Moving to the Cloud? Choosing a vendor that offers choice and experience makes all the difference!

[Dani Boekel (Dani_Boekel)]

A guest post by James Ware, Senior Manager, Alliances & Cloud Services

‘We are in the (enter business type here) business; we are not in the business of running data centres.’ 
 

Sound familiar? This is a statement that we are hearing with increasing frequency from customers. Evidence would point to Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) customers being early adopters of technology, and cloud service adoption is no different. We lead the way, with many in the ANZ market rapidly adopting a cloud-first strategy. While there are plenty of organisations that still run infrastructure on their own hardware and manage their own data centres, we’re continuing to see an upward trend (that hockey stick effect) of organisations that have decided to outsource to cloud service providers in order to better focus on their core business.

And then there are organisations that only wish to outsource some services, and who want to retain the rest. The fact is that customers are looking for options and as vendors we need to provide customers with consumption choices. There are multiple cloud consumption models, and services can be provided from a private cloud, public cloud or utilising a hybrid solution. 

Benefits of cloud video services
It wasn’t too long ago that the very idea of a video conference was challenging. We have come so far by removing the ‘clunkiness’ involved in hosting or participating in a video call – the IT intervention to initiate the conference, the complexity, the poor connections, and the costs involved were just some of the issues.

Video has become natural and intuitive as both a social and enterprise tool for collaborating. With users connecting visually via a multitude of devices and environments, moving to cloud-based services was only a matter of time.

Here are 4 key benefits of moving to the cloud:

1. Increased flexibility: Cloud-based video services offer customers flexible consumption models. A cloud solution offers the flexibility to scale up or down as customer demand changes, and customers can adopt a ‘pay as you grow’ model towards video deployments. Flexibility on consumption allows organisations to focus on successful adoption without the fear of over or underutilisation.
   
   
2. Budgeting and Asset Lifecycle Management: Consuming video-as-a-service means that what was once a capital expense is now a simple operating expense. Not only are projects more cost-effective to budget for, but if the right service provider is chosen, other benefits like access to the latest software upgrades are automatic – no more sweating assets to build your capex business case! 
   
   
3. Reduced complexity and access to the latest features: Video experts managing a cloud video service can focus on providing customers with the latest features and best service. Customers can focus on collaborating effectively and having a great experience. 
   
   
4. Fast adoption: Delivered via the cloud, video services are immediately available for customers to test and consume. With simple set up and management, customers can evaluate solutions and move to adoption much faster.

The Polycom Advantage 

Customers are looking to Polycom and our partners for advice on moving applications and services into the cloud.

A major consideration for Polycom and our customers is that not only should we be offering consumption choice, but for successful end user adoption of collaboration services, maintaining a consistent experience and integrated workflow is critical to success.  Integrating cloud video into existing workflows, and providing a consistent experience across traditional video conferencing devices or emerging devices such as tablets, desktops and phones is important. Polycom has built these considerations into the design of various consumption offerings and support services.

Choosing a vendor with experience at all stages of the video evolution matters most; they need to offer thought leadership and more importantly choice.  Polycom is very pleased to be working with the partner community that delivers a variety of services, so whether you are looking for vanilla or cookie cut solutions, we have a nice selection on the menu.

Polycom will be present at multiple events for the remainder of 2015.  Come and talk to us, we would be very interested to learn about your journey to the cloud and equally provide you with some excellent options should you want to get a taste of cloud based video services.

Upcoming events:
Come meet with us at the following events to learn more about how Polycom can provide you the collaboration solutions which are right for your business: -

Integrate 2015, Melbourne         25th – 27th August 2015
Microsoft APC, Gold Coast        31st August – 3rd September 2015
Ignite NZ , Auckland                    1st – 4th September
Telstra Vantage, Melbourne       22nd – 23rd September
HINZ, Christchurch                     19th – 22nd October
Ignite Australia, Gold Coast         17th – 20th November

Related content:
▪ Infographic: 4 Great Myths About Cloud Services
▪ Video: Pay as you Grow: Polycom’s Cloud Strategy Empowers