Thursday, 31 May 2012 08:30

Cloud computing reaches new level of maturity with addition of unified communications

Until recently, businesses faced a tough choice when providing mobility solutions for their staff. They could implement unified communications (UC) solutions that would allow users to redirect landline numbers to mobile phones (or the nearest landline) and enable them to access voicemails and faxes from their email inbox. Or they could roll out cloud-based collaboration that lets users access email, documents and collaboration tools from any device “ but without any integration with office phone systems.

Now vendors like Esnatech have taken the next logical step and are delivering UC in the cloud, connecting cloud solutions like Google Apps with traditional office PBXs and fax services. That means Google Apps users can now take advantage of great UC features such as Follow-me or Find-me, where they can have calls to any phone number diverted to any other phone. They can even use their Google Calendar to automatically determine where to route calls, depending on what their calendar says they're doing or where they're located. And that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what UC for Google Apps can provide.

Vendors like Esnatech are also bringing UC within the reach of many more companies. Historically, UC was costly and disruptive to install, because it involved tearing out existing telephone and mail systems and replacing them with new technology. Esnatech's solution, by contrast, allows businesses to create UC solutions by bringing together their current telephone systems and either an existing or a new cloud infrastructure, reaping the cost and collaboration benefits of both UC and cloud without the need for a costly migration project.

Thats why were so excited about our new partnership with Esnatech. With Esnatech on board, we can help our customers take the collaboration, mobility and connectivity provided by Google Apps to a new level, by adding UC.

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