unified communications sourcing Making the right choice between on-premise, managed service, cloud and hybrid

unified communications sourcing Making the right choice between on-premise, managed service, cloud and hybrid

On-premise, managed service, cloud or hybrid? We take a look at the reasons for choosing each sourcing option for Microsoft Lync. There are many different ways of procuring unified communications (UC) and the best choice will depend on your organization s requirements. Although the cloud has shaken up the UC market, it isn t necessarily the right choice for all companies. We believe that there are five factors that will play a part in deciding what sourcing approach works best for your company, namely: 1. Financial requirements: is your company cash-rich, or do you want to pay as you use? 2. Comfort with outsourcing: are you happy to outsource or do you prefer to own and manage your systems in-house? 3. Level of customization: do you need a customized solution, or are you happy with a plain vanilla version? 4. Data security: what level of security do you need for your communications and data? 5. Legal or regulatory requirements: does your industry have specific location or storage demands? To meet these varying requirements, there are broadly four different sourcing options for Microsoft Lync and other UC tools. There are broadly four different sourcing options for Microsoft Lync and other UC tools. get your business Lync d up 2

option 1: on-premise This is the traditional procurement approach of buying software licenses and deploying it in your own data center. It involves managing your own UC infrastructure, although the network is most likely to be a managed service. This approach will suit cash-rich companies who want a free hand with customization. Although it isn t entirely sector-specific, this approach is favored by organizations in the financial services and government sectors (particularly military) that have high data security requirements or regulatory restrictions. It also suits companies which have bespoke applications they want to run over unified communications. Orange can help in the solution build and design phase. Once the application is deployed, we can also offer operational assistance, including service management. This is charged as a fee per user and an overall management fee. This approach will suit cash-rich companies who want a free hand with customization. get your business Lync d up 3

option 2: managed service The managed Microsoft Lync option is a good match for those companies that want some level of customization, but don t want to make the same level of capital investment as an on-premise approach. Orange procures the Microsoft Lync unified communications platform and deploys it in the Orange data center that works best for your company. The service is delivered to the user over the Orange network and is priced as a subscription fee per user. server virtualization, security infrastructure and network. Customers are able to carry out a reasonable level of customization, such as their own console for example, and data is kept segregated in a private application. This approach provides a dedicated Lync platform for each customer, but there are some elements that are shared, such as Orange procures the Microsoft Lync unified communications platform and deploys it in the Orange data center that works best for your company. get your business Lync d up 4

option 3: industrialized private cloud If customization is less important and you are happy to use a standard service, then a private cloud solution could suit. If customization is less important and you are happy to use a standard service, then a private cloud solution could suit. Essentially, it provides a standardized service with minimal customization using a service pack created on virtualized infrastructure. This allows you to take advantage of the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of a shared cloud platform, such as rapid scaling of users up or down and pay-as-you-use pricing. The Orange private cloud service offers end-to-end network and application quality of service. Because all traffic can remain on the Orange VPN, no unified communications traffic is required to run over the public Internet, helping ensure security and performance. In addition, the data is stored in a data center in your region, which is an advantage for companies that need to comply with regional and local data protection and other legislation. The Orange private cloud service offers end-to-end network and application quality of service. get your business Lync d up 5

option 4: hybrid infrastructure If you are already an Office 365 user and want to include enterprise voice via Microsoft Lync, then we can provide a hybrid approach, which combines public cloud, private cloud and managed services. It allows you to migrate gradually, while maintaining quality-of-service and security. Orange supports this approach by providing integration of public cloud services such as Office 365, via the Orange cloud hub for VPN customers called VPN Galerie. A typical strategy is to start extending your Office 365 subscription by offering users IM and presence. To ensure a high quality of service and security, we provide interconnection from the Orange network into the Microsoft cloud. Once in place, this can be followed by deploying person-to-person (P2P) voice and video calling, using the same interconnection. The next step would be to deploy audio conferencing with Office 365 using Orange voice Audio Conferencing Provider (ACP) Integration. This will allow local dial in and trunking of calls over Orange voice network into the Microsoft cloud. The final step is to deploy Microsoft Lync voice as a PBX replacement for full enterprise voice services. To ensure the quality, security and features that are required for this transformation, Orange can complement the public cloud Office 365 with managed services or industrialized private cloud. Your next step: Get your business Lync d up. Orange Business Services can deliver any combination of these sourcing approaches for your organization and help you balance your options for your specific requirements. For more information on making the right choice for Microsoft Lync, please visit us online: http://www.orange-business.com/en/get-your-business-lync-d-up.