Are you in the Cloud!

Hi Bryan, welcome to the forum

Hi Pete, thanks for the question!! Just waiting for the moderators allowing my full reply.

Welcome to the forum! Bumping up Pete's question, can you share some of your experience in that area?

Happy to share thelegalstop just waiting for moderators to pass our posts!! Feel free to ask any questions and I will be happy to pass on any pearls of wisdom that might be of help to any SME.

Thanks for this. Our focus is on business telecoms services, so that's where most of our expertise lies. 

Numerous research papers point to the strong growth in the adoption of cloud-based services by businesses of all sizes, including the information quoted by Pete England above. Here's another source, which talks in some depth about the situation in 2016: Cloud Industry Forum 2016 report The summary on page 3 outlines some key statistics on the volume of Cloud users, their satisfaction levels and plans for further deployment.

Even if users might still be sceptical about the benefits of the Cloud, it is highly likely that they are using it anyway! For example, if you use iTunes, Google Docs or any of the dozens of other such services for storage and recall of photos, music or documents, you're using the Cloud. 

Advantages of Cloud-based data storage include ease of access from anywhere (as opposed to having to come into the office, open a PC - or filing cabinet - and retrieving the information from one location); security is usually much higher than in a traditional storage system. Depending on the programs used, collaboration between departments and teams is said to be improved.

In telephony, we know from our clients that they see similar benefits. There is no longer the need for large capital outlay on the installation of lines and on-site PBX equipment. The services run on a broadband line, and the "brains" that direct and manage call traffic are now run from secure servers. Upgrades and improvements to the system are managed by specialists and often implemented as part of the service.

Flexibility is a key factor: As you are no longer tied to the one location by a phone line, you can take your hosted phone and plug it into a broadband service almost anywhere in the world, and be in the office even when you're out and about. Online management portals make it very easy to make changes to the service, such as forwarding calls without having to ask a service provider; it's also very simple to set up a disaster recovery option, so that each user can have their calls reach them in the event of a loss of service. A traditional system would typically send all calls to one alternative destination.

In addition to the reduced initial costs, ongoing charges are often much lower in comparison with traditional line rental and call costs. Adding and removing users from your account is also straightforward, without the need to work out in advance home many lines are needed. Simply add a user licence and a handset, and it's ready to use.

Sorry for the lengthy post! If you'd like to know more, or have other questions, either post here or call us on 03456885122.

A belated welcome aboard Bryan and great intro and discussion. I'm going to move it over to the general business forum as it's pretty interesting.

I'm a bit late to the discussion, but thought I'd add my five pence worth.

I've been a long time cloud cynic after watching the awful early implementations and still have reservations about it in certain areas. But Cloud infrastructure technology is maturing, single points of failure seem to be disappearing and techies are becoming more competent in configuring and partitioning cloud storage. 

I put my our business toe in the cloud waters by moving our email services to a cloud provider a few years ago. Far cheaper and more reliable than the old mail server in the office.

But I've always resisted moving heavy database driven websites to the Cloud and a recent migration experiment failed, so we remain with dedicated servers at Rackspace. But plenty of huge websites live in the cloud, including the likes of iplayer which uses (I believe) Amazon Framework Services, although they do have a wobble from time to time. 

But phones seems a much safer bet and we have been trialling for 6 months a VOIP Cloud service from Vonage. On the back of this we have just replaced all of our office phones and are now using Vonage VOIP cloud services. The cost is a lot cheaper than our old fixed lines, plus we have a mix of high volume call packages and low volume, which work out a lot cheaper than our old landlines. Plus we get a lot more functionality (for free) such as HUNT groups, diverting to a mobile and using your mobile as your landline (ie landline number displayed).

It's still early days, but am very impressed and slowly warming more and more to this Cloud malarkey. I can see why the stats say more business owners are moving to the cloud, particularly smaller businesses. You can give  a big company smoke and mirrors perception for minimal cost with a very flexible and configurable solution.

Residential houses and businesses in the near future won't have any copper wire connected to them, but a direct fibre link, allowing this to power all comms from phones, to internet of things, ie smart devices such as TV's and Fridges! The plain old telephone system (POTS) and public switched telephone network will be consigned to history, even though arguably it's more reliable as POTS will keep going even if you have a power cut (due to the line being boosted by batteries). Something your IP phone won't do!

Good points, Steve, thank you. It is now increasingly possible for even the sole trader to appear much larger through the use of hosted phone services, as well as run a more efficient operation by using apps and services that are cloud-based. From a security point of view alone, it's got to be better than relying on a single PC sitting in a home office! 

On the subject of POTS and analogue phone lines, there are some major changes ahead that will affect both residential and business customers: Openreach and Ofcom have agreed that the analogue lines that have served us for many decades are coming to an end. As of 2020, no new orders for ISDN lines will be taken. By 2025, the whole ISDN and analogue phone network is scheduled to be switched off, and all residential and business telephony services will be run on broadband lines. Although more people say they are disposing of landline connections at home, their broadband becomes even more vital, so why not use its capabilities and put a phone service on it as well? 

So, you are saying whether the person is able to use the internet or not, they will need to pay for broadband to have a house phone!

There are plenty of elderly that don't know, don't want to know and don't understand Pcs and the internet. But they will have no choice but to pay for something they don't need, just to get a phone line. If that's the case it is disgusting! Society forgets about the older generation when it comes to technology. My neighbour was told the only way to get the blue badge renewed was online. She explained she didnt have a computer or the internet. The council employee told her to buy a computer, she would need it to keep up to date with her benefit payments!  

There are people in society that are not capable of learning the technology, are not interested in learning, and can't afford it. Yet it is automatically assumed that they have a computer. Cost wise you wont beat the Bt basic service at just over £5 a month, of which I know a lot of elderly people on it. 

Don't fix what aint broke, as the saying goes.

Hi Toots, thanks for the response.

Nothing is going to happen overnight, this is a gradual process. But the reality is the infrastructure of this country is broke and really does need fixing

We are talking about copper wire technology that is well past it's sell by date. My old house in Warwick was in an area where the whole phone infrastructure for that housing estate was in full decay. BT wagons were a common sight and after countless complaining the simple answer was there was little BT could do, and this was going back 15 years.

Technology evolves, older technologies degrade and become redundant. I've no doubt when the eventual time arrives for the POTS network to be switched off for good  and consigned to history, that there will be a facility to ensure everyone has access to a simple phone service.

I'm sure there will be a low cost/subsidised service for the elderly and vulnerable, which in reality will probably work out cheaper than it does now with no call costs and no line rental. If there isn't, then Age Concern and similar will soon start shouting and lobbying government. I've no idea about government policy but I would have thought ensuring everyone has adequate and affordable access to communications before the POTS switch off would be a requirement.

Remember a computer wouldn't be needed and the phone will look and operate exactly the same as their current one does now. The fact their would be so much extra functionality available if needed is a bonus, meaning family members could configure and set up monitoring services, alerts, voice activated, in fact the options and potential are endless.

Does that allay any fears or are you still sceptical?