The Collaborative Cloud
An organization is essentially a collection people of who work together towards a common goal, which means that collaboration is the essence of an organization. With the changing tides in business and end-user practices, it is becoming apparent that the influence of cloud computing is expanding, and that it is definitely here to stay for the foreseeable future. The cloud computing paradigm is changing business processes, revolutionizing how organizations communicate within the internal business environment, emphasizing the importance of collaboration with external stake holders, and transforming the way people work together. Thus, the need for hosted unified communications is becoming more apparent to corporate CIOs and IT managers, who are now scrambling to find solutions that fit their organizations, proving that IT executives are now considered as the new enablers of success. These types of solutions may be considered as communications as a service.
The collaborative cloud framework is the ideal solution to meet the organization’s needs for collaboration in a cloud computing setting. It combines collaboration with various networking services to effectively build, deliver, enhance, and use communications in the cloud. One of the biggest hurdles in the adoption of new technology and standards is that it is hard for organizations to abandon in-house IT systems and services, so most of them opt for hybrid cloud solutions, especially those with collaboration tools and systems that are already deployed. This is a mix of collaboration-managed services that are found both in a private cloud and a public cloud. This method ensures that critical data and systems remain on the organization’s premises, and that any security concerns are in their own capable hands. The resulting implementation will most likely be a combination of different products marketed as unified communications as a service, but will be deployed across different platforms, including mobile devices, into what is known as mobile collaboration.
Speaking of collaborative cloud technology, leading provider of unified communications Avaya will be launching Avaya Collaborative Cloud, its next phase of cloud-based collaboration solutions, in August 2012. Rather than a single product, these solutions will be focused on the implementation of virtual desktop Communications and Virtual Contact Centers, and includes a virtualized version of their current Aura Contact Center Suite. The solutions will be geared towards large enterprises that need virtualization and far reaching collaboration technology capable of meeting their needs. Staying true to their corporate motto, “The Power of We,” Avaya provides managed services which are meant to offer better business outcomes and business value, improve the efficiency of integrated business processes, and allow for growth of revenue and profits through collaboration in the Workplace, on the Internet, in social media, and everywhere in the cloud.
With the suite of collaborative cloud solutions that Avaya provides, organizations may be able to better leverage all their internal and external resources anywhere at any time, as it enables a “Bring Your Own Device” sort of communication and collaboration to executives and general personnel through hosted applications made available via the Internet.
This post is on behalf of the CIO Collaboration Network and Avaya.
By Abdul Salam
