The Cloud has so much to offer businesses both large and small, one major advantage is Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery functionality. In fact, research shows that active customers value the Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery capabilities of Cloud products and services above all else.

Basic Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity capabilities are part of all Cloud-based VoIP packages. That does not mean your VoIP Provider cannot have problems or even experience outages.

So the question then becomes, can your VoIP Provider go down?

Recently a big Hosted VoIP Provider suffered a major outage which sent the internet and users via social media into a frenzy. So the answer is simple, Yes your Cloud Voice Provider can go down.

Now don’t panic, if Superman has a weakness, then guess what, your VoIP Provider has one too.

If you have already made the decision to move your business to the Cloud or are in the process of doing so, you are on the right track.

To stay on the right track, you must minimize Cloud Risk.

How do you do that? You don’t, your Cloud Provider does.

You are responsible for selecting a Cloud Phone System Provider that follows....

Hosted VoIP Best Practices and fully understands how to minimize the risk of communication failure.

In order to do this YOU MUST FIND OUT…

I. Where the Cloud Provider is vulnerable.

II. What the Cloud Provider’s weaknesses are.

III. Does the Cloud Provider have a red kryptonite?

3 Questions & 3 Answers that will ensure a Happy Cloud VoIP Experience

1. Question: Where is your VoIP Platform located?

Answer: Our Cloud Voice Platform is housed in Carrier Grade Data Centers.

To minimize risk, you need a Cloud Phone Service that utilizes fully redundant environment. This includes, redundant power and bandwidth. The last thing that the Cloud should be affected by is an environmental issue.

No matter what your solution should be protected by the necessary safeguards in the Cloud.

2. Question: How many Cloud Voice Platforms are active and able to be utilized in the event of a failure?

Answer: The best and only  answer is anything more than 1.  

If you remember my answer to Question 1, I referenced Data Centers (plural). You didnt move to the Cloud to maintain a single point of failure, end of story.

3. Question: Where are the Data Centers located that house your Cloud Voice Platform?

Answer: We mirrored platforms in geographically diverse data centers

The Cloud is all about “Always On”, omnipresent technology. However omnipresence goes out the window if your providers Cloud is bunched together in a single region of the country.

Why? Because your provider will be wide open to a regional problem, therefore you will be wide open to a regional problem.

Any Cloud Phone System Provider that takes Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery seriously will not have a regional Achilles heel because it defeats the purpose of the Cloud itself.

If your VOIP Provider does not have mirrored platforms in geographically diverse data centers, you have transferred environmental phone system risk from your location to a more controlled environment but one that is susceptible to regional issues related to Power, Carrier Service Providers, and Bandwidth.

Your situation will certainly be improved by moving your phone system from your location to a single region Cloud Provider, but why not fully minimize risk by doing Cloud Voice the right way.

For a complete insiders look into selecting the best Cloud Phone System & VoIP Provider: