Features | Hosted Solution | On-premise Solution |
Capital expenditure (CAPEX costs) | Low CAPEX costs. No hardware costs - except for phones. | The larger the enterprise, the greater the CAPEX costs. Expenses include phone hardware, rack space, power, cooling, etc. |
Installation costs | Low installation costs because little/no hardware needs installing. | High installation costs because hardware needs to be installed and staff/contractors need to be paid. |
Migration strategy | IT teams can add new UC features alongside existing communications systems to evaluate deployments. New UC features/services can be readily available, allowing IT to roll out new functionality at will. | IT teams usually must rip and replace existing infrastructure. This can result in communication downtime and troubleshooting. On-premise solutions can take months, even years, to roll out company-wide. |
Infrastructure required | The hosted infrastructure required to provide UC functions (chat, presence, etc.) resides in the data center of your service provider. Your IP connection to the cloud allows users to access that functionality. Back-end infrastructure is all bundled in a monthly fee. | On-premise infrastructure may vary by vendor but will typically include: proprietary control units to house analog telephony boards; server(s) for hosting voicemail; UC functions (chat, presence, etc.); and sometimes management/administration functions. |
Licensing | Typically charged as per-user licensing fee. | Licensing is more granular and complex. There are OPEX costs for software maintenance on the license to ensure support and functionality upgrades. |
Maintenance and updates | Software updates are maintained by the cloud provider, so subscribers will always be up to date. | Updating features may need to be repeated a number of times, depending on the architecture of the on-premise solution. Upgrades or feature enhancements can take months or even years. |
Disaster recovery (DR) | Hosted UC makes you reliant on your Internet link and hosting service. Most providers do offer reliable redundancy. | It can be expensive to include redundancy into on-premise UC. Only larger enterprises can typically afford investing in DR. One pro is that you have access to equipment for troubleshooting at any time. |
Vendor Management | Telecom, Software , Licenses are all managed by one Vendor reducing the stress and time of dealing with multiple people | The PRI line ( Channels ) are managed by Telecom companies , Software & Licenses are managed by different Vendor, Uninterrupted power & other maintenance are managed by 3rd vendor - Typically more than 2 vendors are involved in ON -premise solution delivery . Downtime or any issue escalation means dealing with 3 vendors resulting in loss of productivity & time . |
Easy Scaling up | Its just a call away for scaling up agents or channels | There are a lot of procedures involved in procuring additional PRI which could be min of 2-4 weeks depending on the service provider |
Communication innovation | Since the solutions are on cloud any new innovation like ASR , TTS can be implemented easily | This requires new soft ware , integration & at time some may not even support |
Cost Optimization | Pay as you use model & single rates applied for Local + STD | Fixed monthly cost immaterial of the usage & variable cost for Local & STD |
Operation excellence | Virtualization extends the liberty of work from home or in any remote location at the click of a button. | This is location dependent and does not accommodate remote working |
Solution Innovation | AI can be used to maximise efficiency depending on the problem | Every time there is an innovation a new vendor gets added increasing the work load |