How much equipment do you really need onsite with Cloud Based vs. Premise Based???
American Technology Solutions (ATS) views this claim being unique to each situation, but here is ATS fair and balanced comparison. Comparing Apples to Apples; an all new VoIP solution by both Premise and Cloud based must have a router and PoE data switches. The only difference is typically a 1 or 2 Rack Mount Unit (RMU) Server in the equipment room of the customer. If the customer desires resiliency then you might have to double that. Therefore, these claims of significant power savings are likely overstated. An AVAYA IP Office single site with 2000 Users would require space for 4 RMU to house 4 Single RMU Servers and provide resiliency. Power consumption’s claims for tens of thousands of dollars in energy savings are not reality. The claim by Cloud Based routing calls to another location quickly in the event of a customer site disaster is interesting, does your company have another location sitting idle or would you have to setup temporary operations at a Disaster Recovery Site? The latter being the likely case both Premise and Cloud based solutions are in the same situation, but in the case of the Premise Based Solution rerouting of calls will be provided by the customers Service Provider to a Disaster Recovery site. In some cases these Service Providers offer Business Continuity Service Centers and therefore, in the event of a disaster you may be able to restore business operations in hours or a day. Disasters do happen and Business Continuity Plans should be considered for companies providing mission critical services. Although, there may be some cost savings in energy consumption, don’t plan on tens of thousands of dollars. Be very careful and look closely at the solution provided by both companies and use actual manufacturer specifications to acquire an accurate assessment of the power consumption for the premise based equipment necessary for each solution.
This is Post 5 in a series of 7 Posts coming daily this July.