Taking the PBX into the Cloud No matter how dramatic the reductions in OPEX, no matter how impressive the promised ROI, small and medium businesses cannot afford to rip and replace current infrastructure every time a technology breakthrough makes headlines. Take the case of the PBX—on-premise equipment and systems have become increasingly complex and unwieldy to support and upgrade. Cloud-hosted PBX services, in contrast, offer an enticing list of cost-saving IP communications capabilities: Enterprise-class unified communications features (audio-video conferencing, integrated voicemail and email, automatic call forwarding, and more) Integration with other enterprise-class business applications (instant messaging, conference room scheduling, etc.)
voice communications
How Cloud Computing Is Threatening Traditional Telco The standard AT&T small business phone plan (unlimited local and long-distance calling) costs about $50 per month in most areas of the US. The plan comes with a basic set of features—e.g., call waiting, caller ID, and call forwarding—but does not include advanced features, such as voicemail transcription, voicemail and email mailbox integration. Neither does it include the ability to use your phone service anywhere there’s an Internet connection. Unlimited calling for $50 per month certainly beats the era of $0.20 per minute long distance, but it’s nothing compared to what the cloud
