Managing Converging UCaaS Technology Transformations

There is plenty of available industry guidance describing the relative benefits offered by Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom solutions for unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) technology operations. These UCaaS solutions and other industry-leading options (e.g., Google Meet) have helped sustain customer-facing and corporate communication transitions across the multiphase hybrid workforce era.

Although some IT operations teams have standardized their users on Microsoft Teams or Webex, that does not mean Zoom isn’t used by company employees and executives. Many educational institutions tethered to the Google Cloud by extension use Google Meet for UCaaS, but they also rely on Zoom for remote learning due to that platform’s teacher-friendly collaboration features.

Other factors driving multi-UCaaS solution adoption include feature-driven user preference, device or browser interoperability, and whether a specific UCaaS technology better supports large-scale teleconferencing, one-on-one meetings, or highly interactive on-line collaborations.

Although this mix-and-match UCaaS scenario is great for users, it does add complexity for IT teams that require visibility and real-time monitoring of these platforms, whether employees are in work-from-home locations, remote offices, onsite and cloud-based call centers, or headquarters facilities. With the extended business hours so prevalent in the COVID-19 pandemic era, many employees shift across multiple locations on a daily basis and expect their UCaaS of choice to perform reliably across all their working environments.

Amid these technology delivery variables, points of consistency remain: To assure reliable UCaaS performance, service edge visibility and vendor-neutral performance analytics are required. More specifically, the key performance indicators used to monitor voice and video quality are consistent across UCaaS, regardless of the vendor technology employed. A smart visibility approach is essential for providing IT operators with hop-by-hop analysis so they can differentiate a UCaaS technology shortfall from an issue relating to a SIP gateway, network, remote VPN, or Wi-Fi access point.

Read this case study to learn how one leading financial organization used NETSCOUT Visibility Without Borders and our vendor-neutral UC analytics to assure performance of its evolving Teams, Webex, and Zoom technology environment.