Businesses have been warned that hosted VoIP cannot be left in the public internet spectrum due to the critical nature of voice to business communications.
The performance of organisations’ cloud-based telephony systems is only as reliable and secure as the network in which they are delivered.
Network integration is critical to ensuring reliability of service for hosted voice solutions and safeguarding corporate reputation, according to Claranet.
The company estimates that around 1.4million people in the UK actively use hosted voice services and 100,000 more are joining them each month.
James Mitchell, Senior Product Manager for Unified Communications, said: "Given the benefits that these technologies can offer, in terms of cost, agility and flexibility that should come as little surprise, but the migration away from traditional PBX systems has not been without its challenges, particularly when it comes to connectivity.
"All businesses that have outsourced, or intend to outsource, parts of their IT infrastructure should consider the vital importance of the network to the successful operation of their cloud service.
"The consequences of this include having to pay over the odds for networking technology that is often unsuitable for taking full advantage of the cloud-based telephony, with businesses suffering from poor application performance as a result.
"If you are going to outsource business-critical IT functions to the cloud, such as voice, then you need a connection with strict performance and availability guarantees."
