nUCaaS is Here
nUCaaS is Here by Dave Michels
Previously announced, NEC officially launched its new hosted UC service. Officially named UNIVERGE Cloud Services UCaaS, nicknamed nUCaaS, the service is now available in U.S. markets. The vendors of premises-based solutions have been a bit slow to the hosted party, but now NEC, Mitel, ShoreTel, and Avaya all offer hosted unified communications as a service (UCaaS). However, few have based their hosted services on a platform they commercially sell.
That’s what NEC did. nUCaaS is based on the NEC 3C UC platform announced a year ago. It also uses NEC phones, and the service is hosted within three NEC managed data centers running NEC servers connected to NEC storage. “UNIVERGE Cloud Services leverages the best that NEC has to offer from the high-performance infrastructure at its core, the feature-rich UC software platform to the service delivery and options available through our dealer network or directly from NEC’s enterprise sales organization,” said Jay Krauser, director of cloud services, NEC.
Prior to general availability, NEC piloted the service with selected customers as well as some of its own offices. Over 250 employees were moved to the service, and NEC is confident that its procedures and operations are ready for prime time.
NEC just completed a 10-city rollout tour and I was able to attend the Denver event. The firm stressed its “unadulterated” adherence to standards. That means Polycom SIP phones work as well as the NEC phones. Additionally, the service is both HIPPA and PCI compliant. NEC is also backing its offer with an SLA and an NEC-managed MPLS network service.
The service offers three kinds of “seats:” Basic, UC Standard, and UC Premium ranging from $20-$50/mo. It supports 911, mobile clients, a robust set of features (over 300 core PBX features), and 7/24/365 live support.
What’s most compelling for both channel partners and customers is the hybrid (premises and cloud) story unfolding. Because the hosted service is based on the same 3C software that is running at customer sites, both solutions can be blended into a single solution. The cloud can also be leveraged for a premises-based disaster recovery architecture. Even NEC SV 8500 customers can integrate with NEC’s hosted cloud via the C-Link. This system-to-system protocol could enable hybrid cloud/prem features such as centralized voice mail, abbreviated dialing, and number portability as well as extend advanced UC features such as mobility and video conferencing to users with digital handsets.
NEC appears to be dead serious about the cloud. It’s a fairly significant version 1 launch with three data centers, a major push with the dealers, and an aggressive hosted roadmap that includes expanded gateway/hybrid capabilities and new advanced feature applications.