’s data center if you move toward the hosted model.

For a cheaper option, you could combine capacity, networking resources and unified communications solutions with other companies within a data center. If application modification is important, however, this solution isn’t ideal. Likewise, if you’re in a specific industry, you may not have the luxury of choice. Hosted environments, for instance, are often better for highly regulated industries as data can be physically separated for better security. End users shouldn’t be able to tell the difference, but the makeup of your UCaaS services is apparent in an audit.

The size of your organization can also play into the way you select your UCaaS as service reliability is going to play a factor. Smaller providers sometimes fall into a different category where the hosted services are not exactly what they seem. It’s important to know that a vendor is using the cloud terminology correctly so what you’re expecting is actually what you get. If this isn’t the case, you may find that performance and security suffer considerably.

If you’re not quite ready to make sense of all of this, but know you need to invest in UCaaS solutions, give eXemplify a call. It’s our job to break down the details and help you better understand your environment and your options so the ultimate solution selected actually delivers the benefits you need.