Research house Gartner says it is ceasing to publish an on-premises Unified Communications (UC) and Contact Centre (CC) Magic Quadrant report, in what industry actors dubbed a “massive signal for our industry”.
As part of the move, Gartner will now only evaluate full-stack Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution providers, where the application stack is developed, updated, managed, and controlled by the software vendor.
Gartner’s Magic Quadrants are a benchmark series of market research reports that rely on qualitative data analysis to demonstrate market trends. They are not universally loved, but they do carry significant industry weight.
See also: Can we really trust the Gartner Magic Quadrant?
Sahil Rekhi, Managing Director, RingCentral EMEA, told Computer Business Review: “This really is a massive signal in our industry. Gartner has a prominent voice – and the fact that it is recognising that enterprises are buying differently demonstrates a major shift away from legacy infrastructure – and to the Cloud. It’s fair to say that on-premise is well and truly dead.
On-Premises Unified Communications Being Ditched for the Cloud
He added: “Today’s business landscape is evolving – and fast. The fact that it’s typical for employees to work remotely and be spread across different geographies means that we’re simply not built for on-premise anymore.”
“Beyond this – it’s crucial that workers can communicate seamlessly through voice, video and chat anywhere, on any device, at any time. In fact, over the past 18 months, we’ve seen significant shift towards cloud, enterprises are no longer being ‘sold a move to the cloud’, instead they are asking for it.”
“It’s usual for CIOs today to be faced with a mix of bleeding edge, new technologies and traditional technologies, so integration is key. Technology companies need to wake up and recognise that to remain competitive, they need to shift their focus towards what businesses need. The vendors that don’t shift in line with the landscape, simply won’t survive.”
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With the market estimated by research house Synergy to be seeing UCaaS seat quarterly growth consistently over the 300,000 mark, and yet “UCaaS penetration into the large business and enterprise segments has barely started, pointing to years of future growth” The cloud is clearly coming for your telephone and conference system.
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