Azaleos Survey Finds Growth of Public Cloud Unified Communications Sluggish

Only 10 Percent Plan to Deploy in Next Year with One Third Choosing Microsoft Office 365; Private Cloud UC More Popular

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Azaleos^® Corporation, the managed messaging, collaboration and unified communications services company, today released the findings of an independent survey on the cloud adoption plans of mid-to-large enterprises for unified communications (UC) services. The research found that among organizations not currently using a public cloud-based UC service, only 10% plan to deploy such a service within the next year citing concerns over loss of customization, uptime, and security. However, among those organizations that cannot or would not deploy public cloud-based UC services, 48% said they would deploy a private cloud as an alternative. Asked if they had to choose a public-cloud UC provider, one-third said they would choose Microsoft Office 365.

“According to the Osterman Report, public cloud Unified Communications services are not considered ready for prime time by most mid-to-large enterprises”

The report, entitled Cloud Realities in the Age of Office 365, was conducted by Osterman Research. It summarizes the findings of a survey of IT managers, directors, and CIOs on UC platforms they currently have in place, their perceptions of public, private and hybrid cloud deployments, plans for migrating UC to the cloud, and barriers to the adoption of the cloud for UC. A complimentary copy is available here.

“This research revealed that larger organizations are interested in the benefits associated with public cloud Unified Communications -- namely reduced management overhead, predictable cost of ownership, and simpler migration to new services -- but are concerned about customization, uptime, and security,” said Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Research, Inc. “We were surprised to learn that among organizations that said they could not or would not deploy public cloud-based UC services, nearly one third indicated that if hybrid cloud UC solutions were available they would migrate within the next 12 months.”

While the survey found that the majority of enterprises will continue to deploy UC (email, calendaring and scheduling, voice/telephony, presence, Web conferencing, etc.) in on-premise and/or private-cloud infrastructures over the next several years, the public cloud-based messaging and collaboration market is slowly gaining popularity. Some of the report’s key findings include:

• The vast majority of organizations (90%) not already using cloud-based UC are still a long way from deploying a solution
  • No plans to do so: 42%
  • Not sure: 29%
  • Will definitely migrate, but in more than one year: 19%
• Even if one or more services like content archiving, email security or backup were already running in the cloud, nearly 60% of organizations would not be more likely to migrate their email to a public cloud service.
• The primary reasons for not deploying a public cloud-based UC system are perceived loss of customization capabilities and IT control, doubts about claims of uptime in the public cloud, and fears about the security of customer data in the public cloud.
• If decision makers had to choose a public-cloud UC provider, only one-third would select Microsoft Office 365.
• Among organizations that cannot or would not deploy public cloud-based UC services, 48% would deploy a private cloud as an alternative. Another 43% of respondents are not sure if they would deploy a private cloud, while only 9% clearly indicated that they would not deploy one.
• Private cloud solutions are perceived about as beneficial as public cloud services, but are considered to provide better protection from malware, as well as perimeter security and data integrity.

“According to the Osterman Report, public cloud Unified Communications services are not considered ready for prime time by most mid-to-large enterprises,” said Scott Gode, vice president of product management and marketing for Azaleos. “However, the survey did reveal that many decision makers view private cloud UC infrastructures as superior to public cloud options, based largely on their robust customization, flexibility, and more mature security benefits.”

About Azaleos

Azaleos Corporation provides managed email, collaboration and unified communications services available in private cloud, on-premise or mixed deployment architectures. Azaleos’ 24x7 managed services for Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, Active Directory, Lync, and BlackBerry Enterprise Server improve availability, security and performance, while reducing maintenance time and costs. The patented AzaleosX technology platform enables customers to maintain control over servers and data including their location, while uptime, maintenance, and support is proactively handled by certified experts in its network operations centers. Hundreds of companies from Fortune 500 to mid-market enterprises rely on Azaleos to manage their collaboration infrastructures and address issues before users ever know they exist. A member of the National Systems Integrator program (NSI), Azaleos is one of Microsoft’s top 35 partners in the U.S. For more information visit www.azaleos.com.