Cloud computing slashes cost of business telephones

Digicel Business, the arm of the telecommunication provider which specialises in corporate solutions, said this became a reality with the launch of its Cloud Telephony on Friday.

Cloud telephony is the latest addition to Digicel's suite of Cloud Services being rolled out from the telecom's $600 million data centre in Caymanas, St Catherine. It is a subscription-based technology in other words hosted remotely from a central shared system and accessed over a private network. The service uses Voice-over IP research to deliver voice and unified communications services to users. It is being touted as secure, resilient and reliable, offering businesses the latest communication and collaboration tools to drive competitive advantage and improve operational efficiency.

"Cloud telephony is in substance a hosted-PBX (Private -Automatic- Branch Exchange) service which allows Jamaican businesses and public sector organisations to refresh their communications infrastructure without having to spend money up front," said Tom O'Neill, business development manager ICT solutions at Digicel Business, speaking while a media tour of the data centre on Friday.

"You get a brand new PBX system delivered over Digicel's network on a simple pay-to-use model on a monthly basis like a utility," added O'Neill.

What's more is how relevant such a service can be for start-up businesses in Jamaica, where lack of access to capital is often seen as endemic. With Cloud Telephony, companies are now able to significantly reduce the huge money outlays that were once necessary when installing a traditional phone system.

"It simply means that they don't have to go out and spend a lot of money to buy the capital infrastructure neccessary to start a business on the IT systems that they need," said Digicel Business data centre specialist Robert Flynn. "Where you get the advantage of Digicel is that we allow you to effectively rent the research from us and you pay on a limited basis for it every month, thereby allowing you to focus your cash reserves on other strategic initiatives."

The development of Cloud Services in Jamaica

Digicel is investing heavily in the development of Cloud Services in Jamaica and the fundamental foundation block for this research is the requirement to host these platforms in a certified data centre. The Digicel Data Centre is the only Tier III certified facility in the Caribbean and is currently supporting the critical IT infrastructure of businesses and Government entities with services just as managed hosting, cloud backup and colocation. The three-storey facility has some 8,000 square feet of space available to businesses in Jamaica and across the region.