Communications as a Service or CaaS is similar in concept to Software as a Service or SaaS. CaaS represents the virtualization of the PBX. The newest and most innovative of the hosted applications, CaaS includes a full compliment of Unified Communications functionality. As an outsourced solution, CaaS requires little oversight from businesses so they can re-allocate IT budget and resources to where they’ll create the most business growth and value.

What’s better; CaaS is designed to include a utility-based pricing model that provides businesses with a comprehensive, flexible and simple-to-understand VoIP service. Businesses pay for usage, not ownership. The bundled service typically includes integrated access (voice and data), handsets, local and long-distance voice services, voicemail, VoIP technology infrastructure, advanced PBX functionality, and advanced Unified Communications functionality such as video calling, Web collaboration, chat, real-time presence and unified messaging.

Evolution of CaaS
In the last decade, VoIP has become a viable alternative to traditional Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) phone service. VoIP technology converts voice signals to digital packets so it can be transmitted over the public Internet or private IP network lines. VoIP also delivers advanced functionality that TDM can’t such as increased productivity and efficiencies through integration with business applications. Businesses seeking to transition to VoIP or new businesses that want to start with the latest technology have a few options:
• “Do-It-Yourself.” Purchase your own IP PBX equipment, and commit the resources to build, operate, and maintain the equipment and network. This approach is capital-intensive as you buy everything and absorb all the risk. With a Do-It-Yourself approach, you have all the complexities of installing and managing a new PBX, managing Quality of Service and installing, integrating and managing video streaming, collaboration and unified messaging applications and servers. By doing it yourself, you’ll have multiple suppliers to manage and integrate. And unless you invest significant dollars with redundant networks and systems, business continuity will be limited as the “Do-It-Yourself” approach is a premises-based system.
• Hosted IP PBX. With a hosted IP PBX approach, you can choose a premises-based or non-premises-based approach to the IP PBX, but either way, you’ll outsource the day-to-day management responsibilities of the IP PBX. However, the management of your data and voice network is still handled by you and your staff and it will fall to you to procure, manage and integrate numerous separate services for a full Unified Communications implementation. The hosted IP PBX approach is generally expensive and typically not available to enterprises with less than 1000 employees.
• Hosted VoIP. Hosted VoIP services remove the equipment from the business site and like IP PBX, the day-to-day management responsibilities are handled by the vendor. Where hosted VoIP generally falls short is in the features. Generic hosted VoIP applications usually require expensive add-ons to achieve a complete Unified Communications solution. Unified messaging, chat, presence, video and other advanced applications are typically not included in a basic hosted VoIP service.
• Communications as a Service or CaaS. Similar in concept to Software as a Service or SaaS, CaaS represents the virtualization of the PBX. In the CaaS model, the PBX is located in the IP “cloud” instead of residing at the user premises. In this pay-for-usage model, the vendor offers set of comprehensive and evolving functionality from one or more remote, secure and fully redundant data centers, all without any capital overhead to the customers.

The Challenges of Building a VoIP Solution
The obstacles to building a VoIP system are steep. VoIP is more complex than the traditional TDM PBX systems; it requires very significant capital investment up-front and high ongoing costs for maintenance, operations, and upgrades. The building of a VoIP network also requires a complex and specialized skill set and demands a large investment in employee headcount. Not to mention the time-consuming process of building such a specialized VoIP system. And if the enterprise intends to include Unified Communications, the complexity and the associated costs only increase.
In addition to significant capital expenditures and people investments, the “build-it-yourself” VoIP model requires the enterprise to manage multiple vendor suppliers. Ongoing maintenance will become costly over time as technology components face a short shelf life, becoming obsolete in as few as three years, forcing the enterprise to reinvest to stay current or else be stuck with an obsolete system. These issues are too great an obstacle for most small- to mid-sized businesses, driving many to seek an alternative solution, such as CaaS.

The CaaS Difference
Total Hosted and Managed Solution
Unlike services that you obtain from specialist providers, CaaS delivers a complete VoIP and Unified Communications solution that is entirely managed by a single vendor. Integration of core PBX features with advanced UC functionality is managed by one vendor who is responsible for the complex integration and service set delivered to your users. The Service Provider is not tied to a single vendor investment and can leverage best-of-breed providers like Cisco, Microsoft and Nortel much more economically than a single enterprise.
From the phone on each employee’s desk and the PC soft client to the VoIP private backbone and all points in between, every component in the CaaS solution is managed 24/7 by the vendor. In a CaaS implementation, the expense of managing a carrier-grade data center is equally shared across the vendor’s customer base, making it more economical for your business to implement CaaS than to build your own VoIP network.

Fully Integrated Enterprise-Class Unified Communications
With CaaS, a single service provider is responsible for all of the complexities of managing the Unified Communications service. The vendor provides voice and data access and manages your LAN and WAN, security, routers, email, voicemail, and data storage. By managing the LAN/WAN, the vendor can guarantee consistent Quality of Service (QoS) from the desktop across the VoIP backbone and back again. Advanced Unified Communications features such as Outlook integration, soft phones, real-time presence, chat, multimedia conferencing, video calling, unified messaging and mobility are also part of a standard CaaS deployment. And with CaaS, the feature set can continue to evolve. Development and introduction of new features and applications are faster, easier and more economical because the service provider is doing the work for multiple end users across a scalable platform.

No Upfront Capital Expenses
When you outsource your communications to a CaaS vendor, the vendor provides everything that you need for a Unified Communications solution: the network, switches, routers, IP phones, soft clients and the inherent CaaS functionality. You pay a monthly fee for only what you use now. There’s no purchase of equipment and no capital outlay. Ongoing maintenance and upgrade costs are also bundled into the offering.
When you outsource your communications services to a CaaS provider that offers a scalable communications platform, you pay for the features that you need, when you need them. Your service provider is able to spread the cost of feature development and delivery across a broad customer base, making feature functionality more economical for you to implement. Economies of scale also mean that the service provider is not tied to a single vendor investment and can leverage best-of-breed providers like Cisco, Microsoft and Nortel much more economically than an independent enterprise.

No Risk of Obsolescence
While technology innovation brings many positives to the table, rapid technology advances bring about product obsolescence in a short amount of time. Average life cycles of older PBXs and key systems could range anywhere from seven, eight or even twelve years. With the advent of the PC, cell phone, video and many other new technologies, technology products typically face much shorter life cycles, with some as short as a couple of years. The CaaS vendor absorbs this burden for the user by continuously upgrading the equipment in the CaaS solution and offering the latest in VoIP and Unified Communications functionality to their customers.
With CaaS, you’re not tied to the same phone for five or more years. This is good because desktop phones are projected to disappear from our workspace, to be replaced by soft phones and PCs. Some industry analysts predict that by the year 2010, we’ll primarily use our PCs and telecommunications software to conduct all of our business calls.

No Facilities and Energy Costs for Equipment
Your CaaS provider hosts the VoIP and Unified Communications equipment, eliminating the need for you to provide space and facilities for an on-site data center. There’s no switch room rent to pay, no special heating or air conditioning requirement and no extra expense for the constant power consumption that such a facility would demand. With CaaS, you typically receive the benefit of multiple carrier-grade data centers with full geographic redundancy—and it’s all included in your monthly lease payment.

Guaranteed Business Continuity
If you experienced a communications outage, how long could your company survive? If it’s a simple problem, like a power outage or temporary evacuation caused by a burst water main, your business might not feel a pinch. But what if something more catastrophic occurs at your physical location, such as a hurricane or fire? How long could your business survive? For most businesses, the answer is “not long.”

Most companies don’t even contemplate voice continuity. Unlike data continuity, eliminating single points of failure for a voice network is usually cost-prohibitive because of the large scale and management complexity of the project. With a CaaS solution, multiple levels of redundancy are built into the system with no single point of failure. A CaaS vendor can provide services that would be difficult or impossible for a single organization to obtain: redundant telecommunications equipment, network and circuit diversity, and backup power systems. A CaaS solution expands upon typical hosted VoIP with LAN/WAN management, a 24/7 fully redundant national VoIP network, high-touch customer service and robust business continuity architectures – all at a fraction of the cost of a specialized disaster recovery plan.
A CaaS solution includes network, POP and circuit diversity, CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) redundancy and WAN failover that specifically address the needs of each of your office locations. Redundant switching and network elements are located throughout its hosted platform, and all VoIP transport components are located in geographically diverse data centers for high availability and survivability.
At the user level, calls can be routed to cell or home phones. Inherent collaboration and mobility features ensure business continuity for each employee. Callers dial your office number and get you on the line – no matter where you are. Communications can also continue using only a laptop and the CaaS soft client.

With its unique model offering high-degree of value addition in every aspect; from delivery, cost structure, functionality, management, latest technology, productivity, and scalability, CaaS is the next big thing in Communications industry, and it’s happening now!