Cloud-based telephony technology is growing with businesses of all sizes. The cloud’s capacity to store, host and deliver SaaS is too appealing for many companies to pass up. Cloud services offer a flexible and more affordable alternative to maintaining everything on-site.

But before you get your head lost in the clouds, there are definitely a few key points to consider:

1. Find out as much as you can about any cloud services vendor you are considering.

Every year, the number of vendors in the cloud is increasing to handle the rapidly expanding demand for cloud services. Some are large and well-established, others are smaller start-ups, and many are somewhere in between. However, the best way to know your vendor is to check references – see what their customers are saying about them. You will want a cloud vendor that can deliver the services you need reliably and in a timely manner. If questions arise with slow response times or issues with problem resolution, you may want to steer clear.

1. Address any legal issues that may come up.

Your company may have certain rules, regulations or even laws that govern how data is treated. If it is sensitive data (for example government documents), you will want to choose a cloud services vendor that understands the legal issues of your field and can abide by them. It might be necessary to make sure the vendor understands the latest privacy laws and, if needed, have a confidentiality agreement in place. Whatever your legal concerns are, it is important to consider them upfront and address them with a vendor before moving to the cloud.

1. Determine if you need another backup plan.

Backup of data is definitely a hot-button issue for cloud services vendors. The last thing you want is to have valuable data vanish in the clouds. In all likelihood, your data should be just fine on your cloud vendor’s servers but if you would like some added security there are options out there. You could manually export data from the cloud and back it up on-site. Or, there are specialty vendors that offer cloud backup services. Typically, these companies allow you to keep backup copies of data on local servers or in other locations.

When it comes to a PBX phone system there are two distinct choices in the marketplace – hosted PBX (also known as Virtual PBX or Cloud PBX) and premise-based or self-hosted PBX. Both feature a wide range of call features suitable for businesses of all sizes- call routing, IVR, ACD, quality monitoring, scalability etc.

While each PBX phone system has its own set of benefits, the clear-cut benefits of a hosted PBX system are rapidly overtaking the traditional or premised-based model. Two of the perceived benefits of the self-hosted PBX phone system are stronger security because the network resides on site and better performance with larger call volumes or larger businesses.

Both of these benefits might still be true to some extent. However, with the growth in hosted PBX systems and the increase in services and providers the gap is quickly closing. Security has long been the number one concern for hosted PBX vendors and they are constantly working to upgrade and protect customers systems from breaches. Some providers will even guarantee no lapses in security.

The perception that hosted PBX is a better fit for smaller businesses but not for larger ones has changed too. A recent report by Frost and Sullivan showed that total cost of ownership (TCO) improved significantly for larger call centers utilizing hosted PBX with a full array of features. The report showed the 5-year TCO for a 500-seat center with full-function configuration was 43% lower for a hosted model vs. premise-based while the same configuration for a 50-seat center was 8% lower TCO. These findings essentially imply that as the size of your contact center grows so too do your savings.

Another major benefit of the hosted PBX system is the low start-up costs. With a hosted option, all that is needed is IP phones and an internet connection to start. With a self-hosted PBX phone system, there is a great deal of capital expense upfront. Expensive equipment will need to be purchased – servers, firewalls, gateways, configuration software.

It appears that as cloud technology improves and hosted PBX grows the reasons for setting up a premise-based PBX phone system are dwindling.

Hosted PBX (Private Branch eXchange) is taking over the business world. Recent projections indicate that by 2015 more than 60% of businesses will have moved to a hosted solution for their company’s telephony needs. This would more than double the amount of hosted PBX systems in the market today.

Why the great migration? A number of advantages exist for hosted PBX systems versus traditional phone systems or premise-based PBX.

With a hosted solution, the equipment, maintenance, IT support, and system upgrades are all taken care of by a third party vendor off-site. This offers great cost savings to a company. Your company no longer needs to make a large capital invest in equipment and can spend less resources on IT support and security because the hosted PBX vendor will provide those services.

Hosted PBX systems provide a great range of services that used to be reserved for large enterprises but are now available to any size business. In addition hosted PBX systems provide features such as:  automatic call distribution, interactive voice response, skills-based routing, call and voice recording and much more.

With benefits such as easy and rapid scalability, reliability (24/7 support and redundancy & data backup in case of disaster), and added flexibility of call features, it is easy to understand the transition from premise-based to the hosted model. Businesses considering the shift should compare capital expenses and operating expenses when looking into moving to a hosted PBX. The move from a traditional to a hosted solution is less risky considering the lack of a large upfront capital expenditure. And, with increased competition among PBX vendors, the operating fees and service for hosted PBX systems are becoming better and more affordable.