Industry Insider Spills the Beans on the Reality Behind Cloud Collaboration and its Value to Businesses

The first 3 words out of his mouth were… “Martin, help me!”

Why, because like many clients I deal with, this client had decided to take the cloud route (without my assistance I hasten to add) and found there are some things they didn’t put in the brochure!

Cloud has some very mixed marketing messages. At best its value is over-simplified. At worst, it’s plain misleading and can have a detrimental impact on your network and ultimately your business.

Cloud is one of the most exciting evolutions in IT for many years and perhaps the most impactful change in technology since the growth of the Internet. Deployed and implemented correctly, it can generate exciting business benefits, but the opposite is also true.

And although everybody is talking cloud, there are still 3 questions that most people can’t answer effectively…

1. What exactly is the cloud?
2. Why is everyone talking about it and…
3. How does it relate to your collaboration strategy?

Over the coming weeks, I’m going to explain, in simple terms, the real issues around Cloud Collaboration and how to avoid them!

Because when implemented correctly, Cloud Collaboration can deliver extraordinary business transformation and that’s what I want you to realise.

All too often cloud messaging means customers adopt a cloud strategy that’s oversimplified for their business. This then creates issues with migration, service delivery and integration that weren’t there before they ‘upgraded’ everything to the cloud!

Nowhere is this more apparent than when customers try and apply their cloud strategy to their Unified Collaboration (UC) requirements. UC places demands on a network that are simply not an issue for other end-user services. So when IT organisations crash headlong into a cloud UC deployment, blind to the challenges faced by the network, the resultant outcomes aren’t what they expected.

To avoid you needing to cry out for help, I’m going to cover (with diagrams!), what actually happens on your network when you call someone else on your UC application, so you can implement a problem free UC solution.

I’ll also help you understand how to approach the potentially daunting prospect of creating your own UC strategy and how it interrelates with your cloud strategy.

Just remember this fact – the advance of technology has presented us with a unique situation; cloud technology now allows you to do almost anything. This means your collaboration strategy should start by addressing what your business is trying to achieve, not what cloud deployment model to use.

So, if you’re considering Cloud Collaboration and want to avoid the pitfalls that could put your business at risk, then join me next time…

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Why Trust Martin Finlayson, Head of Visual Communications at avsnet?

With a career spanning over 25 years, Martin has worked in electronics R&D, pre-sales engineering, post-sales support, product management and marketing, training and consultancy.

The common factor across these roles? Digital video and its applications. Specialising in video conferencing, streaming and webcasting, IPTV and digital signage, Martin understands the business drivers that make solutions so compelling for organisations.

With the rise of Unified Collaboration and Cloud, Martin has helped customers through the minefield of solutions that continue to appear in this space. By focusing on the overall strategy and user workflows, Martin helps organisations deliver on their requirements.