We take a rather complex term and break it down into its feature components using the example of the Virtual Office.

As we mentioned in a previous post on cloud computing, the term itself is hotly debated and its definitions are segmented. So let’s use the example of how Cloud Computing has allowed for the “Virtual Office.”

Cloud computing, at its core, is the ability for someone to take a service like a business phone system and “rent” its usage to a wide variety of customers . Because it’s cheaper and more resource efficient for a single vendor to offer services this way, it means that the end consumers have to pay far less than traditional, non-cloud based services of a similar nature.

RingCentral Office is a perfect example. Let’s say a 20 employee company is growing and wants to expand in a new location cost effectively – one that will also have remote satellite offices where employees will work from home.

Traditionally, this would mean that this company has to:

1. Order a new punch-key PBX (phone system) from a traditional hardware vendor who would charge about $1,000 per phone/desk.
2. Call the local telecommunications company to install a T1 line which contains 24 working phone lines. While the cost of this T1 could range from $300 to $700 per month, the real pain is the installation time.
3. After the hardware has been configured and installed, the same vendor that sold the phone system offers training to the company employees (for additional training fees).
4. After the phone system is bought, the T1 lines from the phone company have been installed and the employees trained on the new phone system, then it’s time for the remote offices and on-the-road sales staff to “integrate” into the new office phone system. And how do they do that? By learning how to forward phone calls on their new office desk phones, of course!
5. Any new moves, adds, or changes (known as MACs) to the phone system often require that the vendor who initially sold the phone system come out (referred to in the industry as “the white van”) and make the changes to the phone system itself.

If this company subscribed to a Business Phone System that runs “in the cloud”, the benefits are compelling:

1. Since the hardware & software that controls a business-class phone system is now delivered over the Internet as a service, this company gets fully-configured VoIP phones delivered without having to buy anything else. The only left to do is connect the phones to the Internet.
2. Since the VoIP phones also have a web interface that controls the phone and call-flow, there’s no training of employees on the new phone system required. It’s very easy to master a VoIP phone. One can even take an interactive demo to see just how easy it is.
3. These Business Phone Systems can be added to your smartphones as well. Remote office workers and road warriors can now truly “integrate” with their office desk phones. Apps like RingCentral Mobile for iPhone can be downloaded and set to show the business Caller ID, even from a personal phone.

Now that’s a simple example of how cloud computing is allowing the virtual office to be “virtual.” Because with cloud computing for business phone systems, every phone whether it’s in the headquarters or living on a smart-phone are all virtual phone systems.

The revolution has begun!

It’s a complicated term used to describe a variety of paradigms and whose historical time line is still hotly debated.

In the world of IT, the industry seems abuzz with the phrase “Cloud Computing”. In 2007, Dell tried to trademark the term (it was rejected by the USPTO) and Larry Ellison of Oracle said, “It’s what we’ve been doing all along.”

So if it’s not new and not novel enough to be granted a trademark to an individual company, what is it?

For businesses, cloud computing means that they will be able to afford and deploy enterprise-level software and hardware applications that were previously cost or time prohibitive except for the largest of companies.

For consumers, it means that social networking, rich phone applications, and video games will all be more readily available and ultimately, open up consumer wallets for the micro-payment economies that cloud computing enables. That means the trend of people buying applications from iTunes, ringtones, and “virtual goods” on games such as Farmville and World of Warcraft will increase – dramatically over the next 5 years.

For the economy, it means that both businesses and consumers can expect a dizzying speed of pace in new online services, ideas, and industries.
In a technical jargon nutshell, cloud computing is leveraging the power of a network of computers (the internet or intranet) and delivering it to the end user as a service. This falls into three main categories of cloud computing scenarios:

1. Software as a Service (SaaS): It used to be that enterprise software came on a CD with a serial or license number to authenticate the validity of the user. The software rested on the user’s machine and used that computer to process the code that was necessary to deliver the feature functionality to said user. Essentially, the user’s computer was both the Server (processing the code) and the Client (requesting and receiving the computational requests).
   • The SaaS model means that these computers sit in a co-location facility or data center and computational requests and processes are done by the (Server) computer and delivered via a “Thick Client” (web browser) to the end user. In this manner, a single server in a single location could deliver software features and functionality to a wide array of users spread across multiple geographic locations.
   • In order for SaaS to exist, it had to first wait for a common thick client (the first being Netscape’s browser) and the ability for software to be “multi-tenant” or rather the software had to be written (from scratch) to have multiple instances of the application running within a single server.
   • While Saas is touted by some as being a relatively new industry (Salesforce.com being the brand leader in this space), a company called ADP had been doing it for decades (even before the rise of the internet) by providing its users telnet gateways as Clients (otherwise known as dumb-terminals).
2. Software Development Platforms as a Service (PaaS): A few years ago, the clever folks at Google released an API (Application Programming Interface) that granted a “developer token” by Google which gave them access. The 3rd party developers were then able to use a massive amount of servers on an application development framework that allowed engineers to “rent” these resources to create new applications.
   • In the current climate, each of the development frameworks (Cloud Platforms) are distinct; there are no standardized APIs, and building an application for one Platform does not mean you can carry it over to another platform.
3. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): While there has been a lot of coverage for Amazon’s decision to allow third parties to rent their own servers and data storage devices, managed hosting companies have also been doing this for quite some time. Co-location space rentals, MeetMe Rooms, Managed Hosting and even Dedicated Virtual Hosting means the physical infrastructure of servers, electricity, data storage units and even disaster proofing could be managed by one entity and rented out to another. Anyone can have a “cage” in a secure, costly data center by renting its resources virtually over the internet. On a holistic level, one could then create a Platform as a Service (PaaS) framework, rent a co-location’s resources to host it and then use this platform to create an SaaS application to run on this platform.

Like how this example ties it all together? Think of it this way – we can now build a startup by creating a PaaS framework which allows developers to create software applications. We then take this framework and place it onto servers and resources we rent (not buy) at a co-location facility so we can have Hardware as a Service (HaaS). Using our own PaaS framework which sits on our rented HaaS infrastructure, we can build an SaaS application that delivers feature functionality to end clients. Voila! All three major types of Cloud Computing in one single scenario!

We couldn’t have done it without the support of our loyal base of users and technologists worldwide. Thank You.

RingCentral First to Offer True Enterprise-Class PBX “in the Cloud”

Cloud computing has become the new buzz word. One sees it being bounced around as often as “information superhighway” and “Web 2.0″ once were. But in the world of enterprise telephony, (not an accurate definition… this means self–provisioning by the user from the credit card order screen.) From a vendor perspective, customer self-provisioning and automated account and DID setup equates to lower operating costs which, in turn, translates to lower prices for customers. In July 2009 RingCentral Office launched, offering a true cloud computing PBX service.

iPhone Becomes Business-Class

Recognizing that many small to medium-sized business owners are using iPhones as their primary business communication tool, RingCentral built an iPhone application that many say finally makes the iPhone truly a business-class Smartphone. Visual voicemail, send and receive faxes and the fact that my business number now shows up in Caller ID, even though I’m using my personal phone, has made my life so much easier. All business calls that come from my RingCentral desk phone have their unique ring-tone on my iPhone. Can I tell you how much easier this has made my life?

RingCentral Launches in England

RingCentral launched its award winning PBX service in the United Kingdom, home to the best curry-chips and accents on the planet. Now, our friends across the pond can get a Freephone 0800, 0845 or local number for their UK business.

CallerID in Our Control

We can now enter the name of ourselves or our business within the RingCentral console to insert into the Caller ID field of our call recipients. Many have been requesting this feature for quite some time (including me) and it’s great to see that it’s finally here. For inside sales teams to high-level B2B phone calls, this feature is invaluable for making sure that each outbound call has the highest chance of getting picked up.

Top 4 trends we saw in 2009 for SMBs.

1 – Social Networking at Work

No, it doesn’t mean that more people at work are spending time on Facebook and Twitter (which they probably are), but that SMB owners are actually using these sites to promote their business online.

Facebook:

While there are numerous controversies brewing about Facebook’s latest change to their privacy policy, what this means for small business owners is that placing content on your business’s Facebook fan page will not only have content seen by other Facebook users, but by the Googlebot itself. This means that Facebook pages with pictures, posts, reviews, etc. can now be indexed by Google and – gasp – show up in search results! Potentially scary if you’re a business owner that likes to post “questionable photos” on your profile, but a golden opportunity for those who want to rank higher for valuable keywords. Facebook and Search Engine Optimization – now with 30% more Google!

Twitter:

Though it had seen explosive growth amongst consumer users to keep track of what celebrities, friends and other pundits had to say about current events, in 2009 Twitter became a resource for small business owners to keep subscription lists of “followers”. Now SMB owners could easily blast promotional news, coupons, etc. in a manner that was both cheap (free) and legal (no e-mail spam complaints).

2 – Cloud Computing Takes the Throne

It’s official – what was called “hosted software” and became “virtual software” became “OnDemand software” and now (drum roll please) “Cloud Computing”. While this term can mean a multitude of different things, what it really means for small business owners is that they can now get accounting software, customer service software, their phone system (hint, hint) and Salesforce automation – all as software that is delivered over the Web, controlled by their browser and paid for in monthly installments. In fact, the last time a small business owner bought a copy of Microsoft Office for $300, twenty-five other small business owners signed up for Google Docs.

3 – Mobile Computing Continues Strong Growth

The major carriers now offer “netbook” laptops at price-leader fees meaning they are willing to lose money on the netbook in order to make it up on the 2-year commitment of wireless data fees. Combine that with the increase in use of smart-phones at loss-leader prices and the ubiquitous rise of mobile computing is here. Of course, mobile computing for small business owners wouldn’t be an exceptional phenomenon if there weren’t actual applications for SMBs. The meteoric rise of Apple’s App Store (with plenty of business applications like accounting tools and credit card payment gateways) means that mobile computing for SMBs is here to stay – and grow, grow, grow.

4 – Creative Financing & Rise of the Local Credit Union

For many small businesses, financing and credit lines are critical elements to being able to procure materials/products and invest in future growth. But the financial collapse of 2008 and 2009 have not only caused many large banks to fold, but consolidation means that there are fewer choices for small business banking. In downtown San Francisco, they saw over a dozen banks dwindle down to a handful of options. Add to that the fact that these handful of banks have pulled many of the credit lines and credit products available to small business owners and you have a conundrum indeed. Twelve banks competing with each other down to less than five and all five no longer offer new small business owners unsecured credit lines.

This is where the local credit unions have been stepping in. Operating in the shadow of their flashier, bigger national counter-parts, credit unions have recently seen more small business owners apply for loans that larger banks no longer offer. The ability for a community-based lender to asses local risk and offer a credit line is a necessary driver for SMBs and one we hope will continue to grow in 2010. In addition, credit unions have been more apt to offer SBA (Small Business Administration) loans that has received more monies recently from the Obama administration.

As a follow up to the ITBusinessedge.com article “Could the Cloud Kill the PBX”, we wanted to offer our input as to where telephony is going and why old-school telephony days are numbered.

This is not meant as a self serving competitive claim but a look at what is now becoming a natural evolution of things in the internet age. Much like the old world method of snail mail is getting decimated by email, it would only seem natural that the physical relays and switches of telephony systems get replaced by the deft coding of a programmer as so many other things are.

As more and more of our life get centralized to the web, this centralization will allow tremendous power in organizing the multiple parts of a business or a person’s life. From a business perspective, a new small business can run their entire back office online. We are not just talking Virtual PBX phone systems but billing, accounting, customer support, project management, meetings and of course mail. Take a service like Zoho and you can see how nearly and entire office can be coordinated and run from one login. And in case you had not noticed, Google is doing a fine job of collecting and potentially controlling huge amounts of data powering a very effective advertising business.

So if the mail, the invoices, the customer addresses, the meetings are all moving online, it is only natural for the phone conversations to move there too. You get to keep them all in one “box” if you will. This was a natural progression as the bandwidth and the price of memory made it a viable option. As the technologies of voice recognition evolve, the use and necessity of having the verbal communication digitized increases to where you could run a Google like search of a phone conversation with little ease (if I were a conspiracy theorist, that’s quite scary).

So it would seem the old school phone line is a little individuated for our needs. It served us well but it’s time is coming to an end.

Photo credit Dominics pics