More and more organizations are using a hybrid cloud strategy to gain the low cost and scale of the public cloud along with the security and control of a private cloud. According to a recent survey by The Bunker, 60 percent of organizations believe a hybrid cloud environment enables them to gain greater flexibility, scalability and cost-efficiency.

ShoreTel is bringing these benefits to unified communications (UC) with the introduction of its Connect platform. ShoreTel Connect offers both cloud and onsite UC solutions built from a single software code base that provides a consistent user experience. ShoreTel Connect can be configured in multiple ways and across multiple geographies to fit various business models, ensuring that what organizations select today will respond to their changing needs.

ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Sites allows organizations to mix and match Connect ONSITE and Connect CLOUD services, eliminating the need to decide whether to go all-in with the cloud or stick with an onsite solution. It provides automated directory synchronization, a common dial plan that allows extension-to-extension dialing, and feature parity for the mixed deployment model — all in a highly secure manner. Organizations gain a flexible communications platform that enables them to move to the cloud at their own pace and as their business needs dictate, while protecting existing communications investments.

ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Sites gives organizations the ability to:

• Add new cloud remote office locations to a company network without capital expense.
• Add new accounts, including seasonal teleworkers, without IT operational impact.
• Deploy a single communications solution across a global business, deploying onsite in locations where cloud services are not available.
• Give all employees the same intuitive ShoreTel Connect user experience at all locations, no matter whether call control is in the cloud or onsite.
• Control the financial strategy of transitioning from capital to operational expense models.
• Grow the communications system as business needs change with the greatest deployment flexibility and investment protection.
• Protect sensitive communications using highly secure signaling protocols and 100 percent encrypted voice traffic.
• Provide a clear migration path from an onsite deployment to an all-cloud or mixed onsite/cloud hybrid deployment if and when the business is ready to move to this model.

UC Strategies analyst Dave Michels discussed a new Hybrid 2.0 approach in a recent whitepaper that matches the unique benefit of ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Sites. Michels notes, “Hybrid 2.0 represents a cloud-onsite combination designed from the get-go to work together” from a single solution. With this approach, he adds, “The hybrid architecture is a destination, instead of a transitional strategy,” enabling companies to take an incremental path to the cloud.

ShoreTel Connect is changing the game in UC deployments, and IPC stands ready to help customers take advantage of it. Our team has field experience implementing ShoreTel Connect, and is on track to exceed Platinum-level certification. Let us show you how ShoreTel Connect, and the new HYBRID Sites solution, can give you the best of all worlds for your UC system.