Last year, was a good year for VoIP. The technology forged ahead to claim its rightful place at the top of the telecommunications totem pole, with opportunities and possibilities still abrim this new year. It looks like it’s going to be another great year for digital communications. Here are some things to look forward to.
VoIP Moves to the Cloud
One of the biggest things last year is also this year’s formidable driving force. VoIP will move more and more to the cloud. Cloud-hosted VoIP offers not just price advantages to those who make the move. Of course, this is one of the top reasons why it has gained so much traction with small- and medium-scale businesses that want to leverage VoIP technologies’ cost-effectiveness even without huge budgets.
Cloud-hosted VoIP offers the opportunity to make the VoIP switch quickly, without requiring huge initial investments. The transition is fast and can take as little as a month, which means corporate communications savings can start sooner too.
The operating costs associated with VoIP are also drastically minimized. When hosted in a third-party cloud services provider, the burden of hardware maintenance and management is now transferred to the services provider. You won’t need to invest in hardware and expert staff just for VoIP. And this takes a load off you, cost-wise.
Likewise, the scalability and integration possibilities are abundant and won’t cost as much as with premises-based VoIP. You can increase the number of users and the applications integrated into your phone system, as needed when needed.
This year, expect a boom in the cloud-hosted VoIP sector. As the demand for this service increases, so will the number of service providers.
Platform Integration While On The Cloud
As mentioned previously, there will also be a visible increase in application integration, in terms of number and the types of apps integrated with digital phone systems. Because VoIP is data-centric, it can be integrated with practically any business software to achieve efficiency goals, such as productivity and CRM software. All within the cloud.
VoIP on Mobile Devices
Mobile devices at work (either BYOD or corporate property) have increasingly become the norm when it comes to working more effectively, in and out of the workplace. With VoIP, smartphones, and tablets, alongside reliable Wi-Fi or data service, are everyday tools that increase productivity and improve communications between co-workers and partners.
Mobile data access is also facilitated easily through unified communications. In all, it has become nearly impossible to disconnect. Data and people are easily accessible, regardless of location.
This trend continues in 2015, either as a reaction to industry competition or to take advantage of improved conditions for telecommuting.
Threats to Security
As with any popular online technology, VoIP is beset with security issues and threats. The gravity varies from garden variety theft of service and malware infiltration to more malicious attacks, such as the denial of service and call interception.
The best approach to VoIP security issues is to be stringent when it comes to selecting your service provider. There should be a good level of VoIP security measures implemented at the provider’s end. Basic here is 24/7 monitoring through services such as VoIP Spear. Next are security measures, such as fraud detection software, call encryption, and deep packet inspection, among others.
This is important as, in the new year when we expect more businesses to transition to VoIP, there will likely be an increase in malicious security attacks.