The Great Cloud Migration Is Underway

To cloud or not to cloud, that is the question. A quick review of cloud stats for the UK reveals some impressive numbers. From the volume of data in the cloud to the number of cloud services the average business uses and the maturity of their multi-cloud strategy, the UK seems to be ahead of the curve when it comes to cloud adoption or cloud communication migration. Or is it?

Despite the global impact on working practices brought about by the pandemic, only a third of businesses have moved their traditional on-premises communications solutions to the cloud. UCaaS and CCaaS are recognised as strategically important tools for enterprises of all sizes, so why are so many companies “not there yet”?

Most organisations will have embraced the collaboration elements of UC, with Microsoft, Zoom, GoTo, Cisco and others providing solutions to enable hybrid workforces. However, the telephony side of things seems to be dragging its heels a little.

 

Overcoming barriers to adoption

It’s easy to become fixated on the “what”, when the “why” is often more important. So, if the “what” is two thirds of telephony solutions remain on-premises, why?

Had we been answering this question 2 years a go I suspect the reasons would be quite different to today. The widespread adoption of remote working has changed the way people think about the workplace. A distributed workforce looks set to be the standard, rather than the exception. Attitudes to home working have changed significantly and, whilst half of UK businesses would like employees back in the office full time, 70% of employees prefer to work from home at least part-time. This eliminates one of the major barriers to adoption – nobody is asking for it.

Telecoms infrastructure can be expensive to implement initially. When that is the case, it’s understandable that businesses want to realise as much of a return on their initial capital expenditure as possible. The greater the initial investment, the longer it often takes to recoup the costs. However, at some stage, the maths no longer stacks up and the “long tail” becomes more of an excuse than a reason.

It’s easy to look at the cloud with a degree of inevitability – that it will be the ultimate destination for everyone. But this is a bit of an oversimplification, as no two organisations’ cloud will be the same. In the same way that everyone is talking about the hybrid workforce, hybrid cloud will seemingly be the infrastructure of choice. This will mean a mixture of public cloud, private cloud and on-premises solutions, depending on individual access, performance and security needs.

 

How do you get there from here?

In Profiles of a Cloud Migration Candidate, Mitel goes into detail about motivations for cloud communication migration, highlights the inherent value of cloud-based systems and provides some useful advice on planning your journey to the cloud. Remember, how you plan to get there is just as important as where you want to be.

• Strategic thinking – align your technology to your business objectives
• Journey planning – understand where you are, not just where you are going
• Process optimisation – don’t just look to migrate, innovate
• Omnichannel engagement – embrace communication in all its forms

 

There is no bad time to move to the cloud

Most UC vendors are putting the lion’s share of their investment into cloud solutions, with value-add features and functionality being added all the time. The longer you take to plan your cloud communication migration, the greater the element of change likely to be involved. And as we all know, change means risk.

4Sight is a Mitel Platinum Partner and winner of Mitel’s Top Service Partner of the Year. We’ve worked with customers of all sizes on their journey to the cloud. Whether you are a small to mid-sized enterprise looking for an agile solution that will grow with your business or a larger business looking to improve business continuity or reduce the TCO of your communications infrastructure, we can help.

If all this isn’t enough to convince you it’s time to migrate, we’re offering significant discounts on license fees for the remainder of 2022.

Contact us today to start your journey. Call on +44 (0)20 3668 0444 or email in info@4sightcomms.com