It’s been quite an interesting year so far for UCaaS.
With Avaya’s formal (if inevitable) filing for bankruptcy this month, it’s clear that the shift from traditional on-premise communications to alternative hosted and cloud-based solutions is taking its toll on the market.
According to research firm Global Market Insights european cloud communications is set to grow at over 16% CAGR from 2016-2023. https://goo.gl/TBBXSw
This is not to say that on-premise will disappear overnight, but the attraction of low total cost of ownership, minimal CapEx investment, greater scalability, wider flexibility, improved security and cloud API integration are all coalescing to position UCaaS as a more compelling proposition.
The post-pc, BYOD and mobilised technology trends have also helped hasten the adoption of the cloud by many organisations. At the start of this decade probably 1 in 10 companies had embraced such ideology, today it’s likely to be 9 out of 10.
There’s also the case for better business continuity and disaster recovery. Cloud solutions are built to survive, utilising highly redundant infrastructures, promising anywhere availability. For most businesses, attaining a similar degree of service availability is either not possible or just too expensive. And lost calls and failed communications means lost business.
The growth of free wi-fi, 4G & LTE has equally helped the transition to UCaaS. Users are far more mobile, remaining productive beyond the office walls, leading to greater efficiencies and often work-life balances.
Ironically, 16% CAGR may be a little conservative for UCaaS growth. New innovations and applications are changing the communication and collaboration landscape rapidly, leading to more accessible and lower entry points.
The clock is certainly ticking for traditional IP communications, and whilst it’s not quite midnight yet, the direction of travel is only one way from here.
