Mitel: Ready for The Cloud

Earlier this month on May 9, 2012, Mitel Corporation announced a new cloud-based product, Mitel AnyWare Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), their new approach for deploying Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS). Mitel was one of the early providers of virtualized solutions with partner VMWare, and now extends that reach leveraging AnyWare IaaS under Mitel’s “Freedom Architecture.” Mitel states this will give enterprises the option to host Mitel’s virtualized UCC software in a virtual private data center provided by Mitel NetSolutions, the company’s service provider division.

From my perspective, Mitel is targeting AnyWare IaaS at organizations looking to implement virtualized voice, unified communications and collaboration without the capital necessary to deploy these virtual applications in their own data center. Mitel has stated that their model can be private or hybrid cloud models. Both hybrid and private cloud models being offered will provide customers with choices.

In my opinion, Mitel’s message ties well with the classic message among all of the cloud-based offerings: “Mitel’s solution aims to streamline operations and reduce overall infrastructure costs, offloading in-house resources while still delivering collaboration and communication resources to the entire organization.”

Although too early to tell, in my opinion the Mitel AnyWare IaaS offer will likely offer organizations:

• An OPEX Model – Little to no capital will be required for signing on with this offering
  
  
• Per Seat Pricing – Organizations signing on will likely pay on a per-seat basis monthly depending on contract length and applications to be offered
  
  
• Quick Ramp Up – Because the infrastructure is already built, Mitel will have the ability to quickly ramp up and deliver services to organizations generally faster than the traditional capital model
  
  
• A “Forever Upgrade” Model – Mitel will likely offer the ability to upgrade to the latest firmware/software without much additional cost. Of course, scheduled downtime time for firmware upgrades at the desktop will continue, and depending on the final model, there may (or may not) be downtime necessary at the core.
  
  
• Scalability – Although initial targeted for the SMB market, I believe Mitel AnyWare could scale well for medium to even larger organizations. Historically Mitel’s sweet spot has been with smaller to medium-sized organizations, however, the cloud model provides a possible unlimited upside potential.

Here, though, is what is unclear about the announcement:

• Partnership Requirement – The announcement is not clear whether the model requires a partnership for a data network replacement. Many of the cloud providers require an all infrastructure approach to replace an existing data network in order to deliver the IaaS cloud model. Other providers, however, may only require an organization to connect via their current data network and extend it to the offerer’s cloud. We’ll see as this new offering begins to “hit the ground.”
  
  
• Delivery Model – What kind of delivery model will Mitel be delivering this new cloud solution, i.e., dual MPLS circuits, survivable gateways, redundant servers, etc.? This is a key question relative to getting to a four-to-five 9s model.

Mitel’s announcement carries a BIG benefit, that is, Mitel has been a long term partner with VMWare and Mitel states that the AnyWare solution is VMWare-ready, and can connect into the enterprise’s virtualized infrastructure, a key design component desired by many organizations we consult for. Not all cloud providers are VM-ware ready, and virtualization is a strategic part of the cloud story. Also, it is interesting to note that Mitel is SAS-70 certified and compliant in the Data Center environment, assuring an organization that Mitel will disclose its control activities and processes to its customers. Lastly, the announcement states that organizations will be able to utilize Mitel’s comprehensive suite of UC applications, including truly virtualized voice and Mitel’s UCC applications which facilitates centralized UCaaS deployments. Most of our clients are actively seeking a full UC suite with replacement systems, and it looks like Mitel is ready to deliver on such.

Mind you, though, the cloud is in the early adopter stage of the market, and I recommend taking a close look at what Mitel has to offer: SLAs, contract requirements and term, pricing components (both purchase and rental), distribution (and qualifications for such) through the channel, and cloud design and redundancy aspects before making any commitments to this new architecture.

This is a significant announcement for Mitel, and I will be closely following Mitel and their cloud-based AnyWare IaaS offering as it begins deployment. Some closing thoughts:

• Will Mitel sell just a new “box” in the cloud or a new solution to make it easier for an SMB to grow as needed as well as serve the short-term telephony and UC needs of the enterprise?
  
  
• For medium to large enterprises, review Mitel’s offering relative to your line size to ensure they can support you in the short and longer term and your enterprise and the expected line size you will be at in the next two to five years.
  
  
• For enterprise users, it’s a good time to at least consider looking at a cloud-based solution, especially for those with little capital and few in-house resources to take care of a fully robust UC deployment. There are many benefits to a cloud model, and taking a thorough, holistic approach to ensure a cloud model will fit the requirements of your organization is an absolute must.

In summary, I applaud Mitel for entering into the cloud arena. To Mitel: please join the others that have already entered, the water is warm and it’s a proven model, historically having roots from the Centrex arena and managed service models (premise based) that have also been around for a while. In one sense, this is not a new model. But what makes the model unique is that this financial model is different (some CAPEX, some OPEX), an inability to change providers readily, and the enterprise CIO trusting IP Telephony and UC to an outside vendor they have little-to-no control over.

Some key questions to ask include: what is the channel distribution like, what is the extent of the UC suite being offered to the enterprise, what are the levels of redundancy being offered to support a four-to-five nines model, who are the carrier partners, and what are the pricing and terms associated with the offer? There are of course, a number of other questions and points to consider when looking at a cloud-based model.

So let’s see where Mitel heads with this. This could be for Mitel a very strategic move, and an opportunity that would facilitate and alleviate some of the financial burden they have experienced in the not-so-distant past.