On-premise UC&C is DeadEnterprise grade Cloud for Financial Institutions,Government, and Healthcare

The bar for productivity keeps rising for businesses today - and for organisations in highly regulated sectors, this challenge is even greater.

With unified communications & collaboration (UC&C), organisations can sharpen their competitive edge with mobile working, quick reaction to customer needs and market changes, more efficient teamwork, and much more.

In addition, when delivered as a cloud-based service, UC&C solutions help overcome the costs, risks, and lack of agility inherent in traditional productivity infrastructure.

However, for organisations like financial institutions, government entities, and healthcare bodies, there is a problem with this approach.

Demands for effective collaboration are driving requirements for accessibility everywhere - inside and outside the corporate firewall.

For further information visit: www.dimensiondata.com On-premise UC&C is Dead | 01

The Catch-22 of UC&C inRegulated Environments

Email is email

Email servers are aging

Email is a ‘generic’, or standardised, application as opposed to a ‘genetic’, or highly customised, one. Because email services are mostly the same for a financial institution, a government body, or a hospital.

This consistency makes email suitable for cloud-based deployment across a large number of seats and locations.

Many organisations still run dated email programs (like Microsoft’s Exchange 2003) on servers that are, likewise, in need of replacement. However, rebuilding and re-architecting a server fleet can be extremely intensive in capital and manpower.

By contrast, cloud email removes the headaches of server refreshment. Companies can pay only for the services they need, and not have to worry about the implementation or upkeep.

Collaboration is more than just email. The new generation of ‘digital native’ workers often rely on technologies like IM, social, and presence to work effectively.

Having auditable UC&C tools enables companies to cater to their tech-savvy staff, letting them collaborate and communicate the way they are used to. This not only boosts productivity but helps with attracting and retaining talent.

Gen X & Y workers want UC&C

Despite its transformative potential and benefits, cloud remains, in essence, the provisioning of services and software. The only thing that cloud changes from traditional provisioning is the means of that provisioning.

Hence, cloud is not exempt from the demands of regulatory compliance. Though many organisations in regulated industries want the cloud for UC&C, concerns with public cloud services around data sovereignty, security, privacy, and compliance stand in the way. UC&C is ideal for delivery through the cloud because:

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Financial institutions have an additional and very pertinent reason to move to the cloud - their balance sheets.

Under regulatory standards such as Basel II and III, financial institutions have to set aside capital to guard against financial and operational risks. This creates a situation where every dollar put into assets requires another dollar for compliance.

The logical approach, then, is to cut down on assets so as to minimise financial liabilities. Moving workloads to a cloud platform accomplishes both, while also delivering a myriad of added perks - and transforming how business is done.

Despite the strong intent to invest in cloud, the issues around compliance tend to hold organisations back.

The benefits of cloud are many, including less financial liabilities for financial services institutions; yet, concerns around data sovereignty, security, and privacy impair its adoption.

ChallengingCurrent Perceptions

Collaboration as a service, or UC&C, is perceived to be delivered through two primary models: the public cloud, and traditional self-owned on-premise setups.

Each has its strengths and shortcomings. Public cloud UC&C is OPEX-based and requires little to no internal operations support, but its standardised nature offers little room for customisation.

By contrast, traditional on-premise allows full control and customisation of services - but requires significant CAPEX for equipment and software, an established, qualified team to implement and support, and a multitude of ancillary considerations like operations, security, backup, and redundancy.

This either-or approach leaves banks, hospitals, and government institutions in a bind.

Unable to use public cloud due to regulations, the only alternative these highly regulated organisations have is to build and maintain their own UC&C infrastructure - which can be a major drain on capital and manpower.

If regulations rule out the public cloud, and on-premise is capital- or manpower- prohibitive, there is a third option.

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This is not ‘just part and parcel of doing business’. This is a gap demanding to be bridged. And there is a way.

Organisations must look beyond the constraints of both self-ownership and public cloud UC&C. For a regulated one, the human capital and financial outlay needed to own and run an on-premise solution can be redirected to support business objectives.

For example, IT teams can be tasked with mission-critical support and innovation instead of day-to-day maintenance, while cash can be invested in other areas of the business to generate higher returns.

Consider these.

LOOKING FOR A CLOUD COLLABORATION MODEL?

Consideration Suggestions

I require control and/or customisation.

Data sovereignty and network latency are critical.

I lack a skilled and experienced IT team.

CAPEX is a concern.

Regulations in my industry allow me to use cloud services.

Public Cloud Private Cloud On-Premise

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For a cloud service to work in a regulated environment, it must offer the flexibility of public cloud with a level of control close to that of self-owned on-premise - on a platform with embedded security and compliance.

For UC&C in particular, such a ‘best of both worlds’ option exists in the form of Cloud Services for Microsoft (CSfM) - a suite of email and collaboration tools delivered as a managed private cloud service, on architecture fully validated and endorsed by Microsoft for security, reliability, and performance.

COMPARISON OF UC&C MODELS

On-Premise

Complexity

High

Level of Control

High

Customisation

High

Payment Model

CAPEX$

Agility

Low

Upkeep

Operations-intensive

Public Cloud

Complexity

Low

Level of Control

Low

Customisation

Low

Payment Model

OPEX$

Agility

High

Upkeep

Managed

Complexity

Low

Compliance & Audit

High

Compliance & Audit

Low

Compliance & Audit

Adequate

Level of Control

Medium

Customisation

Within standard parameters

Payment Model

OPEX$

Agility

High

Upkeep

Managed

Upgrades

Capital-intensive

Upgrades

Bundled

Upgrades

Bundled

Private Cloud

The Middle Ground

For further information visit: www.dimensiondata.com On-premise UC&C is Dead | 05

Apart from regulatory compliance, these are the reasons why adopting CSfM is ideal for regulated organisations that want cloud UC&C.

Gives data hosting flexibility

As a private cloud service, CSfM is available wherever a managed cloud platform is deployed - whether in-country, or in your data centres. This lets you choose where your data is stored as international data laws change, thereby driving data sovereignty compliance.

Additionally, having your data closer to you also helps to reduce latency, which is a critical concern for certain types of organisations, like traders.

Dedicated to you

CSfM applications are single-tenanted, allowing a greater degree of agility than is possible with multi-tenanted public cloud services.

This also means greater integration with third-party programs (such as archiving) without compromising stability and compatibility.

Leverages existing Microsoft licenses

CSfM can leverage your existing licensing assets - building on your Microsoft licensing construct to migrate server workloads to the cloud.

Existing client software, like the Microsoft Office suite, can continue to be used with the cloud services. Since the cloud services function very similarly to their on-premise counterparts, you will not have to retrain users.

Always up-to-date

Automatic version updating is both a great benefit and a potential source of problems with cloud-based software.

On one hand, it eliminates the need to purchase and manually manage updates, thereby ensuring the service remains evergreen. On the other, applying these updates ‘hot from the oven’, before users are ready for them, can cause business disruptions and clashes in compatibility.

To ensure new software versions are rolled out with full compatibility and support, upgrades to CSfM are implemented within 18 months of version releases from Microsoft.

For further information visit: www.dimensiondata.com On-premise UC&C is Dead | 06

Understanding the business and legal risks associated with the cloud, and choosing an auditable provider that can put together and support a model which addresses these, remain key concerns for regulated organisations contemplating UC&C.

Cloud Services for Microsoft serves as a viable alternative for organisations that lack the in-house technical expertise or financial clout to set up and sustain their own, on-premise UC&C solutions.

For further information visit: www.dimensiondata.com On-premise UC&C is Dead | 07

7 Demands Enterprises Must Make from Cloud Providers | 011For further information visit: www.dimensiondata.com

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