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Cloud Collaboration: 4 Ways to Make it WorkCloud Collaboration: 4 Ways to Make it Work

As with infrastructure and applications, enterprises are eager to move their collaboration and UC tools to the cloud. Before starting, here are four factors to consider.

Andrew Froehlich

January 29, 2018

5 Min Read
Cloud Collaboration: 4 Ways to Make it Work

Enterprise collaboration -- in its most basic form -- includes voice, video, messaging, file sharing and virtual meetings.

At one time, this meant managing a complex web of servers -- many of which were incompatible with one another. From an end-user perspective, they were provided with a confusing mess of tools that had little cohesion.

Seeking to leave these on-premises collaboration tools in the past, enterprise IT departments are increasingly focusing on cloud collaboration platforms to right those previous wrongs.

Collaboration industry veterans and startup companies are breathing fresh air into unified cloud collaboration platforms that are easy to manage and provide exactly what enterprise end users are demanding.

For those of us involved in enterprise IT, it's no surprise that a new report from Synergy Research Group shows that cloud collaboration spending is higher than any other infrastructure spending segment over the past year. Because trust in the cloud has grown significantly, applications and services that have continued to be forced into on-premises deployments due to latency and redundancy concerns are now beginning to pour into the cloud.

Figure 1: Out with the old
(Source: Britannica)
Out with the old
(Source: Britannica)

Before you jump onto the cloud collaboration bandwagon, however, there are a few things to consider. Specifically, there are four factors that can help make your collaboration transition to the cloud a great deal smoother.

Who are the users?
While voice, video and messaging services certainly are standard, not all cloud collaboration platforms are equal. That's why it's so important to understand the needs of your end users prior to deciding on a unified collaboration platform.

About the Author(s)

Andrew Froehlich

As a highly experienced network architect and trusted IT consultant with worldwide contacts, particularly in the United States and Southeast Asia, Andrew Froehlich has nearly two decades of experience and possesses multiple industry certifications in the field of enterprise networking. Froehlich has participated in the design and maintenance of networks for State Farm Insurance, United Airlines, Chicago-area schools and the University of Chicago Medical Center. He is the founder and president of Loveland, Colo.-based West Gate Networks, which specializes in enterprise network architectures and data center build outs. The author of two Cisco certification study guides published by Sybex, he is a regular contributor to multiple enterprise IT related websites and trade journals with insights into rapidly changing developments in the IT industry.

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