Enterprise Communication Market Changing Thanks to Cloud and IP Migration

By Laura Stotler
TMCnet Contributing Editor

Adoption of cloud and IP-based communications may be slow, at least by some standards, but it is undoubtedly having a disruptive impact on the enterprise communications market. According to new research from Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert), the overall segment is growing and that is largely due to migration from legacy TDM communication systems to IP-based and UC offerings.

The research firm in its recent Global Enterprise Communications (News - Alert) Platforms and Endpoints Market report that the market earned $11.67 billion in revenues last year, and the number is expected to grow to $11.99 billion by 2021. More interesting, however, is what is happening within the market as communication vendors bring in new revenues on IP platforms from growing regions like Latin America and the Asia-Pacific. The mid-market segment is also growing and more willing to embrace blended IP and UC solutions in an effort to reduce expenses and stay on top of technology trends.

"Apart from the lower prices, the availability of more telephony platform options, architectural models, and communications endpoints that address the needs of all types of businesses will lure customers," said Alaa Saayed, Unified Communications & Collaboration Industry Manager at Frost & Sullivan. "A growing number of organizations with aging communication systems perceive value in new systems as vendors wrap more UC&C capabilities around the IP PBX (News - Alert) platforms."

The push toward updated UC systems will ultimately increase adoption of enterprise communications and messaging platforms, SBCs, media gateways and IP PBXs. IP line license growth is also expected as vendors update their solutions with more advanced architectures and offerings along with value-added applications. The result is that vendors and customers alike will save money as they gravitate toward a blend of OPEX (News - Alert) and CAPEX pricing to stay on top of a fluctuating marketplace.

"While enterprise communications vendors should focus considerable attention on the hosted/cloud communications space, they must also adapt their on-premises offerings and market strategies to the challenging market conditions," said Michael Brandenberg, industry analyst, Unified Communications & Collaboration at Frost & Sullivan. "There are many businesses that will persist with on-premises equipment, as well as many others that desire a hybrid communications model."

If you would like to hear and see more about the impacts network transformations are having on enterprises ITEXPO, Discover The Next Frontier of Communications, being held October 5-8 at the Anaheim, CA (News - Alert) Convention Center, is the place to get your question answered and see demonstration of what the future holds.