Hybrid Cloud: Readying Communications for the Technology of the Future

Have you seen companies rush to adopt new technology in search of cost optimization only to find that it limits what they need to make their business thrive once deployed? Communications is the glue that drives business growth, and ensuring that your communications do not limit your business's future is essential.

Let’s look at organizations' adoption of Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) in the search for simplicity in communications and collaboration, outsourced operations, and reduced implementation and operations costs. Companies adopting UCaaS have lost some control over their communications management and maintenance and the ability to customize their implementations.

While UCaaS providers offer simple out-of-the-box integrations, the control to implement deep integrations to design effective end-to-end communication-driven business workflows is lacking. Underserved frontline workers are forced to use a UCaaS communication platform designed for knowledge workers, making them less efficient.

This is what’s driving Mitel to emphasize hybrid cloud communications more than before. Mitel is the only company in the Unified Communications (UC) space that is 100% focused on its development of hybrid cloud, and as competitors leave this space, we see that the future is bright. We expect Artificial Intelligence (AI) to cause companies to consider alternatives to multi-tenanted solutions and tip the scales back toward the need for hybrid cloud communications.

A Hybrid Cloud Communications Primer

So, what do we mean by hybrid cloud communications? Whether a company’s communications solution is deployed on-premises leveraging cloud-based applications, in a customer or channel partner’s private data center or deployed within a dedicated public cloud architecture, like Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services, or a mixture of any of these types of deployments, all communications solutions where the customer—or channel partner as their proxy—have direct and dedicated control of their solution is considered hybrid cloud communications. Maintaining control of their communications infrastructure data and the communications data within is the key, and we consider this fundamental to the future success of any business or organization.

So why is hybrid cloud so important? According to Frost & Sullivan, hybrid deployments are projected to dominate the UC market—80% by 2026. TechAisle, in a recent study of 1,950 businesses, found that 91% of Enterprises prioritize hybrid for their communications needs. So, the analysts are also aligning with the need for hybrid cloud. Mitel’s plans ensure that organizations can align communications with specific business needs while providing control, reliability, security, and compliance. Frost & Sullivan’s Elka Popova described “Mitel’s innovative approach as a game changer…” when referring to the Virtual Care Collaboration Solution in healthcare.

Prioritizing Frontline Worker Communications Needs

If we look at the market, Mitel has had historical success with companies in industries that value these solution benefits. These industries all have one thing in common—a healthy proportion of frontline workers within their organization. According to Frost & Sullivan, “the addressable market for digital solutions among deskless workers is approximately 1.5 billion workers globally,” which is approximately 75% out of the global desk/deskless labor force of roughly 2 billion workers.

Maintaining connectivity and communication among all employees is fundamental to the success of any organization. The industry solved this fundamental communications connectivity problem many decades ago. But recently, CIOs have faced the complexities of remote working; integrating employee communications with business workflows, capturing communications data for analytics and insights, and providing fit-for-purpose tools that improve every worker’s productivity, particularly the frontline worker, is becoming increasingly difficult.

It’s the frontline worker who is being left behind. The nurse, the teacher, the bank branch staff, the hotel staff, the field and facility workers, and customer experience and contact center agents all require fit-for-purpose communication tools. These workers sit at the intersection of software and hardware to do their work effectively. Software that connects every employee and hardware that fits their day-to-day workplace needs.

To address these system complexities, CIOs must control communications deployments, understand business and communications data flows, build a communications architecture to sustain these complex needs, handle operations, and maintain upgrades. These are all necessary to connect workers and drive business success. To gain complete control of those functions, CIOs can only achieve that for all their employees through hybrid cloud communications.

Compliance, Sovereignty, and AI

The regulatory environment is ever-changing, and maintaining compliance in a communications world is becoming even more complex for organizations that span geographical boundaries. Data sovereignty is real for many countries, and maintaining control of where data is stored is foundational. Personal privacy extends around the world, with GDPR at the forefront. For healthcare and financial services, data privacy has jumped to another level. And we are now seeing specific country communications and emergency alarming laws. Kari’s Law, Ray Baum’s Act, Alyssa’s Law in the US, Martyn’s Law and the Telecom Act in the UK, and the Digital Operational Resiliency Act (DORA) and Telecom Modernization Act in various EU countries bring more complexity and need to change.

AI is rapidly developing, and regulations and sovereign requirements are likely to follow. With ever-changing regulations, CIOs must plan for change and uncertainty. The only means for long-term success is maintaining control of your communications systems and the data that travels on them.

Mitel’s AI Ecosystem is Here>

Innovation Built on Hybrid Cloud

As we evolve our hybrid cloud communications portfolio, Mitel is focused on innovations in two major focal areas. We will explore each of those in future posts within our upcoming Mitel Innovation blog series. First, we are focused on evolving business solutions that fit the purpose of key vertical markets: healthcare, financial services, hospitality, retail, public sector, and education. Delivering end-to-end solutions for knowledge and frontline workers from an extensive hybrid cloud ecosystem, vertically specific Mitel products, and integration with a vast array of Mitel Solutions Alliance (MSA) partners that bring rich deployable solutions. For financial services, Mitel integrates core communications, omnichannel customer experience solutions, voice biometric solutions for quick customer identification management, and AI Agent assist to manage loan application workflows.

Second, next-generation AI is bringing rapid change to all industries, and Mitel is focused on delivering meaningful use cases that can provide immediate ROI for customers. With GenAI comes the democratization of AI, and Mitel seeks to bring this technology in implementable bite-sized chunks for customer adoption. Stay tuned for more details about how customers can leverage GenAI in product releases over the following months.

With the implementation of GenAI, CIOs face another complexity: how to keep control of their company's most valuable asset—their business and employee data. Some AI providers suggest that all that data be centralized and exposed for use with GenAI solutions. Mitel maintains that controlling and leveraging your data for private GenAI applications is prudent. Maintaining control of your company data and communications will be essential for the future. So, build your foundational communications on hybrid cloud and be ready to take control of your GenAI-infused communication solutions.

Mitel is focusing 100% of its development on hybrid cloud communications. Accelerating frontline worker performance will drive the next wave of productivity and provide the proper foundation for adopting GenAI-based communication solutions. Maintain control of your communications solution with Mitel hybrid cloud and build a foundation for future success.

WHAT’S NEXT? The following blog in our Hybrid Cloud Communications series introduces you to our 7 Dimensions Framework – an outcome-focused approach that helps guide communication landscape investment decisions in a complex digital world.