The Top Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Hosted PBX Systems

In businesses and organizations across the world, rooms once humming with wires, black boxes and blinking lights now sit empty. In a lonely phone closet, there’s only dust, a single lonely terminal, or perhaps a foosball table where IT pros can let off steam.

The cloud – and more specifically, cloud hosted communications – is the source of the transformation, which has fundamentally changed the IT landscape. Some IT pros have embraced it. Some are working on migrating to hosted PBX systems over time. And others, through choice or necessity, are sticking with an on-premises PBX approach.

Read on to find out why some IT pros are shopping for game tables to go in empty server rooms while others are untangling wires and watching blinking lights—and which cases make the most sense for each approach.

BUDGETING FOR HOSTED PBX VS ON-PREMISES PBX SYSTEMS

How are we going to pay for this? It’s the question on every IT pro’s mind. And with shrinking budgets and rising demands on IT, it’s a question that gets harder to answer every year.

With an on-premises PBX approach to business communications, an IT pro can often save on phone system costs in years when they don’t have to replace hardware or conduct major software upgrades. They bought the phone system. Now it’s doing what it was designed to do.

However, IT pros can be caught off guard with unpredictable cost spikes when upgrades, replacement or expansion are required. The larger the business, the larger these costs. And as much as they try to plan for PBX technology hardware upgrades, replacement cycles are getting shorter and capabilities are advancing at an ever-increasing rate.

On-premises PBX servers can simply stop working with no regard for whether an IT pro budgeted a replacement. And when an integrated system undergoes an update, they can be caught with surprise compatibility problems that force an unplanned upgrade.

Even sudden business growth can wreak havoc with IT budgets, which may have predicted lower system usage rates. And costs for expanding, replacing or upgrading an on-premises PBX system are not scalable—they’ve got to be done in big blocks all at once.

Some IT pros prefer the relative predictability of cloud hosted PBX costs. Most cloud communications providers charge on a simple per-user basis per month, quarter or year. The company using the system won’t get the budget breaks they do with an on-premises system, but they also won’t have large, unpredictable spikes in costs.

The business grows? The hosted PXB system can grow with it—and not in awkward blocks that leave periods of strain and periods of underused capacity.

REPLACING, EXPANDING AND UPGRADING HOSTED PBX VS ON-PREMISES PBX SYSTEMS

Thanks to Moore’s Law, technology is advancing at an exponential rate. And business communications systems are not immune from this.

With on-premises PBX-based systems, IT pros know they must account for frequent planned replacement just to keep up with industry standards. And they know that sometimes, even if they can get away with older system hardware, the requirements and compatibility of new software may force their hand into upgrade or replacement earlier than expected. Unexpected projects like that are precisely the kinds of things that get in the way of the proactive projects most IT pros would like to pursue.

The IT pros that are gravitating toward cloud hosted PBX systems enjoy the fact that their hardware is never out of date and they never have to replace it. They’re no longer relegating technology to landfills every year.

Software updates are included and compatible with most cloud communications systems, and new applications are frequently added to expand capabilities. They also appreciate that scaling their phone system with the business is a simple as adding a user license—no complicated guesses on future capacity needs or improvised interim fixes required. No latent capacity.

To read the entire transcript of this video, visit https://www.mitel.com/en-us/blog/the-top-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-cloud-hosted-pbx-systems

Here are some other key topics covered in this video:

SUPPORTING BYOD WITH YOUR PBX SOLUTION

MANAGING PHONE SYSTEM INTEGRATION ACROSS MULTIPLE LOCATIONS

DIFFERENCES IN STAFFING REQUIREMENTS FOR HOSTED PHONE SYSTEMS VS ON-PREMISES PBX SYSTEMS

MAINTAINING PHONE SYSTEM RELIABILITY AND CONTINUITY

MANAGING DISASTER RECOVERY WITH ON-PREMISES VS HOSTED PHONE SYSTEMS