Report: Asia Pacific UCaaS Market to Reach $659 million by 2018

By Casey Houser
Contributing Writer

A recent report from market research firm IDC (News - Alert) suggests that the unified communications as a service (UCaaS) market in the Asia Pacific geographical region will reach $659 million by 2018.

According to analysis of the report at MIS Asia, Australia will lead the countries in the group in terms of generated revenue. The People's Republic of China, India, and Korea will follow in that order. The report excludes Japan from its analysis. The expected growth will mark a compound annual growth rate over five years of 89 percent.

The research points to the cost benefits and flexibility of the services as to what will drive adoption in the region. Both global and regional service providers are reportedly now offering UCaaS as part of their portfolios, says MIS Asia. The service providers are quickly figuring out solutions to problems that revolve around security, bandwidth demands, regulation compliance, and service consistency.

As providers make UCaaS more consistent and secure, more businesses should flock to the service. Businesses in Australia, New Zealand, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore, the report suggests, are especially expected to a strong interest in the cloud-based service come the next several months.

Overall, TMC (News - Alert) reported previously, the UCaaS market is responding well to hybrid cloud deployments. According to Synergy (News - Alert) Research, 14 percent of UCaaS users have deployed hybrid clouds as of Q1 2014. In addition, hybrid cloud deployments in general have increased 46 percent over the past year.

Like the major incentives for businesses adopting to UCaaS, hybrid clouds offer businesses the ability to save money and retain the flexibility that public clouds offer while also promising the added control and security benefits of a private cloud.

Ryan Tay, senior research manager for Telecoms and Unified Communications (News - Alert) at IDC Asia/Pacific, spoke about the growing Asia Pacific UCaaS market.

"Both enterprise customers and IT providers are rapidly looking to UCaaS as a way to transform their business and become more efficient, flexible and agile," Tay said.

It is no wonder that businesses are adopting all sorts of cloud services in droves. Whether or not they invest in public, private, or hybrid clouds, they have the potential to provide themselves with increased amounts of security and flexiblity that traditional server deployments could not reasonably handle. Readers may expect the Asia Pacific market to grow its hybrid cloud market alongside its predicted UCaaS growth if trends for both markets continue along these paths on a global scale.